Mutual fund provider Touchstone Investments hires up to manage the sell-side.

Cincinnati-based mutual fund provider Touchstone Investments has hired Amy Fisher as a senior national accounts director.

Fisher will be responsible for managing Touchstone relationships with broker-dealers, as well as research, marketing, and business/sales management professionals.

“The most significant responsibility I will have is to increase Touchstone’s relevance with key relationships by understanding our broker-dealer partner’s strategic objectives, and to develop and implement tactical plans that help them achieve these objectives,” Fisher wrote to Markets Media.

The firm manages over 8 billion in assets, and its primary line of business is providing investors with access to institutional asset managers who act in a sub-advisory capacity.

“Our team is in regular contact with our sub-advisors through conference calls, questionnaires, and periodic on-site visits,” said Fisher, explaining how Touchstone stays connected with its sub advised funds. “The team receives and reviews reports showing the activity within a fund to help ensure that the sub-advisor is managing a fund consistent with its goals and objectives.”

The Touchstone Funds are advised by Touchstone Advisors, a registered investment advisor, and are distributed nationally through intermediaries including broker-dealers, financial planners and institutions by Touchstone Securities, Inc., a registered broker-dealer.

Touchstone is subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group, a provider of insurance, retirement planning and other investment products.

Fisher has built her career, prior to her recent appointment, on the sell-side. She joins Touchstone from Merrill Lynch. Prior to Merrill Lynch, she was senior vice president at The Phoenix Companies, as well as president and director of institutional markets of Phoenix Investment Partners. Earlier, she acted as provident investment counsel at Oppenheimer & Co.

Touchstone president Steve Graziano commented that Fisher’s “track record” will help the firm “enhance relationships at the key account level.”

The firm operates a “rigorous asset manager evaluation process and robust oversight approach” of their sub-advised funds; solidifying sound broker-dealer relationships is integral to the firm.

“Touchstone has a powerful fund line-up,” said Fisher, in a statement. “I’m excited to tell the Touchstone story and leverage our sub-advisory model as a differentiator in the marketplace.”