Why would a fund managment "team" create multiple different companies?

​I know why it seems "fishy," but it's standard financial practice, not a scam. Think of it as specialization under one trusted brand.

​The management team runs separate companies (EIIA and EIC) because each one is a distinct investment product with a different legal and regulatory purpose. One might be structured strictly for high-yield income investors, and the other for growth investors.

​They must keep the asset pools legally separate for compliance (different 1940 Act rules apply to each structure). The identical branding just tells you the same expert team manages both mandates. It's necessary legal separation for specific financial products.

In fact the three companies you mention and a couple you do not

• Eagle Point Institutional Income Fund
• Eagle Point Credit Company
• Eagle Point Income Company
• Eagle Point Enhanced Income Trust
• Eagle Point Defensive Income Trust

are closed-end investment companies with overlapping directors and administration, but with different strategies. They are not ETFs. Many of their quoted securities are in fact preference shares.

They are externally managed by Eagle Point Income Management LLC and its affiliate Stone Point Capital LLC, and they benefit from the fees that the investment companies pay. This why why their websites look similar.

One reason for having separate companies is that if something goes wrong with one of them (they can use leverage), this does not directly affect the others. It is also means that if there is a shareholder vote in one of them, only the shareholders in that particular company participate.

Note too that fund companies absorb each other from time to time, which may result in parallel product lines until/unless the shareholders vote otherwise. Columbia and Threadneedle used to be different investment firms, and some funds may still be under one of those names rather than under the combined name.