DoubleLine Capital LP, the money management firm started last month by star bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach, plans to open three new mutual funds for the general public, according to a registration statement filed on Tuesday.

Gundlach's firm, opened last month after he was fired by Trust Company of the West, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer a fund focused on mortgage-backed securities, a fund focused on debt from emerging market companies and a broader core fixed-income fund.

The funds will put Gundlach in even greater competition with his old firm, Los Angeles-based TCW. Within a month of firing Gundlach on December 4, TCW suffered the withdrawal of almost half the $12 billion of assets in the mutual fund Gundlach had run.

Gundlach, who won Morningstar's bond fund manager of the year award in 2006, set up shop at DoubleLine shortly after he was fired and was joined by more than half his old team from TCW.

Gundlach was listed in the filing as the sole manager for the new core fund and co-manager, along with Philip Barach, of the mortgage-focused fund. Luz Padilla, was listed as the manager of the emerging markets bond fund. Both Barach and Padilla jumped to DoubleLine from TCW.

Before leaving TCW in December, Gundlach and Barach ran the TCW Total Return Bond Fund. The fund outperformed virtually all rivals with an average annual return of 7.7 percent over the past 10 years.

TCW fired Gundlach saying the veteran of almost 25 years had threatened to quit along with other top fixed-income managers. Gundlach said he was seeking a greater management role and offered to buy the firm from its owner, French bank Societe Generale .

Last week, TCW filed a lawsuit against Gundlach and DoubleLine claiming the former manager had stolen proprietary data, lied to potential clients and violated his fiduciary duties. DoubleLine said the lawsuit's allegations were without merit.

(Reporting by Aaron Pressman; Editing by Gary Hill)

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