Financial Resource

By: Dominic Mazzone, Managing Partner, Regent Global Funds

We hear it all the time. “Put your money where your mouth is,” “Skin in the game,” and, “Eat your own dog food.” All phrases that talk about the one thing in the investing world that many fund managers try to avoid. Accountability. When you hear the word accountability these days it usually refers to CEO’s that are on their way to jail, or Club Fed as the locals like to call it. Accountability is, however, now starting to creep into the vernacular of investors who wonder whether or not the person that is supposed to be managing their investment believes in it enough to put his own money into it. A recent Morningstar study of approximately 6,000 fund issues showed that 46% of the stock funds reviewed were managed by fund managers with none of their personal money invested in their own funds. Think about that in realistic terms. You have about a 50/50 shot that the person you are trusting to protect and grow your investment doesn’t trust himself to protect and grow his own investment. That is not only a serious problem of accountability, but what about performance? During my formidable years at USC, I took a Business Development class that was being taught by a former Controller of General Motors (I don’t remember his name and it was during the cheap gas good times at GM). He devoted an entire semester to what he felt was the one thing that made people perform at their best. Motivation. Motivation derived from doing well in the eyes of others is a pretty good source, but it’s nothing compared to the personal motivation derived from something like the well being of your own investment account. Some of the arguments we may hear from fund managers are that the types of investments that they manage don’t fit well in their portfolio because of variables like age, risk tolerance, etc. This argument could be made for fund managers in their 30’s and 40’s that don’t invest 30% of their portfolio into the super conservative fixed income fund they are managing like a bond fund, but there is really no excuse for investing zero.

I have seen a few articles on this subject lately and I thought investors would like to hear about this from a fund manager’s perspective. Being a fund manager myself I can tell you that it is personally stressful for me every time we make a decision that will affect the fund and the investor money we are using. I think any fund manager that doesn’t feel this way is either too detached or on prescription medication. Besides the stress of investing someone else’s money, the thought that also goes through my mind like a hammer is how much money I will lose personally if the investment goes bad. This thought is present for the simple reason that I am heavily invested in our fund and any bad decision will affect me personally. I don’t have the option of having a deal go bad, and say “Well Mr. Investor, we’ll try harder for you next time and I am sure glad it wasn’t my own money that was lost.” I think this kind of accountability is the last and most important check in a system of checks and balances that lead a fund manager to a prudent decision.

The other large problem associated with fund managers and their investors is the lack of accessibility to the fund manager. Now I can totally understand how fund managers of large multi-billion dollar funds can’t speak to the multitude of people investing in them. However, I think the comfort level associated with being able to pick up the phone and speak with your fund manager is absolutely irreplaceable. I say this not only so you can ask questions about your investment or get their perspective on the market, but more importantly to get an overall feel of the type of person that is investing your money. So I think we can all agree about the benefits of speaking with your fund manager, but with accessibility there is a flip-side check in the check and balance system. If the fund manager knows you, there is a feeling of personal responsibility that is created, and that responsibility helps create some caution when he is investing your money.

I realize that we live in a virtual world, but some of the age old principles in life need to still apply. Being personally tied to a result creates the motivation for good performance, so make sure your fund manager is personally invested. Lastly, there is still an awful lot you can learn about someone in a five minute conversation. If you have the option, call your fund manager, or prospective fund manager, and talk to him about his investment philosophy and just try to get an overall sense of him/her as a person. The same five minutes wasted while waiting for your computer to boot up, could be five minutes with your fund manager that, in the end, can make or save you an awful lot of money. So stop reading and start calling and find out who is managing your money.

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