AR, My fund was larger than Magellan in 1986, but Franklin Govt. and Merrill Lynch Fed. were larger than us, so we were only third. And, since my fund was two years old at the time and both the Franklin Govt. Fund and Magellan were ancient in dog and fund years, I considered that a major victory. However, Merrill's Federal Securities fund was a few months younger than ours, so I had to admit that having 75 billion salesmen on staff to hawk your crappy fund does help. But I'm not competitive. <g>
The fund, when I managed it, was called American Capital Government Securities and reached its high asset mark of $10 billion and change in the Fall of 1986. It is now called Van Kampen Government Securities and has less than $2 billion in assets. (Until recently, it was Van Kampen-American Capital Govt. Securities. Also not to be confused with The Van Kampen Govt. Income Fund) Jack Reynoldson is the manager. Jack is a very smart guy (which is why I hired him as the third portfolio manager for our division), but his hands are pretty well tied by mgt. and mgt's decisions on how to manage an income fund have been disastrous. The shareholders have voted with their feet.
Long answer to a short question. |
