Jarislowsky Fraser

Asset allocation, risk, diversification and rebalancing. Pros/cons of hiring a financial advisor. Seeking advice on your portfolio?
gouthro
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Jarislowsky Fraser

Post by gouthro »

I have always heard very good things about Jarislowsky Fraser and thought that it might be worthwhile to invest with them, as they seemed to be one of the few funds who do actually beat the index. Given that you need a million or so before they will talk with you, the occassion to think seriously about this possibility never arose. But, now my wife has the opportunity to invest with them through her work retirement plan. With a fairly low mer and a high success rate I thought this would be a good idea. But, in looking up their funds on Globe Investor ( I was looking at their International Equity Fund) I notice that they don"t seem to be doing all that well. Not beating the index and with a three star rating. Am I missing something here?

Joe
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Post by DenisD »

Not sure what funds you're looking up on Globe Investor. The following link gives the returns of the pooled funds which, I imagine, your wife would be investing in:

http://www.jfl.ca/Pdf_Files/Performance.pdf

You probably have to subtract the management fee from the returns.
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Post by gouthro »

Denis,
I couldnt open the pdf on your post. I tried openning the same pdfs on the jarislowsky site and it said "error on page"; i thought it was probably locked, but now I am thinking that maybe there is a pop up blocker or something like that on my computer that is preventing it. But, the Globe site seems to indicate that Jarislowsky underperformed other funds, as well as the index in its three year existence. But, here is what I was looking at:
http://www.globefund.com/servlet/Page/d ... 2300319434

And this, where JF has been replaced, worried me a little, too:
http://www.cbisonline.com/page.asp?id=877

Joe
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arthur
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Post by arthur »

My Brother has his money managed, for a Fee, by a High profile F.A., the results and service are pathetic.

Don't always believe what you read.

Globe Fund obviates the need for an FA for anyone with the interest or the time.
You want the truth, you want the truth, you can't handle the truth.

The masses have never thirsted for the truth, whoever supplies them with illusions is their master, whoever supplies them with the truth, their victim.

If you do not risk anything , you risk even more. Jong
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Post by DanH »

gouthro wrote:And this, where JF has been replaced, worried me a little, too:
http://www.cbisonline.com/page.asp?id=877
Joe
I wouldn't pay too much attention to this kind of stuff unless if talks of extreme issues - which are unlikely to appear in print in the public domain. It's not unusual to see one manager fired from one plan, complaining of poor performance, then hired by another almost simultaneously, boasting of all of the firm's strengths and the same strong track record. :roll:

Manager hiring and firing is sometimes done for political or financial reasons so it's not always clear what's going on unless you follow a plan for some time (i.e. to see how often the tend to keep managers, reasons given for hiring/firing, etc.).

JF seems like a good manager, but they run so much money that it's difficult for them to outperform (going forward) IMO. On the other hand, you could do worse, but I'd probably choose an index if it's close to 1% cheaper than the JF fund.
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Post by yielder »

DanH wrote:Manager hiring and firing is sometimes done for political or financial reasons so it's not always clear what's going on unless you follow a plan for some time (i.e. to see how often the tend to keep managers, reasons given for hiring/firing, etc.).
Yep. We used to see personnel changes on the pension committee lead to business lost and business gained.
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Post by gouthro »

JF seems like a good manager, but they run so much money that it's difficult for them to outperform (going forward) IMO. On the other hand, you could do worse, but I'd probably choose an index if it's close to 1% cheaper than the JF fund.
thanks Dan. I was tilting that way myself. It seems to be a no brainer if they haven't been able to beat the index. Yet, if one is fairly new at this one always feels that we may be missing something. Thanks for the confirmation
Joe
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Post by randomwalker »

A back door way into having Jarislowsky Fraser run your money is through purchase ot the closed end fund United Corporations UNC on the TSE. JF manages about 70% of the portfolio while Sanford Bernstein manages the rest.

As an aside UNC trades at a 24% discount to NAV and Empire Life is constantly buying up shares. Perahps one day they'll make an offer for the rest at NAV or "open end" the fund again at NAV.

Full disclosure I own some UNC. A long term buy and hold, only "managed fund" I own.

http://www.ucorp.ca/
=============================================

The Investment Zoo by Stephen Jarislowsky

http://www.financialwisdomforum.org/for ... hlight=unc
Last edited by Peculiar_Investor on 07 Feb 2014 07:04, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: replace old domain name with www.financialwisdomforum.org to reflect new domain name effective 19-Jan-2014
gouthro
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Post by gouthro »

A back door way into having Jarislowsky Fraser run your money is through purchase ot the closed end fund United Corporations UNC on the TSE. JF manages about 70% of the portfolio while Sanford Bernstein manages the rest.

As an aside UNC trades at a 24% discount to NAV and Empire Life is constantly buying up shares. Perahps one day they'll make an offer for the rest at NAV or "open end" the fund again at NAV.

Full disclosure I own some UNC. A long term buy and hold, only "managed fund" I own.
Randomwalker,
that looks like a good way to do it. But, it is too complicated for me. i will just continue buying the index through Shareowner.
Joe
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Post by twa2w »

randomwalker said
As an aside UNC trades at a 24% discount to NAV and Empire Life is constantly buying up shares. Perahps one day they'll make an offer for the rest at NAV or "open end" the fund again at NAV

Perhaps here's why- the following are listed on board of directors of UNC
DUNCAN N. R. JACKMAN Chairman, President and
Chief Executive Offi cer
E-L Financial Corporation Limited
MARK M. TAYLOR Executive Vice-President and
Chief Financial Offi cer
E-L Financial Corporation Limited

And Henry Jackman himself is an honorary director - he is the major shareholder at EL.

I guess they know a good deal when they see one.

Sorry for some reason wasn't able to get quotes to work today.
Cheers
j
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Post by randomwalker »

For those interested an interview with Stephen Jarislowsky on BNN on Friday, Sept. 14th at the 5pm time slot.

http://www.bnn.ca/
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arthur
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Post by arthur »

He, like Schulic, tore into Flaherty.
You want the truth, you want the truth, you can't handle the truth.

The masses have never thirsted for the truth, whoever supplies them with illusions is their master, whoever supplies them with the truth, their victim.

If you do not risk anything , you risk even more. Jong
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Post by Norbert Schlenker »

Sure he did, Arthur. Give us the time mark where he said either Flaherty or Minister of Finance.

:roll:
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arthur
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Post by arthur »

NS, watch the interview, it is on BNN.
You want the truth, you want the truth, you can't handle the truth.

The masses have never thirsted for the truth, whoever supplies them with illusions is their master, whoever supplies them with the truth, their victim.

If you do not risk anything , you risk even more. Jong
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Post by like_to_retire »

I don't know Arthur. I watched the Stephen Jarislowsky on BNN on Friday, Sept. 14th at the 5pm time slot and he never went near that topic. He railed a lot about CEO compensation and how it encourages the sale of companies....

ltr
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Post by brucecohen »

like_to_retire wrote:I don't know Arthur. I watched the Stephen Jarislowsky on BNN on Friday, Sept. 14th at the 5pm time slot and he never went near that topic. He railed a lot about CEO compensation and how it encourages the sale of companies....

ltr
I was surprised by Arthur's claim that Jarislowsky -- a strong corporate governance guy -- criticized Flaherty for reining in income trusts. So I googled on Jarislowsky,Flaherty,"income trust." Couldn't find any Jarislowsky quotes.

I did find a quote from one of his partners in a Bloomberg article:
``The government had to address the problem sooner or later,'' said Denis Durand, a senior partner at Jarislowsky Fraser Ltd. in Montreal, which oversees C$58.5 billion, and is ``marginally'' invested in income trusts. ``There was a concern that too many unsuitable companies and industries would try to convert.''
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Post by AltaRed »

FWIW, I found no reference to what Arthur is talking about either.
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Post by Norbert Schlenker »

Arthur, evidence is always useful. Try having some the next time. ;)
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Post by WishingWealth »

I don't usually watch BNN; perhaps someone can tell me if O'Leary is playing the ignorant part in the tag team game or is he ignorant by birth?

WW
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Post by like_to_retire »

hehehe, I think SqueezePlay with Amanda Lang and Kevin O'Leary is quite good entertainment. O'Leary kills me, with Amanda holding her own so nicely against his rather single minded quest for the buck...... funny stuff.

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Post by augustabound »

I just like Amanda Lang. :wink:

I remember SJ talking about trusts in his interview, but as to whether it was directed at the finance minister or the tories, I don't remember. The interview was a 2 part interview, did you see both? The mention on trusts was in part 1.
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Post by randomwalker »

For those interested an interview with Stephen Jarislowsky here,

http://watch.bnn.ca/squeezeplay/april-2 ... clip158424
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Post by George$ »

Ditto for listening to Jarislowsky on CBC's radio program - The Current on May 18., 2009. I think it may be a replay of his interview last December.

He predicts massive inflation down the road. Also much wisdom in general.

Jarislowky on The Current
“The search for truth is more precious than its possession.” Albert Einstein
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Post by WishingWealth »

He had a few non-PC comments about a mandated 50% representation of women on boards; his take was: not enough of them are good 'nuf (at this point) if we want to have a 50% representation.
He was quickly killed in the media as an old schnook but the story had no legs.

Not sure but a story or another on Céline could perhaps have sent the J. faux-pas to page 23 of the papers.

WW

BTW: With a grain of salt.
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Post by MFlo »

Jarislowsky's bark is bigger than his bite.
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