Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
For sure there have been a few managers we fired that have come back to put up great numbers. But there are some that we should have fired sooner than we did. There were signals that were pretty evident (at least in hindsight) that indicated the manager(s) had lost touch, or had changed their process, or had tweaked the fund when it didn't need tweaking.
On the other hand, we fired Longleaf many years ago after a manager told us he did not know of any pending distribution. The next day or so, there was a huge capital gain distribution (this in a year when the fund was down quite a bit, too). Within a week, we sold every position and moved on. I can overlook a couple of years of underperformance, if the underlying philosophy, buy-sell strategy, and management remains consistent. But something like the Longleaf issue, means we could no longer trust what management told us. I know they have a good record, but, like Janus and a few others, we will look elsewhere. There are a lot of great managers from which to choose.
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On the other hand, we fired Longleaf many years ago after a manager told us he did not know of any pending distribution. The next day or so, there was a huge capital gain distribution (this in a year when the fund was down quite a bit, too). Within a week, we sold every position and moved on. I can overlook a couple of years of underperformance, if the underlying philosophy, buy-sell strategy, and management remains consistent. But something like the Longleaf issue, means we could no longer trust what management told us. I know they have a good record, but, like Janus and a few others, we will look elsewhere. There are a lot of great managers from which to choose.