MFOHome About Commentary Discussions Funds The Best Resources Support Us!

Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In Register

Categories

In this Discussion

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.

    Support MFO

  • Donate through PayPal

Capital Group’s Gitlin (Interview) // How do their offerings compare to others?

hank
edited June 30 in Other Investing
Gitlin stresses the importance of staying the course. The hazards of market timing. Some poignant comments about the adverse effects going public can have on an investment company. Not fond of DIY investors. What caught my attention was that he replaced highly capable fixed income head Mary Miller at T Rowe Price in 2009 after Miller left the firm for a position in Washington. I’ve long wondered why Price’s fixed income division came up lacking after Miller departed. Now I know. Says Gitlin, “I wasn’t qualified for that position.”

Comments

  • MikeMMikeM
    Thanks @hank. I found this quite interesting and positive with the content. I Have a lot invested in Capital Group. I put quite a bit in CGBL, the balanced fund and have a good holding in CGDV, dividend value. Also have a stake in CGGR, their domestic growth fund.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    Capitol Group's American Funds was our primary investment vehicle for some forty years. I was never impressed with their bond funds, but other than that we made a lot of money through the years in quite a variety of their other fund types.
  • a2z
    how have they survived high expense ratios ?
    staying private , finbro-mance , performance
  • rforno
    Good interview, thx.

    As someone who has had a very large holding in Capital Group funds for nearly 20 years, I've been very pleased with them.
  • CrashCrash
    edited June 23
    CGBL: outstanding performance. Shrug. Dear me, I suppose there's no getting away from the mega-cap techs if you want to do well, investing. Poopies. ...But 30% of AUM is in their own core-plus income fund. Wow.
  • yogibearbullyogibearbull
    Capital Group/American Funds is the class champion. It has up to 19 OEF classes - load, no-load (529, taxable, Retirement), and now has several ETFs. It has funds for many price points.
    I have had some lowest ER R6 classes in 403b.
  • CrashCrash
    yogibearbull said:

    Capital Group/American Funds is the class champion. It has up to 19 OEF classes - load, no-load (529, taxable, Retirement), and now has several ETFs. It has funds for many price points.
    I have had some lowest ER R6 classes in 403b.

    ....Which is why I've steered clear. How many stinking fund-classes do ya NEED? Nothing should be that complicated.
  • Old_JoeOld_Joe
    I found American Funds ERs to be quite reasonable. The trick was to avoid the front load.
  • mskursh
    CG will always stick up for advisory services. its what got them to where they are today.

    I don't like any of their underlying equity products but they are great allocators in their allocation products, have really listened when it comes to expense ratios, and i think their fund management strategy is good. Again, I just think the flagship equity funds are too big at this point for me to move money to.

    I manage my parents portfolio of american funds and have been consolidating down to a single allocation fund to make things simpler for them.
  • sma3
    I have dabbled In American Funds off and on but was never overly impressed

    I knew one of their "top investment partners " or whatever they called their independent broker salesmen.

    He was a nice enough guy but I didn't see why my investment dollars had to pay for the frequent all expense paid luxury trips he was always going on to American Fund events.

    The trips were awarded to the highest "producers". Bit of a conflict on interest don't you think?
  • MikeMMikeM
    I knew one of their "top investment partners " or whatever they called their independent broker salesmen.
    That had to be a long time ago, @sma3, when you could only buy from American and you had to pay a load/commission for the "privilege". Those days, thank god, are long gone.
  • mcmarasco
    edited June 25
    What do the seasoned investors on this board think of capital groups ETF’s as a whole? But In particular, CGUS, CGDV, CGGR?
    I’ve never invested in Capital Group funds until they entered the ETF market. I currently hold double-digits in CGUS and CGDV. I’ve been pleased with their performance so far, although they have a little more overlap (per etfrc.com).

    I like to invest in active funds to compliment the passive funds I own. FYI : I only hold a handful of funds.

    There seems to be enough uniqueness because they often zig/zag somewhat.

    Any comments or thoughts are greatly appreciated! Thx. Matt
  • rforno
    CGDV and CGGO are on my watchlists and would be the ones I would move into if/when needed. Knowing what I know now, I would go with ETFs versus their OEFs with loads and 12-b-1 fees.

    CGDV performing similar to the American Fund that my 403(b) is in, fwiw saying --- no worries!
  • hank
    edited June 25
    ”He was a nice enough guy but I didn't see why my investment dollars had to pay for the frequent all expense paid luxury trips he was always going on to American Fund events.”

    About 15-20 years ago I followed a fella off a plane at Key West airport. Dressed to kill & carrying a briefcase labeled “T. Rowe Price” with a blinking red or green light on it. Looked like it was getting ready to blow. And the attire was definitely out of sync with the atmosphere & climate there … :)
  • sma3
    @MikeM

    A bit over five years ago. He was a one man investment firm. I am sure he charged the usual 1.25% of assets or so and may have still used mutual funds with sig fees
  • a2z
    for new ETFs, stay on watch for closest growth index cloners.
  • mskursh
    mcmarasco said:

    What do the seasoned investors on this board think of capital groups ETF’s as a whole? But In particular, CGUS, CGDV, CGGR?
    I’ve never invested in Capital Group funds until they entered the ETF market. I currently hold double-digits in CGUS and CGDV. I’ve been pleased with their performance so far, although they have a little more overlap (per etfrc.com).

    I like to invest in active funds to compliment the passive funds I own. FYI : I only hold a handful of funds.

    There seems to be enough uniqueness because they often zig/zag somewhat.

    Any comments or thoughts are greatly appreciated! Thx. Matt

    AF equity products have largely become closet index funds. That said these ETF's have less than 10billion in assets so don't necessarily have the bloat. I assumed originally that these were largely ETF versions of their larger flagships but as of now they are slightly different.

    for me they are different enough to pay attention to but I also feel like eventually they'll become more aligned with their indexes than they should.

    CGGR is the only one i've tracked and as of now it is underperforming its index but 2 months ago it was beating it and 2 years is really not much of a record to make a decision on.

    I think the real value for these are people who invest outside of retirement accounts. regardless of performance the tax implications of AF funds are pretty big. the ETF wrapper allows you to stay in AF but not have the huge tax hits year in and year out.
  • mcmarasco
    edited June 27
    rforno, a2z and mskursh, thank you for your thoughts! My understanding of their ETF family was that they were not supposed to be a clone of their MF’s or index huggers. Did i misunderstand what I read? I was looking for active investing to “compliment” my passive index ETF’s.

    Did I get this wrong?

    Thx again, Matt
  • BenWPBenWP
    @mcmarasco: I have never owned American funds, but I like their ETFs for the seasoned teams managing them, the independence of team members (according to M*), the fact they are big enough to trade easily, and performance so far. I still own a few OEFs, but my ETFs represent a big percentage of my active portfolio. Using CGGO, CGGR, CGDV, and CGXU currently. From what I can tell, the American Group does not have any SC offerings. I think you are correct in understanding that the ETFs are not clones of AF mutual funds.
  • mcmarasco
    BenWP thank you for your opinion and insight!

    No one has commented on CGUS. I own it and VOO and was using CGUS as a “complimentary” actively managed fund. Am I misguided? Are they too similar? Am I overthinking and unnecessarily complicating my portfolio?

    Any thoughts anyone? Thx!!!
  • BenWPBenWP
    @mcmarasco: CGUS may well be a good choice. At present, I doubt that the FI allocation in a balanced fund will add much more value than what my pretty large stake in a MMF pays. I do have CBLDX and OSTIX as my sole bond funds and only one allocation fund, DGIFX. In the past, I held considerable stakes in balanced funds, i.e., Oakmark or Janus, but no more. In recent years, the FI portion and the allocation to international have held back the performance of the Vanguard target date funds in my TIAA account; there also I have shifted away from those holdings to an equity index or actively managed stock funds. YMMV and you may have a different approach.
  • mcmarasco
    BenWP, thank you for your insights! I invested in CGUS as a “counterbalance” to the passive VOO.

    I like CGDV because it is / has been a LCB fund with a value tilt (equity income). I’m not convinced that true / pure Value is the future, could be wrong but time will tell.

    I’m a TR and a non-trading investor although I do look to improve my portfolio when the opportunity arises and I believe some of the Capital Group ETF family gave me that opportunity.

    Do you or any others have any further thoughts, opinions or suggestions regarding my choices and/or logic? Thx!
  • Bitzer
    On the subject of Capital Group's mutual funds, I've been a happy shareholder of DODIX as a core bond funding. I know one year isn't much of a comparison, but CGCP (a core plus bond etf) has substantially outperformed DODIX over the past year. Over the life of CGCP, the return of CGCP and DODIX have been similar.

    Is it worth stepping up some risk to enjoy the better returns of CGCP or is it too early to tell? Thanks!
  • Derf
    Thanks guys , interesting thread .
Sign In or Register to comment.