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David, thank you for your piece on Paul Espinosa and Seafarer Overseas Value in the September issue. With its impressive risk adjusted performance and the renewed interest in emerging markets, it certainly is surprising that that the fund manages only $125 million in assets.
I own institutional share class SIVLX at Schwab. When I looked on Schwab's website, next to availability, it says open. When I Iooked at the minimum initial investment, it shows $1. I have never seen institutional shares with a minimum initial investment of $1 open to retail.
I called Schwab and the rep said that SIVLX is not available retail and their website should say "Approval Required". I called back and a second rep checked different internal resources and said that it is available retail for an minimum initial investment of $1. I do not know what is going on, but I highly doubt that SIVLX is open to retail with a minimum initial investment of $1.
SIVLX is available at Fidelity as a transaction fee fund: $25K minimum and $49.95 to buy. One can add more later through Fidelity’s automatic investment feature for $5 per transaction. Schwab may has similar fee structure.
Thanks to Professor Snowball who wrote extensively on Andrew Foster and his team at seafarer funds. Highly recommend to read previous articles in the Commentary section.
SIVLX is available at Fidelity as a transaction fee fund: $25K minimum and $49.95 to buy. One can add more later through Fidelity’s automatic investment feature for $5 per transaction. Schwab may has similar fee structure.
Thanks to Professor Snowball who wrote extensively on Andrew Foster and his team at seafarer funds. Highly recommend to read previous articles in the Commentary section.
That makes sense. When I made my initial purchase of SIVLX at Schwab some years back, the minimum was $25K. Looks like Schwab needs to fix their website.
@Derf, here is Vanguard’s fee structure, and they are different. Scroll down to Transaction fee funds. Beware that they charge fees on buying and selling TFs, whereas Fidelity does not. Each brokerage has their own trading policy.
@mona. I had a similar and frustrating experience at Schwab with a different fund. As I tried to place an order it said Minimum $1.00 but it wouldn’t accept my Order and said call for approval. The rep was not experienced and told me I would have to answers some questions and it would be reviewed . He said the process would take several days. I said pass.
@Derf: This Vanguard page indicates that there is no purchase fee for SIVLX and the initial minimum is $500. I am very surprised to see that this low minimum for this share class.
At Vanguard there is a TF to buy/sell SIVLX. If a customer has less than $1 million invested in Vanguard ETFs & mutual funds, it will cost $20 per trade¹.
I once owned a Seafarer fund and after it experienced very significant redemptions in 2018 I believe Seafarer decided to nix sales of retail class shares via brokerages. If retails class shares are still unavailable at Schwab that may be why.
@Mona, SIGIX is a MUCH bigger fund than SIVLX. Seafarer firm's serious decline in AUM in 2018 were caused by SIGIX and both Morningstar and MFOP are consistent on that. Only SIVLX is mentioned in this thread, not SIGIX. BTW, I don't follow these funds, so I don't know the history Seafarer fund classes being closed or open.
Comments
I own institutional share class SIVLX at Schwab. When I looked on Schwab's website, next to availability, it says open. When I Iooked at the minimum initial investment, it shows $1. I have never seen institutional shares with a minimum initial investment of $1 open to retail.
I called Schwab and the rep said that SIVLX is not available retail and their website should say "Approval Required". I called back and a second rep checked different internal resources and said that it is available retail for an minimum initial investment of $1. I do not know what is going on, but I highly doubt that SIVLX is open to retail with a minimum initial investment of $1.
Thanks to Professor Snowball who wrote extensively on Andrew Foster and his team at seafarer funds. Highly recommend to read previous articles in the Commentary section.
https://investor.vanguard.com/client-benefits/brokerage-fees-commissions#modal-TFmutual
https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/mutual-funds/profile/sivlx
If a customer has less than $1 million invested in Vanguard ETFs & mutual funds, it will cost $20 per trade¹.
Initial purchase: $500.
Additional purchases: $500.
¹ Dollar-cost-averaging purchases: $100 (minimum 2 transactions, $3 per transaction).
https://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/sivlx/parent
BTW, I don't follow these funds, so I don't know the history Seafarer fund classes being closed or open.