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Through successive ownerships, the Acorn Funds have been allowed to operate w/o interference, and to pursue their own path. Robert A. Mohn's retirement at end of 2015 as chief domestic investment adviser for the firm, following Charles McQaid's reducing his role in day-to-day management, may have been the death knell for the funds. The PMs of ACRNX went through some difficult analysis to try to improve the fund's performance, and there was an uptick after that. CEFZX emerging markets was a bright star, then tanked this year.
Most of the owners did seem to be legacy owners; nobody under 60 attended the shareholders' meetings, but the open question period elicited info I would not have thought to pursue, such as the funds' not timing cash, and ACRNX hoping some of its holdings would be takeover targets.
The PMs' frustration with performance was obvious.
It was a great opportunity for me to go to a local event and learn something.
I am uncertain if what caused their problems was greed .I.e not closing the fund when it started getting really large. Still . even though recent quarterly reports have been fairly candid about poor performance they have not suggested size as a key problem. They have talked about GARP (growth at reasonable price not being in favor ) and about a need to reduce the number of positions. One would have thought that they might have done fairly well this summer since a large cash position would have been appropriate given the large amount of redemptions. As a taxable shareholder I am concerned about a large capital gains distribution this winter but because of performance I am likely to take the distribution in cash and put it to work elsewhere. Surprisingly the fund did not do badly after Ralph wagner left but fall of 2007 would have been a great time to sell and not get back in (to that fund )
Those interested - such as Jerry - might recheck the link above. Acorn will distribute $8 per share in cap gains this December. It will be interesting to see the impact of M* lowered rating & repeated concern about the fund shedding $8 billion in asset value as shareholders dump it.
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Most of the owners did seem to be legacy owners; nobody under 60 attended the shareholders' meetings, but the open question period elicited info I would not have thought to pursue, such as the funds' not timing cash, and ACRNX hoping some of its holdings would be takeover targets.
The PMs' frustration with performance was obvious.
It was a great opportunity for me to go to a local event and learn something.