Her’s my company car…the compliancemobile.

wb u crack me up. The Deathmobile, brought to you by your friends in Compliance.

And WB jumps out in his best “Mad Max” get-up.

[quote=Shania Twain] [quote=Shania Twain]

And WB jumps out in his best “Mad Max” get-up.

The black congressmen and Mr.Toyota is surreal.



Like Saturday Night Live.



Hari-Kari when he is done?



so-sorry My american friends

[quote=Spaceman Spiff]It’s a love/hate relationship we have with American Funds.  You love the performance consistency with a lot of their funds, but hate the arrogance (“There are a lot of things we could do to grow sales, but we won’t do them”).  It’s hard to argue with the performance numbers of funds like CWGIX and CAIBX, but if they could give us that kind of return with a little bit of humility it would be great. 

No, Eric.  Maybe the 7 series is just standard issue for the American Funds wholesalers. 

My old wholesaler had the silver 7 series before they sent him off to the cold Siberia of American Legacy…

[quote]It’s a love/hate relationship we have with American Funds.  You love the performance consistency with a lot of their funds, but hate the arrogance (“There are a lot of things we could do to grow sales, but we won’t do them”).  It’s hard to argue with the performance numbers of funds like CWGIX and CAIBX, but if they could give us that kind of return with a little bit of humility it would be great. 

1.) My American Fund wholesaler comes by every three months or so, does 1 to 2 seminars with me a year for clients (picks up the tab, no wine/beer). Does drive the BMW 7, belongs to the country club, but is down-to-earth with clients, returns phone calls, etc. Even sends a thank-you card for any tickets over $100K. Good guy.

2.) I think American Funds is the best compromise if you have to use the same fund family for "A" shares and pick the static asset categories of "Modern Portfolio Theory".  AF doesn't have the best fund in any asset category, but has a good fund in every category.

3.) Not crazy about static portfolios and using the same fund family for A shares, I have not sold an A share in about 3 to 4 years. I prefer managed fees or C shares so I can use the best funds in each asset class. AND I prefer dynamic portfolios using Blackrock Global Allocation, First Eagle Global, Evergreen asset allocation, Ivy Asset allocation. Each of these funds beats any American fund for the last 10 years performance.

4.) I love my convertable Ford Mustang, bought it used 2 years old from CarMax, lots of fun, looks great, clients don't get the impression that I am living high off of them. When I rarely am driving a client, I take my wife's BMW X3 (the smaller SUV).  Production the last four years was over $500K each year, I could afford a much nicer car, its just not important to me. Someone mentioned a Vespa, sounds like fun!

I disagree that AMF is the best to use for A shares.  I think Franklin and Blackrock are better.  I prefer Franklin, as they have some great equity managers (Mutual Series, Templeton international managers), and some great bond managers (Franklin lineup, Templeton Global Bond), but their big advantage is that they have some average to very good funds in many categories.  AMF simply has some above average large cap domestic value and international large cap value funds.  Their fixed income is adequate AT BEST.  And they have virtually nothing else worth looking at.  Some of their style weaknesses have become very apparent the past 2 years.   

[quote=Spaceman Spiff]  Dude pulls up in a BMW 7 series.  Now, I know you're in your car a ton, but can we at least show some sort of restraint in the purchase of your automobile?  That's the kind of stuff that gets under my skin.

[/quote]

So if he drove a Ford Fiesta you would respect him or be inclinded to do more business with his co??

[quote=Spaceman Spiff]  Dude pulls up in a BMW 7 series.  Now, I know you're in your car a ton, but can we at least show some sort of restraint in the purchase of your automobile?  That's the kind of stuff that gets under my skin.

[/quote]

So if he drove a Ford Fiesta you would respect him or be inclinded to do more business with his co??

Anyone else amazed at the number of FA's you see that drive BMW's or Mercedes and wear cheap suits and most importantly cheap shoes?

I am amazed when I see a french cuff shirt that is monogramed and some piss poor rubber soled shoes together.

American Funds were on top of the world, and spit in the advisor's eye with their NAV policy on 401k rollovers into their fund family.  Now they are shocked that advisors are yanking clients with mediocre performance?  Too bad, so sad.  They thought they had us on their choke chain, and it seems they aren't on top of the world by standing on our heads.

Back to the original topic at hand:  Most advisors sold AMF based on how great they did through the tech bubble.  Now, if you sell the performance and it doesn't live up, you have to churn them out of it.  It also doesn't help that AMF provides little help and most of their funds are indistinguishable from one another.

For the record, I drive a Jeep.  

I've been moving clients out of Bond Fund of America. With 29% of assets in Fed bonds I don't think they can perform as well as smaller funds over the next couple years. I am feeling a little closed in with AF's right now. Adv Solutions are a better choice but I don't see how I can survive in the short run by selling them.

I agree.  For my AMF-only portfolios, I have been moving some out of BFA and into World Bond, and even small amounts into High Yield Bond.  After their 2008 debacle, and their subsequent shift into Treasuries (AFTER the meltdown, when they SHOULD HAVE stayed put), I don't trust them whatsoever.

FWIW, I have not used AMF for over 6 months in any accounts.  I will continue to use them for existing clients, but no longer sell them.  I generally use FT, First Eagle, PIMCO, Blackrock, and IVY for A/C share accounts, in addition to the wrap program.

For fun...call your wholesaler (if you have one) and ask them what they think of BFA.  Then, call another wholesaler from another part of the country and ask the same question.  See if you get the exact same answer.  THAT is not good.