Ron and I enjoy reading periodicals from other countries; in particular the Financial Times, published in the U.K. They always have such interesting articles and we get to view ourselves from “across the pond.”
As a financial gerontologist, I took particular interest in a recent issue (Oct. 3, 2009) of the FT that had an interesting article on investing for the long run. As we always tell our clients, our portfolios are designed to be invested for the long term. Long term can have different connotations for different individuals. The article, written by Spencer Jakab, focuses on the philosophies of two veterans of the Crash of 1929; Irving Kahn who is 103 years “young,” and Roy R. Neuberger, who is 106 years “young.” These two really define the term long-term investor!
Kahn is the oldest active money manager on Wall Street and the chairman of Kahn Brothers, a privately-held investment advisory firm and broker-dealer. Neuberger, who retired at the age of 99, is the founder of Neuberger Berman, an asset management firm supervising approximately $130 billion. Both founded their firms on the style of value investing devised by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd at Columbia University in 1928. In fact, Kahn was one of Graham’s teaching assistants. Value investing, as most of you know, is a conservative approach to buying stocks that involves acquiring shares at a discount to their eventual long-term value. The basic elements of this style are careful research and a long-term investment horizon.
These two gentlemen have experienced many ups and downs in the market over an 80-year period but they never deviated from the fundamentals of value investing, although they must have been tempted more than once along the way by quick and easy profits.
But by maintaining investment discipline, Kahn and Neuberger helped their clients through “the best of times and the worst of times” and steadily built up their clients’ wealth over the years. Given their longevity in the business, these two Wall Street legends obviously loved their work and did it well.
In that same spirit, your team at R.W. Rogé & Company is dedicated to safeguarding and growing your assets based on the time-proven principles of value investing. We love what we do and value each and every client and the trust you have placed in us. We thank you for giving us this wonderful opportunity.
