[ QUOTE ]
experience with managed funds and thoughts on my process or pick?
[/ QUOTE ]
Mainly these guys are my competitors, but for some of my clients (whose accounts are very small) I utilize funds instead of stocks. Most of the funds on my firm's "approved" list are the ones listed by Lou Lowenstein in his
recent paper, which is a modern/updated version of a similar paper/
speech written by Mr. Buffett in 1984.
As for your process, it seems like a "bottom up" approach (starting with individual stocks), whereas mine was more of a "bottom down" one (starting with investment philosophy), but it seems pretty good to me. (And, as it turns out, we ended up in the exact same place.)
You mentioned that you look for a low expense ratio, and low turnover, and both are great things. Another two points I would add to any mutual fund checklist is (1) I will never pay a load/commission, and (2) I want to invest with people who have close to 100% of their personal investments in the fund (Longleaf is the hallmark on this one--they require all employees to invest only in Longleaf products).
As it happens, whenever a friend asks me for a short list of mutual fund recommendations, I have the usual suspects like Sequoia, Dodge & Cox, Longleaf, Tweedy Browne, Third Avenue, et al. But most of these are either closed to new investors or just plain huge, so the
only fund that I
always recommend is Fairholme. This fund is first place in my mind, and there are 3-6 funds tied for a distant second.
Bruce, Larry, and Keith are so incredibly smart, and they have the right temperament in order to succeed. Anecdotal evidence sucks, but....in 1990/1 Bruce was profiled in Outstanding Investor Digest (when he was still with Smith Barney (?)), and he was pitching Wells Fargo. The Californian economy was in dire straits at the time (where have I heard that one before?) and most investors were down on banks in general, but Bruce said he was backing up the truck on Wells. In a short matter of months after that, Berkshire disclosed that they too had bought a large stake (of course this has since been a multi-bagger).