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The Case of the Over-Diversified PortfolioIn all my years as a financial investigator, I had never seen anything like
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Bythe Lyne was in his fifties. He was a sales executive with a well known pharmaceutical firm. He had a portfolio of mutual funds that he had put together himself. You name it, he owned it. Country Funds. Emerging Markets. New Europe. New Economy. Smokestack Industry. Government Bond. High Yield. Conservative. Speculative. Remains from every investment craze and theme for the last twenty years. The latest hot funds. The living dead funds that someone had forgotten to drive a wooden stake through or tell the trustee that the manager had been struck with the Bay Street Sleeping Sickness years before. It took me a few minutes to gain my bearings as I sorted through the entrails of the portfolio statements. |
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"What do you think", Bythe said expectantly.
"I put it together over the years, mostly on my own."
I didn't know quite what to say. It was like trying not to gag on the turpentine taste of a homemade wine as the host gushed, waiting for your reaction.
"I've really never seen anything like this before", I said faintly.
There had to be fifty funds, I thought to myself.
"It must have been quite a task to assemble it" , I ventured.
"It's big enough that I think I can use some professional advice", said Bythe.
Understatement of the century, I thought. "I agree", I said.
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