Kansas City Investment Community Outperforms

This week's Barron's features the Barron's / Value Line list of top 100 mutual funds.

The list shows the continuing development of the Kansas City investment management community. Investment managers from the greater Kansas City area manage seven of the 100 funds on the list. This is impressive in light of the fact that the Kansas City area makes up approximately .5% of the population of the US, while producing 7% of the "top" funds in the United States.

The leading Kansas City fund on the list is Jim Schier of Security Benefit's incredible Security Mid Cap Value Fund, a fund that has earned fund investors 25.16% annually over the past three years. Schier manages both Security's Mid Cap Value and Mid Cap Growth funds, funds that both made the top 100 fund list.

Waddell and Reed placed three funds on the top 100 with the Ivy International Balanced Fund, managed by E. Tucker Scott, topping the list. Waddell and Reed Asset Strategy and Ivy Asset Strategy, both managed by Michael Avery, also made the list.

American Century placed two funds on the list, the International Discovery fund managed by Mark Kopinski, and the Small Cap Value fund managed by Benjamin Giele.

Timothy Burger
timothyb(at)timothyburger.com