by Stephen Lindsley

J.A. Glynn is an investment management firm that was founded in 1945 by Joe Glynn. Located for many years in the Security Building at Fourth and Locust Streets in St. Louis, the company maintained a strong downtown presence until it moved to its current location on Clayton Road in Ladue in the spring of 1997. Sometimes described as “Your Swiss Bank in Ladue,” JAG has maintained a relatively low profile in the community while providing high-touch, private, boutique-style services for its clients.

Daniel Ferry, chairman and CEO of JAG, acquired the firm in 1988. An avid hunter, Ferry is known to some of his friends as “Dr. Duck.” Under Ferry’s management, J.A. Glynn and JAG Advisors – a division of the firm that focuses on separately managed accounts – has grown into one of the top five independent investment managers in the St. Louis area, with approximately $900 million under management.

While approximately 75 percent of the assets under management at JAG belong to Catholic religious institutions, other focus areas include unions and individual accounts, the latter comprising the fastest growing segment of the firm.

What makes JAG stand apart is its approach to portfolio management. As an investment advisor, JAG’s portfolio managers take custody of clients’ assets and manage them under one of four investment styles or “flavors” that best match a client’s needs. These include Large Cap Growth, which is the most aggressive, Core Equity Growth, which is more conservative, Intermediate Fixed Income and Income and Growth.

Both the Intermediate Fixed Income and Income and Growth portfolios at JAG were recently named to the prestigious Effron- PSN 5-Star “Top Guns” list of investment products that, among other criteria, rank in the top 10 for riskadjusted performance nationwide. In addition, JAG’s Large Cap Growth portfolio has just been named 12th among 163 similar products in the Nelson Marketplace World’s Best Money Managers list.

“Everybody in our Large Cap program gets the benefit of our good ideas at the same time,” says Ferry. This means that while portfolios are separately managed, each investor gains the benefit of innovations in the structure of the program they have chosen.

JAG’s ideal client has an investable net worth of at least $500,000. The firm does not deal in options, futures, IPOs or margin accounts, nor does it offer mutual fund products. By focusing on its core strengths, JAG builds portfolios on the basic guiding principle that “price follows earnings.”

Recently, JAG’s Large Cap Growth product was selected to be part of Credit Suisse First Boston’s Preferred Advisors program. CS First Boston is a high-net-worth investment bank based in New York City with more than $312 billion in assets under management worldwide. As Ferry puts it, “Our performance is so good that we now have other managers asking us to manage their accounts.”

Another important feature at JAG is its vertically integrated structure, which means it is involved at every level of the investment process. Being vertically integrated allows JAG to offer its services at a lower cost, eliminating extraneous fees, and it also means the firm is under two different levels of scrutiny, including both NASD and SEC regulation.

JAG is a family-owned firm; Ferry himself is a 90 percent shareholder. The company weathered the recent bear market better than many other firms, several of which experienced layoffs during that period. In fact, the firm actually experienced a net addition of three employees in the last few years, bringing the total to 23. Many of the key personnel in the firm are long-time associates of Ferry, who has more than 40 years’ experience in the investment industry.

In the last three years, JAG has invested half a million dollars in its technology systems. These systems include software such as Moxy, which provides automated trading and order management, and SOCRATES, a social investing tool that JAG uses to maintain accounts in compliance with clients’ social investing guidelines, where applicable. In addition, the firm’s Advent software uses daily valuation methodology, stock level attribution, customized benchmarks and risk calculations, allowing in-depth performance measurement and publishingquality performance reports.

Norman B. Conley, III, vice president and portfolio manager, notes that prospective JAG clients are looking for “high service, low fees and a simple structure.” He says that currently stocks are relatively inexpensive, while bonds are becoming less attractive after a strong showing in recent months. “Right now we’re playing offense on stocks and defense on bonds,” says Conley. “We’re not going to bet on interest rates,” Ferry echoes.

In a field crowded with independent investment advisors, J.A. Glynn stands apart as a premier provider of investment management services. By remaining committed to managing only stock and bond portfolios, making its managers accessible to clients and providing a level of service one would expect from a leading investment management firm, JAG offers a measured, individual approach to asset management.

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Daniel Ferry	Norman B. Conley, III

 

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