Worldwide once stood as Janus' flagship global product. Overseas, meanwhile, was purely international but equally successful. Former Janus whiz Helen Young Hayes guided both funds with the aggressive, momentum-driven growth style the Denver shop was know for and, investors responded by throwing billions of dollars her way.
By the close of business in 1999, Hayes was responsible for $34 billion at Worldwide and another $9 billion at Overseas. But then came the crash, and both fund lost more than half their value. Hayes split three months before the trading scandal hit Janus, and while Overseas has continued to deliver an astonishing 42% over the last three trailing years, Wiecking observed, Worldwide posted one of its category's worst returns over the same period, a relatively lackluster 16%.
As such, Worldwide manager Laurence Chang lasted a little more than a year and was replaced by Jason Yee, a former Janus researcher who rejoined the firm in 2000 and successfully skippered
Like Hayes, Lynn is aggressive. Yee is more conservative. Yee likes blue-chips, Lynn prefers small-cap and mid-cap. Lynn plays up growth and Yee is more price conscious. Yee is a bit bearish on emerging markets, allocating just 5% of Worldwide to the asset class, while Lynn is more bullish, dedicating a full one-third of his portfolio there. Not surprisingly, Wiecking adds, Overseas is more volatile than Worldwide.
So which fund does Wiecking recommend to investors? Due to the volatility measurement, small-cap's anticipated slowdown and Yee's penchant for navigating the bear market, Worldwide gets Wiecking's nod.
The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries
