Abstract

We test a sample of 205 Canadian and 938 US equity funds during the period 2008 through 2011. Specifically, we look at whether manager characteristics and actions have any bearing on the performance, management fees and systematic risk of the funds with a special focus on the impact of company visits. We find that company visits consistently positively and significantly affect performance, portfolio turnover and fees leading us to conclude that in the case of the US sample, company visits have a value added effect while we are inconclusive on its effects on the Canadian sample. Other findings using the three stage least square methodology show that for the Canadian sample, investment experience and employee equity ownership positively affect the fund’s beta and team size has a positive impact on fees while company visits have a positive impact only in the system with the Sharpe ratio as the performance measure. The US results show that investment experience has a positive and significant impact on the fund’s beta while a negative impact on both portfolio turnover and fees. Finally, employee equity ownership also has a positive impact on systematic risk while team size has a positive impact on fees.