It’s prudent to keep some of your portfolio in foreign stocks.
Though U.S. investors have had little reason to look abroad for opportunities lately, it’s prudent to keep some of your portfolio in foreign stocks.
And if that prudence led you to invest in Brown Capital Management International Small Company, you are no doubt happy that you did.
The fund boasts a five-year annualized return that beat its peers (funds that invest in growing small and midsize foreign firms), the MSCI ACWI ex USA index (a broad foreign stock benchmark) and the S&P 500 index.
The fund has a unique approach: Four managers work together, picking apart prospective holdings, and everyone must agree on decisions to buy or sell.
“We’re a team, and we think the outcome is better than when one person dominates,” co-manager Daniel Boston said.
It’s all part of a deep, research-driven process.
The managers want to find “exceptional growth companies” (EGCs), said Boston, with four qualities: solid revenue growth; a competitive, sustainable position in its industry; executives with a vision of the future and an ability to make it happen; and profitability to fuel and sustain earnings growth.
The quintessential exceptional growth companies, the managers like to say, “save time, lives, money or headaches, or they provide an exceptional value proposition to customers.”

