I reckon there's very few things more interesting than other people's money. So maybe a few readers will be interested in the following, and some may even learn from it.

An expat mate of mine asked me last year to have a look at his investments. He had a legacy from his parents' estate in 1999 and put himself in the hands of an "adviser", who placed nearly $200,000 with various funds managed by Armstrong Jones, Bankers Trust and Tower. The entry and management fees were pretty horrendous and the timing was a disaster due to weakness in most world markets.

By July last year, when I started to unravel the mess, the original investment of NZD197,500 had withered to $132,970!!

So with a friendly broker I put a stop to the bleeding. We got out of the worst of the funds (Tower and BT), left some with ING, put $20k into local fixed interest and the balance of $70k into nine solid NZ listed companies. There have been no further transactions - a true Buy & Hold!

That $70k invested in Sept '03 now stands at $83,251. Meanwhile dividends and interest have built up in a cash management a/c to $6195. Therefore -
Capital growth + divs = $19,446 = 27.78% in 14 months.
All with no effort, no further brokerage and very little tax.

As a matter of interest here's how the individual stocks have performed - s p growth only, excludes dividends.
AIA +12.6%, CEN 15.16%, FBU 39.9%, KIP 6.7%, NMNPB 11.79%, POT 41.46%, SKC 4.25%, TEL 20.69%, WPT 20.18%.

A result that might have put me near the top of SEC's stock pick ladder, instead of where I am, in the cellar.