But Stacie volunteered for the job and spent the next two and a half years getting the firm's trading records in order-including tracking down records from defunct businesses and searching through microfiche files.
"I don't remember exactly how long it took, but it was a long, long time," she says. "It's something I did out of love." She also had no doubt it would help her father's business. "I think he's just built a system and it works," she says.
When she was done, the firm had itself a quarter-century compilation of Century Management's performance, audited by Ernst & Young according to AIMR standards, Van Den Berg says. The audit, he says, has played a crucial role in the firm's growth in recent years. Since 1988, the firm has seen its assets under management grow from $82 million to $850 million and its staff grow from about 10 to 28. "Many of the people who are recommended to us now are institutions, and they do not accept unaudited numbers from a small firm," Van Den Berg says.
Crediting his son Scott with doing the marketing that got the word out about the audited numbers, and son-in-law Jim for the underlying performance, Van Den Berg says the firm gradually attained the bulk needed to attract larger institutions. While the firm's clientele used to be comprised solely of individuals, it now includes tax deferred accounts such as 401k plans and pension plans, including the San Antonio police and fire department pension fund, for which the firm manages $30 million. "I don't think we could have been in the running for that without an audited statement," he says.
Among the changes at the firm to deal with the fast growth has been the creation of two departments-one for marketing and customer service, headed by Scott, and the research department, headed by Brilliant and also including analyst Aaron Buckholtz, a longtime employee. A separate financial planning department was created three years ago.
The firm charges a 1.25% asset management fee, and an initial financial planning fee ranging from $1,000 to $3,500. Van Den Berg, however, has no visions of creating a "family office" type practice. The firm's focus, he says, will remain asset management. That's why, he says, one of the new additions to the firm will soon be a private mutual fund-partly to serve as an investment vehicle for client referrals who are unable to meet the firm's $500,000 account size minimum.
"I have a real problem telling someone who has been a good client for 20 or 25 years that we can't take their friend or relative because they don't have enough money," he says.
Stacie left the firm in 1995 to raise children, but other family members continue to play a role in the business. Brilliant joined the firm 16 years ago as a college intern. A friend of Scott Van Den Berg's son, Brilliant went on to get a CFA certification and became the firm's vice president and head analyst.
Brilliant became a member of the "family" when he married Stacie several years after she joined the firm. "One of my own personal principles was to never date your best friend's sister or the boss's daughter, so it worked out terrifically," he says with a laugh.
Scott was hired 11 years ago after working in real estate for four years. Scott now heads the firm's financial planning division along with his father, who was also Scott's shot-put coach in high school. Eileen, his wife, left the firm to raise the children but has since returned to again serve as the elder Van Den Berg's administrative assistant. Their youngest child, Debbie, works as a midwife.