After more than five years, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors is re-evaluating the investment firms that handle the county’s hospital trust fund.
In October 2013, supervisors voted to evenly split the $30 million fund between Stephens Capital Management, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Renasant Wealth Management, of Tupelo.
During the regular board meeting on Monday, supervisors voted to create a committee to review proposals from various investment firms. President Harry Sanders nominated District 2 Supervisor Bill Brigham, a retired banker, to serve on the committee with County Administrator Ralph Billingsley and Chief Financial Officer Lloyd Price. District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks volunteered to serve on the committee as well. The board unanimously agreed on the committee’s appointments.
Brigham told The Dispatch after the meeting the committee will identify viable options to present to supervisors.
“We’re looking for someone who has been in the business for a while and has a good reputation,” Brigham said. “They charge you for their services, so we are also looking for those who have less charges. We like for local people to have a shot at it too. … We’ve been very happy with our services. They’ve been doing it for about five years. We just think it’s time to let the others bid on it and see if the bids are better.”
Billingsley said the rates vary based on the amount of funds in each account — the larger the sum, the less percentage each firm charges. On average, he said Stephens charges $60,000 and Renasant charges $80,000 annually.
Brigham added the board may decide to continue with its current firms, and said the county will probably still split the money between two companies.
“We think it’s just better to not have everything in one basket,” he said. “(The firms) do the same thing basically but they make different choices. That’s the reason we split it up the first time rather than giving one agency $30 million. I think we’ll still live by that philosophy, having more than one group look at it.”
Price said both firms have performed well, increasing the county’s funds. At the end of June, Renasant had $17.4 million and Stevens had $17.2 million. Billingsley added the combined accounts’ total as of Friday is approximately $34.8 million.
“We’ll go through and summarize the expenses they put in their proposals,” Price said. “We will ask them to come in front of the board and do a presentation. Based on their presentations, the supervisors will select the ones they consider the best for the county.”
Sanders said the competition from other firms may reduce rates from the county’s current firms.
“We think it’s time now to re-evaluate and hopefully they’ll lower their fees,” Sanders said. “It’s always good to have competition. We don’t want them getting set in their ways.”
Billingsley added that since 2013 the county has withdrawn a total of $3.9 million.
“Because we pull money out when we can, it doesn’t just grow and grow and grow,” Billingsley said. “It does grow some. … Both of these have done real well. (Friday) was about a $120,000 difference. About six months ago, maybe it was about $700. It’s insane after five and a half years, it would be only $700 difference between the two.”
Firms will send proposals to Billingsley’s office until Aug. 5. After the proposals are all submitted, the committee will meet to dwindle the pool down to viable firms for the board of supervisors.
“We’ll talk about how they’ve done investment-wise, their rate schedule and expertise,” Billingsley said. “… The committee will actually weed out the ones we don’t think are good. The board will choose the final one, two or three. We could consolidate with one, leave the existing two. We could have one of the existing two and a new person or add another third one. We just don’t know.”
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