Let’s face it, your opinion of Aflac, Inc. (NYSE:AFL) is not much different than everyone else, including Wall Street analysts. It is a boring, old insurance company, especially when compared to attention-grabbing stocks like Amazon, Google, Tesla, and the like. You probably know them best for their duck mascot, not for their financial results. So, you would be in good company if you didn’t think much of their stock. The sixty three-year old Atlanta-based insurer was no one’s pick to be a top performing stock in June 2015. But I saw something in this company that transformed a boring idea into great returns and a powerful new investment approach for my investors.
After experiencing ho-hum investment results for years, I grew frustrated and convinced that something had to change. Throughout my twenty-five year investing career, I worked hard to try and find the best investments, strategies, and managers on behalf of my investors. Leaving no stone unturned, I literally travelled the world in search of investment opportunity. Despite the time and effort, I was unsatisfied with the results. Average returns are what the average person should expect, but when I combined my training with my relentless pursuit for ideas, I expected to perform better than average—much better.
And there were other problems too, when the market went through its inevitable declines, I found myself falling back on the standard industry line: just wait and the market will come back eventually. After experiencing two fifty percent plus declines in short succession (2000-2002 and 2007-2009), I decided enough was enough. There had to be a better way.
I am an avid learner, consuming multiple books a month, reading various blogs and online financial sites, and attending countless conferences and strategy sessions. So, when I decided there had to be a better way, I began where I always have—I reached for a book. In this case, I grabbed the classic investing book, The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham.
What I discovered in that book amazed me. It was as if a veil had been lifted, and I was able to see the $100 Million portfolio I managed with a fresh set of eyes. The insight I gained led to an intensive period of research and introspection that went on for months. The initial result of this process was a single investment idea that would change everything for me and my investors—and that idea was Aflac. I was so convinced the investment would pan out that I sunk a record amount of my investors’ money into the company on a single day. Since that fateful day, Aflac has generated a 80%+ return which is more than double the return of the broad market since then. More importantly, this one company marked a seminal change in my investing approach.