Origins in December 1945
The fund’s own registration statement locates its beginning in the last days of 1945 and does so in three places, each with a slightly different date. The exhibit index lists Articles of Incorporation dated December 21, 1945. A footnote to the performance table states that the fund “was launched on December 23, 1945”. The statement of additional information records that the fund “was organized as a Maryland corporation on December 26, 1945” with authorized capital of 5,000,000 shares. The successor fund’s current website gives a fourth date, December 24, 1945.
Interpretation. The three contemporaneous dates most plausibly mark distinct corporate events: the signing of the charter, the first offering or commencement of operations, and the state’s acceptance of the filing. The archive presents each date with its type and treats the precise sequence as an open question pending the original Maryland records.
Articles of Amendment followed on March 19, 1946 and September 29, 1969. The fund registered under the Securities Act of 1933 (File No. 2-10822) and the Investment Company Act of 1940 (File No. 811-00515), the latter number remaining its regulatory identity through the deregistration notice of 2017.
Objective and method
The 2005 prospectus stated a primary objective of growth of capital, pursued “principally in a diversified portfolio of common stocks considered by Wall Street Management Corporation ... to offer prospects of sustained growth in value,” with current income as a secondary objective. The fund described its method as resting on three fundamental practices: careful selection of securities, broad diversification among industries and companies, and continuous scrutiny of investments. Investments were generally made in companies at least three years in business, across small, medium and large capitalizations, with the adviser rarely committing more than 3% of net asset value at cost to any one security.
Management
Wall Street Management Corporation, a Massachusetts corporation organized September 15, 1954, served as both investment adviser and principal underwriter and, according to the filing, had advised the fund since WSMC’s own organization. The identity of the fund’s adviser in its first nine years remains an open question in the supplied record. From 1984 the day-to-day manager was Robert P. Morse, who served as Chairman, President and Director of the fund, President and sole Director of WSMC, and co-founder of the affiliated investment counsel Morse, Williams & Co., Inc.
The 2005 board comprised two independent directors of long tenure — Clifton H.W. Maloney (since 1985) and Harlan K. Ullman (since 1984) — alongside Mr. Morse as interested director. Officers included James L. Farrell, Jr., Laurence R. Golding, Michael R. Linburn and Jian H. Wang, each also holding positions at Morse, Williams & Co. Evercore Wealth Management, LLC succeeded as adviser on May 1, 2010.
Fees and economics
The advisory fee was 0.50% of average daily net assets, paid monthly. The adviser committed to a tiered expense cap — 2.00% of the first $10 million of average daily net assets, 1.50% of the next $20 million, and 1.00% of the balance. For 2004 the fund reported total operating expenses of 1.92% before a 0.07% waiver and 1.85% net; “other expenses” of 1.42% included a 0.25% shareholder servicing fee; the fee table listed 12b-1 fees and shareholder sales fees at zero. Read against the year-end net assets in the table below, these ratios describe a small fund whose fixed costs weighed heavily on shareholders — a structural theme explored in the essays.
The audited record, 1996–2004
The financial highlights in the 2005 prospectus, audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, give a nine-year window into the fund’s results and scale. Figures are per-share total returns after fees with reinvested distributions, and belong to the historical fund under its adviser of the period. The prospectus separately reported a best quarter of 40.83% in the fourth quarter of 1999 and a worst quarter of −27.77% in the third quarter of 2001.