Mutual funds offer a variety of investment opportunities and benefits. A mutual fund is professionally managed and pools money from many investors who share common investment objectives. It may also offer diversification because a mutual fund typically invests in a wide range of securities. People who buy shares of a mutual fund are its owners/shareholders. Their investments provide the money for a mutual fund to buy securities such as stocks and bonds.

A mutual fund can make money from its securities in two ways: a security can pay dividends or interest to the fund, or a security can rise in value. A fund can also lose money and drop in value.

Mutual funds make saving and investing simple and accessible. The advantages include: Professional Management; Diversification; Liquidity; Affordability & Convenience; Ease of Recordkeeping; Strict Government Regulation & Full Disclosure.

A commission-free mutual fund that sells its shares at Net Asset Value (NAV), either directly to the public or through an affiliated distributor, without the addition of a sales charge. Both the FAM Value Fund and FAM Equity-Income Fund are no-load.

The price of mutual funds shares must be calculated every business day that the New York Stock Exchange is open. The share price, referred to as the Net Asset Value (NAV), is the market value of all a fund’s securities, plus receivables, minus liabilities, divided by the total number of shares outstanding (shares owned). The NAV changes as the value of a fund’s portfolio holdings rise or fall. FAM Funds' NAVs can be found on the upper right side of the home page.
FAM Value Fund's investment objective is to maximize long-term total return on capital. The Fund seeks both appreciation and, to a lesser degree, dividend income, which constitute the two principle components of a common stock’s investment return. This may be appropriate for a long-term shareholder whose focus is capital appreciation. A distribution is paid annually which may be automatically reinvested should you choose. It is an open-end,
no-load mutual fund.

FAM Equity-Income Fund's investment objective is to provide current income as well as long-term capital appreciation. Every company in which we invest must pay a dividend. This Fund distributes its income on a quarterly basis and may be appropriate for a shareholder primarily seeking income in addition to capital appreciation. It is an open-end, no-load mutual fund.
There are a variety of accounts you can open within our mutual funds, including:

Regular Investment Accounts - Individual Investment Account/Joint Investment Account/Trust Account/Corporate Account

Retirement Accounts - Traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA)/Roth IRA/SIMPLE (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees) IRA/SEP (Simplified Employee Pension) Account/403(b)(7) Account/Individual(k) Account — We offer no-fee retirement accounts. More information

Education Accounts - Coverdell Education Savings Account (ESA)/Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA) Account & Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) Account. More information 

We offer no-fee retirement accounts.

You can ask questions of our in-house customer service team via phone or e-mail and order an investment kit. Alternatively, you can request an investment kit online - just click on the “Request Investment Kit” link on the right side of this page.

You can invest in the FAM Value Fund for as little as $100 for certain accounts and the FAM Equity-Income Fund beginning at $500. For more details, click on either Fund within this section of the website.

Yes. eDelivery is a fast, simple and paperless alternative way for you to receive your account statements and various shareholder communications including tax forms. It's convenient and easy for shareholders to enroll.

Dollar-cost averaging is a strategy that involves investing a fixed dollar amount into your mutual fund at regular intervals. Since you always invest the same amount, you will purchase more shares when the price is low and fewer shares when the price is high. Our FAMvest service is an automatic monthly investment program that shareholders use for dollar-cost-averaging.

Value Investing is an investment system that comes from concepts that Ben Graham & David Dodd taught at Columbia Business School beginning in 1928. Later they refined their teachings and published them in their 1934 book Security Analysis. In general, value investing involves some form of fundamental analysis and buying securities at apparent bargain prices. This discount of the market price to the economic value (also intrinsic value or true business worth) is what Benjamin Graham called the "margin of safety."

Fenimore looks at a stock purchase as if we were going to buy the entire company. We believe that following a consistent process is vital before buying stock shares. When we look for outstanding companies, they must fit all four of these criteria:

1. Good businesses that we understand, have a competitive advantage and possess high profit margins.
2. Companies that have little or no debt and significant free cash flow, and deploy capital wisely.
3. Enterprises with superior management teams; leaders who are honest, ethical, energetic and have a strong track record of increasing the economic value of their organizations.
4. Businesses we can buy at a discount to our estimate of economic value – this is our margin of safety.