Our History
Many people ask us, “How did such an experienced and successful team end up in a small town in the South Carolina Lowcountry?” Here is how we did it.
Tom Cameron, our Chairman, was a pioneer of dividend growth investing in the early 1960s, successfully employing the philosophy in portfolio management for both individual investors and a mutual fund, Sovereign Investors Mutual Fund. Troy Shaver, an executive with John Hancock Funds in the early ‘90s and currently our President and CEO, was so impressed with Tom’s record managing the Fund that he arranged for John Hancock to acquire it. Under Tom and Troy’s guidance from 1991 to 1995, the assets in the Fund grew 30-fold as dividend growth investing gained more and more support.
In 1992, Jere Estes joined the Fund as a portfolio manager, having successfully managed portfolios at the Bryn Mawr Trust Company. Jere has become our Chief Investment Officer. Tom, Troy and Jere’s association during this time proved pivotal, and further solidified their belief in the Dividend Growth Philosophy in all kinds of markets.
Eleven years later, in the fall of 2003, Tom, Troy, and Jere, having since moved on to other successful ventures, would sit down together with Jane Cogswell, a long-time associate of Tom’s, in the historic Lowcountry of South Carolina, where Tom and Troy now lived. Their discussions revolved around the formation of a firm that would reflect the philosophy, values and client-centric culture they had come to admire over the years. The dividend investing strategy, developed in the 1960s, was further refined, becoming our Dividend Growth Philosophy. It was accompanied by a continuing, deep commitment to the financial needs of our clients, the core disciplines for Dividend Growth Advisors, LLC and The Rising Dividend Growth Fund (ICRDX).
William B. Allin, Einar S. Trosdal, III, and Edward J. Obuchowski have joined existing founding partners Thomas W. L. Cameron, C. Troy Shaver, Jr., and Jere E. Estes. Jane T. Cogswell retired as of February 1, 2010.
