FPA Crescent Fund
Figures last verified October 31, 2026
Go-anywhere value investing — stocks, bonds, cash, special situations — with capital preservation as the stated first goal.
Crescent is the rare fund whose manager brags about what he didn't buy. Steve Romick's mandate is absolute-return value: own equities when they're cheap, credit when it's dislocated, and cash — sometimes lots of it — when nothing clears the bar. The result over three decades is equity-like returns with shallower drawdowns, the promise kept in 2008 better than almost any stock-heavy peer.
The costs are equally explicit: a 1.05% fee, long bull-market stretches of trailing fully invested benchmarks while cash drags, and a strategy that lives or dies on one team's judgment. Crescent is best understood not as a VBIAX alternative but as paying for an investing philosophy — patience as a position — that indexes structurally cannot hold. Whether that's worth 1% a year is a question about you, not just the fund.
Investors who want a manager empowered to hold cash and wait.
FPACX alternatives & comparable funds
If you’re weighing FPACX against the field, these are the funds most investors line it up against — same job, different provider, slightly different terms.
| Fund | Family | Expense Ratio | Minimum |
|---|---|---|---|
| FPACX — FPA Crescent Fund | FPA | 1.05% | $1,500 |
| VWELX — Vanguard Wellington Fund I… | Vanguard | 0.24% | $3,000 |
| PRWCX — T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Fund | T. Rowe Price | 0.71% | $2,500 |
| VBIAX — Vanguard Balanced Index Fu… | Vanguard | 0.07% | $3,000 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the expense ratio of FPACX?
FPACX (FPA Crescent Fund) has an expense ratio of 1.05%, which works out to roughly $105 per year for every $10,000 invested. That is high relative to index alternatives, and it compounds against you every year, so the fund needs to outperform just to break even versus a cheaper option.
What is the minimum investment for FPACX?
FPACX requires a minimum initial investment of $1,500.
What does FPACX invest in?
Go-anywhere value investing — stocks, bonds, cash, special situations — with capital preservation as the stated first goal. It falls in the balanced / allocation category and is an actively managed fund.
What are good alternatives to FPACX?
The funds most often compared with FPACX are VWELX, PRWCX, VBIAX — broadly similar exposure from different providers, with small differences in fee, minimum, and portability that usually come down to which brokerage holds your account.
Expense ratio and minimum for FPACX drawn from FPA fund documentation; last verified October 31, 2026. Figures change — confirm against the official prospectus before investing. This review is editorial opinion, not investment advice.