Broker-dealer Richard Behnke, who was the epitome of the patient investor, always believed time was on his side if he picked the right stock. Behnke proved value
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of a long-term strategyBy Dave Segal
dsegal@starbulletin.comWhat he wasn't counting on was his body giving out early.
Behnke, the owner of Abel-Behnke Corp. Securities and one of seven participants in the Star-Bulletin's 2002 survey of best investment ideas, died of a heart attack May 28 at his Honolulu office. He was 62.
Business partner Wade Richardson, who at one time was licensed with Behnke, said his former associate was a disciplined value investor.
"He would take positions in a company and he would wait," Richardson said Thursday. "One of the significant ones he recommended was Security National Financial Corp. It stayed at $2.50 to $3 for about six years and today it closed at $6.44 ($6.80 on Friday).
"This is the type of investment that Richard would dig out. Sometimes an investor will look at the short horizon. Richard would look long term. If he thought the value was there, he would hold the stock and, in the end, he was usually right. Most of the clients who have been with him had been with him many, many years. They completely trusted his research and his recommendations. Very few stocks that he recommended would not do well."
Behnke's top performer in the Star-Bulletin survey was Security National Financial, a life insurer, death care provider and mortgage company that posted the best total return (169.4 percent) of any of the stocks or funds picked by the seven-member panel of experts. That pick helped him record a six-month average total return of 29.9 percent that beat out the other survey participants.
Among his other picks, World Wide Ltd., a Cayman Island-based real estate investment trust, was up 13.6 percent and life insurer Southern Security Life Insurance Co. was ahead 5.3 percent. Showing losses were biometrics company Drexler Technology Corp. (down 9.1 percent) and his one speculative pick, computer memory maker Simtek Corp., off 38.1 percent.
Behnke, who used to be partnered with Stanley Taylor in Behnke-Taylor Corp., changed the name of the company to Abel-Behnke Corp. Securities in 1973 after Taylor died.
There never was any such person named Abel, however. Behnke chose the name, according to his wife, Gayle, so that he could be listed first alphabetically in the phone book among brokerages.
The approximate 400 clients that Behnke served are due to get notices telling them that their accounts will be transferred to fiduciary Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles.
Behnke, who graduated from Centre College of Kentucky in 1961, served in the Navy from 1962 to 1964 and in 1965 worked as a narcotics agent in New York under the U.S. Treasury Department. He received an MBA from University of Hawaii in December 1969.
He is survived by his wife, Gayle, with whom he had been married 31 years, and one son, Christopher.
Services already have been held.