Investment Management

We use sophisticated portfolio management techniques to tie your investments together in an optimal way. This helps us build diversified portfolios that strike the right balance between risk and potential reward for you. This approach makes sense because studies show that the mix of assets is the most important determinant of a portfolio's long-term returns. In contrast, many investors build portfolios by adding one interesting investment at a time. As a result, their portfolios evolve in an unplanned fashion. This approach often results in unintended concentrations that increase risk and lead to inconsistent returns.

We have designed our investment process to be highly disciplined and believe this gives our clients an edge. History shows that a lack of discipline is what gets investors into the most trouble. Emotions related to fear and greed can lead to counterproductive decisions that detract from long-term returns. Our investment framework helps us avoid unnecessary risk and capitalize on opportunities that arise when other investors act irrationally. Most importantly, it helps our clients stay on track so they will reach their long-term goals.

We rely on substantive data and insight from sources we trust and believe this improves our investment decisions. Every day the media barrages investors with a sea of information about various investments. Unfortunately, the quality of this information can be low, and this can lead to poor investment decisions. We are careful about the information we consume. We start by using technology to sort through the choices and find potential investments with desirable characteristics. Then we dig deeper and analyze each potential investment to find those that offer the best combination of potential returns and risk. Our analysis often involves reviewing financial statements, taking part in conference calls with management or using institutional quality databases to review historical trends.

We strive to keep portfolio costs low so more of your investment returns will flow to you. There are several ways we do this. We buy low-cost exchange traded funds and institutional class mutual funds that have lower expense ratios that investors would not be able to access on their own. Taxes are another important cost that weigh on long-term returns. We reduce their impact by offsetting gains with losses throughout the year. Whenever possible, we make investments that have tax advantages. For example, we invest in exchange traded funds that rarely pay capital gains distributions. For clients in high tax brackets, we invest in municipal bonds that are exempt from Federal taxes.