Our Philosophy
Today’s economic environment presents many challenges. But along with these challenges comes opportunities and potential rewards for those who can identify long-term trends. Whether you’re facing retirement—or looking to better understand certain investment ideas—we can help you address your most pressing money questions.
Our priority is your overall financial success. We want to learn more about your personal situation, identify your dreams and goals, and understand your tolerance for risk. Long-term relationships that encourage open and honest communication have been the cornerstone of our foundation of success.
We address the the following nine core subjects with every client and ensure that they remain at the foundation of our relationships.
Time Horizon
We consider time horizon "The Patience Factor" (How patient can you be in a market of turmoil?). Our client accounts typically have multi-stage time horizons, reflecting both short-term & long-term liabilities.
We take these into account when investing in order to properly fund all future liquidity events.
Passive vs. Active
Our investment philosophy favors an active approach.
We blend a client's risk tolerance, income needs, and long-term goals with a commitment to continually monitor markets and explore opportunities in all economic conditions.
Volatility
Volatility can be explained as "the quality of the ride." Various investment disciplines have different ranges of volatility. Blended appropriately, dissimilar investment classes with different levels of volatility can actually improve risk adjusted returns.
We utilize multiple investment classes with a range of correlated and non-correlated assets to help reduce volatility.
Style
Investment style is measure by a manager's discipline and his ability to maintain it during all economic cycles. Our ability to maintain confidence & commitment during the inevitable time a style is out of favor is highlighted by our philosophy to consistently re-allocate (over-weight and under-weight, but never eliminating) asset classes.
Our aim is to avoid portfolio managers with "Style Drift." This improves the likelihood of maintaining portfolio diversification.
Investment Vehicles
Our independence allows us to use many different managers and products in creating customized investment solutions.
We utilize a transparent model which favors holding individual equities & bonds while incorporating mutual funds & separately managed (out-sourced) accounts to help diversify holdings.
Cost
We believe costs should justify the value we add to a relationship. Our system incorporates a combination of fee-based and non-fee-based to help effectively manage costs.
Actively managed (buy & hold) accounts typically incorporate a per-transaction charge.
Risk
Risk is often measure in relative terms. An account can have less risk if it goes down less than the market. In this case, beating the market is a hollow victory - the portfolio is still negative. No one can spend negative returns. We choose to define risk in absolute terms. If your top concern is retirement income, calculating risk is not much more than determining how much income reduction can you tolerate in a declining market.
While risk is inherent in everyday life and there is a certain amount of risk in all investments, we educate clients so they understand the risk-return trade-offs we make on their behalf.
Inflation
Beware. Underestimating the effects of inflation can potentially destroy an otherwise sound investment plan.
When constructing our client portfolios, we strive to strike a balance between future growth and current income needs.
Taxes
The ideal after-tax strategy begins with the most significant and consistent pre-tax results. Every return will be taxed some way, some how.
Our commitment to help minimize taxes explores each client's tax exposure to ordinary income, schedule A & C itemized deductions and the impact of AMT, capital gains, passive & active business income, and interest income to create an optimum tax plan.