Capturing Market Returns
Market forces are so competitive that in most asset classes, the markets do a better job
of valuing companies than do professional money managers. Thus, our clients invest
alongside sophisticated institutional investors in "asset-class" or "passive" funds
designed to capture market returns. By contrast, we generally avoid professional money
managers who attempt to outguess the markets through timing or security-selection strategies.
Global Diversification
We typically diversify a portfolio across a variety of domestic and international markets:
Fixed Income
- Municipal bonds
- U.S. government bonds
- Foreign bonds
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International Equities
- Foreign large companies
- Foreign small companies
- Emerging market companies
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U.S. Equities
- U.S. large companies
- U.S. small companies
- U.S. micro companies
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Alternative Investments
- Real estate
- Commodities
- Merger arbitrage
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In diversifying your portfolio, we frequently accommodate individual needs and preferences, including:
- A desire to incorporate "sustainable" or socially responsible investments
- Diversification around concentrated positions that you need or desire to hold
- Custom cash-management plans to withdraw money for current spending needs
Defined Investment Policy
Developing an Investment Policy Statement is the first step in managing your portfolio.
The IPS is a written document that provides guidance for managing your investments based
on your decisions and directives. By specifying the purpose of your portfolio, permissible
and impermissible investments, and expectations for performance, we establish a
well-conceived, long-term investment discipline, rather than one based on ad hoc
reactions to short-term market fluctuations.
Tax Management
Many of our clients have much of their wealth in brokerage accounts subject to taxes.
To help minimize your tax burden, we use a variety of strategies such as harvesting tax
losses to offset future gains and retaining investment managers who will work to minimize
taxable transactions.
Lower Investment Costs
Many institutional investors have a far more successful investment experience
than most individuals for one simple reason: their investment costs are lower.
We are fortunate to have access to some of the same low-cost investment managers
that institutions use. In addition, the funds and managers we use have much
lower-than-average transaction costs.
Portfolio Monitoring
We use sophisticated portfolio-accounting software to track performance,
monitor transactions, and take advantage of opportunities to add incremental
returns through rebalancing and other management techniques. We also provide
you periodic reports, in addition to your monthly brokerage statements, to
ensure you understand your investment strategy and its performance.
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