Asset Management

One can say that the investment and wealth management landscape has definitely changed. Principal protection maybe a greater concern today in light of the volatility of today's equity markets with the recent financial crisis not too distant from the current day. More and more, investors are seeking gain as well as wealth preservation. We live in a world ripe with investment opportunities, offering a myriad of investment avenues to pursue. While each may promise the potential for reward, a singular and narrowly defined investment approach may be limiting. Selecting the right combination of these opportunities is the challenge.

Achieving financial success is a complex and confusing process to even the most experienced investor — one that requires a significant amount of time, knowledge, and resources. Many affluent investors demand a different investment approach, one that elevates their portfolio beyond one-dimensional product strategies and leverages the expertise of highly skilled professional investment managers.

Our firm offers just this kind of approach. Our services are designed to address your wealth needs with a professional level of personalized service and expertise. Our investment professionals are experienced in understanding the unique needs of affluent investors and in formulating prudent investment strategies to help them pursue financial success.

What distinguishes our firm is its personal emphasis. It is built around you — your multiple goals, your time frame, and your tolerance for risk. As your needs change, our ongoing management process ensures that your investment portfolio evolves with you. This is not a get-rich-quick strategy or a "hot-tip" investment product. Instead, we employ a disciplined process that sophisticated institutional investors have followed for decades in managing their investments.

We follow a well-defined process to increase the probability that you will meet your financial objectives. We do not want our clients to manage their wealth based on various and random patterns of thought. We believe if the planning is not set with a clear premise, on a documented process and identifies what you are attempting to accomplish, you will likey not feel confident in your investment decisions and stay consistent in managing your implementation to align with your life-wealth goals.

We designed this program to replicate at each level the intricate and highly disciplined approach that many institutional money managers use in the management of large pools of pension assets, even at the smaller account level.

Your portfolio strategy begins with a personalized investment analysis, then graduates through the portfolio construction process, in which multiple asset classes, multiple style allocations and multiple specialist money managers are combined to address your investment objectives.

Here is our general five-step asset management process that is designed to respond to your individual desires and needs while also responding to the dynamics of capital / investment markets and today’s world.

1. Through personal consultations with you, we develop a personal profile of your individual investment needs and objectives, time horizon, and attitude toward investing. We will also educate you on the aspects of comprehensive, goals based planning and help you avoid the single strategy approach which in our opinion does not adequately support different life-wealth goals and complexities that many high net-worth families have.
2. We develop a personalized asset allocation strategy for a) funding your specific goals that we have identified, and b) helping you keep centered on what you are endeavoring to accomplish in the short and long term. An investment allocation strategy seeks to maximize your investment returns relative to your risk tolerance through the carefully diversified allocation of your investments.
3. Your asset allocation strategy is implemented by investing in a well-diversified portfolio and is managed by professional institutional money management firms. (Diversification does not assure or guarantee better performance and can not eliminate the risk of investment losses.)
4. Your investment portfolio(s) is carefully monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure that it remains consistent with your agreed-upon asset allocation strategy. If the relative value of investments in your portfolio changes enough to become inconsistent with this strategy, it is rebalanced.
5. We will communicate with you on a regular basis and provide a comprehensive reporting package including account level performance reports and statements providing details of your account — including total asset value and a record of all transactions that occurred during the reporting period. We will give special attention to how you are progressing toward each of your specific planning objectives and make adjustments where necessary to help keep you positioned in the direction of your goals.

Every investor is an individual, with different needs and different objectives. Whatever your capital objectives are — wealth preservation, asset growth, current income, or minimizing taxes — it is critical to discuss them in detail with a knowledgeable investment professional before you begin investing. We will help you determine whether you need investments that seek to produce income, growth, or a combination of both. Your investment objectives will also help define your investment time horizon and risk profile.

It is also important to understand your attitude towards investing. That is, how much risk — or variability of potential return — are you comfortable with? A critical way to understand your risk profile is to determine your investment time horizon.

The amount of time you have until you need to access your investment seriously affects your portfolio strategy. An investor with a longer time horizon can afford to assume greater short-term risk in exchange for potentially greater long-term returns. Stocks historically have experienced greater short-term volatility, but over the longer term, they have outperformed other fixed income investments. If you have a longer time horizon, you may want to take advantage of the opportunities provided by investing in stocks (equities) as well as alternative investments.

Research has shown that the asset allocation decision — how your investments are diversified among multiple asset classes such as alternative investments, equity (stocks), fixed income (bonds), and cash — has by far the most significant impact on overall performance. Market timing or stock selection, in comparison, can have some effect on the outcome of portfolio returns, but it is not the driver to a cohesive and well thought through asset management program. We believe determining the right asset allocation strategy for you is a critical component to your investment success.

We develop diversified portfolios with risk/return profiles varying from very conservative to very aggressive. Based on your personal investment objectives, time horizon, and risk profile, we will design an asset allocation policy that addresses your specific needs and appropriately aligned (implementation) with your life-wealth goals.

Stock or equity investing involves risk including loss of principal. Alternatives investments may not be suitable for all investors and should be considered as an investment for the risk capital portion of the investor portfolio. The strategies employed in the management of alternatives investments may accelerate the velocity of potential losses. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.

Once your asset allocation policy has been developed, we diversify your investment portfolio across multiple asset classes, within multiple investment styles and by using a multiple money manager approach. We utilize highly reputable institutional money managers. These managers are carefully selected and continually monitored for style specific performance.

We custody assets at LPL Financial or SEI Private Trust Company (also an independent firm), depending on our recommended implementation according to your advisory needs and desires.

Rebalancing is a disciplined method of ensuring the proper allocation to each asset class in your portfolio.

To manage risk, we incorporate a formal rebalancing program. Through state-of-the-art technology, rebalancing maintains the asset class exposure within the specifically defined boundaries of your asset allocation strategy. Without a rebalancing feature, the mix of assets in your portfolio may become inconsistent with your asset allocation strategy. This can occur over time as different asset classes increase or decrease in value with shifting market conditions, and can lead to unplanned over- or underexposure to certain asset classes. Rebalancing ensures that your portfolio is being managed in a manner consistent with your designated asset allocation strategy and may involve tax consequences.

Diligent account monitoring is an integral part of our investment services. Tracking your results allows you to measure the progress against your stated objectives and provides us the opportunity to discuss the management of your portfolio and any changes in your financial situation. We provide you with everything you need to fully understand the progress being made toward your objectives.

^{*Asset management services offered through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor.}