Our Approach to Managing Your Portfolio
What we believe about investing will help you achieve your financial goals.
Successful investing fuels your ongoing progress to financial security. It is not a sport. Because of this, our approach to portfolio management ignores the narrow approach of attempting to beat the performance of the index that happens to be "hot" at the moment. Neither does it attempt to time the movements of the financial markets. Instead, we apply a time-tested, disciplined process to design an investment strategy uniquely tailored to give you the greatest likelihood of achieving your lifetime financial goals.
How we determine your investment objectives?
We use the planning process to determine your present and future financial needs and then calculate the rate of return you will need to achieve these goals. This is your 'target' rate of return. We believe that you should know the specific amount of risk that necessary to achieve this target return. With this information, you will be in the best position to determine the trade-off between short-term volatility and long-term return that best suits your temperment.
How do we design your investment portfolio?
Once we have established your portfolio's target return, we determine the combination of investment categories (asset classes) that is most likely to attain this return while subjecting you to the smallest amount of volatility in the short run. This combination is influenced by economic conditions, your personal income tax situation and our analysis of the specific areas of the financial markets that appear particularly attractive - either because of the opportunities they present or their undervalued price levels.
How do we determine the amount of risk that is in your portfolio?
While your portfolio is subject to several types of risk, it is the day-to-day short-term volatility of the financial markets that most concerns investors. A portfolio's overall volatility is caused by two factors:
- the fluctuations of each individual holding, and
- the way in which the individual holdings behave in relation to the other holdings in the portfolio.
We know that different economic events can cause certain assets to appreciate while the value of other assets goes down. Applying this to your portfolio can actually reduce a its overall volatility. This knowledge helps us minimize the short-term volatility that we must accept needed to achieve your specific target rate of return.
How do we select the specific investments for your portfolio?
Each individual holding plays a specific role in the overall portfolio. We use a disciplined approach to evaluate, select and monitor each investment. Though we can utilize individual stocks for your equity holdings, we prefer equity mutual funds because that is where the best stock pickers with the most appealing track records can be found. Specifically, we consider manager tenure, consistent application of a well-articulated investment philosophy, short and longer term returns relative to benchmarks and peer group, volatility relative to benchmarks, income tax efficiency and operating costs.
How do we manage your portfolio with discipline and an eye to the future?
Our advisory team brings over 20 years of expertise and experience to the task of managing your unique investment portfolio. We regularly monitor the financial markets and stay current with our regular research contributors. On a quarterly basis, we evaluate both your portfolio's overall allocation as well as its specific holdings to determine if any changes should be made. These changes are influenced both by what has occurred in the past as well as by the emergence of trends that are likely to impact the future. We then communicate the changes we have made - and the thinking behind them - to you in the format of your choice.
How do we report your portfolio's performance to you?
After each calendar quarter (March 31st, June 30th, September 30th and December 31st), we send you a Portfolio Performance Report consisting of the following:
- Our Investment Update detailing the past quarter’s economic and investment climate as well as our outlook for the future
- A report of your portfolio’s performance for the past quarter, the past 12 months as well as its longer-term performance
- A detailed analysis (including graphics) of your current asset allocation and specific portfolio holdings
- A report showing how your advisory fee was calculated
How can I obtain a current snapshot of my portfolio and its holdings?
You can always view your portfolio, including holdings, transactions and performance, in the secure area of our website:
View My Portfolio