Investment Account Management
We try to focus on objectives that are goal based vs. performance based.
As an independent fee-based advisor, we manage investment accounts for individuals and trusts.Why are we an independent firm? If we were employed by a large sales organization (brokerage firm, bank, or insurance company) we may be expected to:
- Sell their product
- Work on commission
- Be encouraged to push higher commission products
- Be forced to meet monthly quotas
- Spend most of our time soliciting
We prefer to:
- Work for our client
- Be compensated with a fee so we have no financial incentive to “push” certain investments
- Take responsibility for the account management
- Do our own research and manage investments best suited for each client
How We Make Our Investment Decisions
Who Should Consider Being a Client?
Our Investment Philosophy
Our passion and our structure are devoted to our clients’ financial success.
It is the accumulation of returns that funds financial goals. Benchmarking to some index seems scientific and rational but totally misses the point that investment accounts need to be managed to meet a client’s specific goals and future financial needs.
We attempt to use long-term financial strategies so that, no matter what happens to the economy or what happens in the world political arena, we can help our clients achieve their financial goals. We do this by focusing on what we can control and not spending time on things we can’t control.
The key to wealth is to concentrate more on managing risk and less on trying to score big. Investors need to focus on maximizing the expected returns of their portfolios, but in the realm of managed risk.
Things we can control include:
- income,
- diversification,
- holding periods and
- size of individual positions.
Things we can’t control include:
- world events,
- the stock market and
- interest rates
We believe it is impossible to accurately predict the future, however, to blindly use past performance for future assumptions is folly. Good investment management is about applying common sense with some fundamental forward-looking analyses to make prudent judgments for the purpose of accumulating, growing and protecting wealth.
Risk is generally assumed to be market loss, but, in the long term, the real risk is not achieving your financial goals.
We believe:
- Short term trading is full of risks and we generally avoid it; however, the world of investing is moving at a rapid pace and we recognize that.
- To create wealth over the long term, you must manage risk.
- We believe most individuals have a very low tolerance for market declines.
- There are times to be aggressive in investment choices and times not to be.
- We invest by looking forward and not backwards.
- There is a big difference between being diversified and being disorganized…a patchwork of ideas rather than a few strategic themes.
- Strategy and technique more than any other factor is the biggest determinant of future success.
We strive to use our truly independent research sources to create solid, diversified investment accounts for our clients who do not waiver based on the emotions of the day. Some feel it is difficult to go against popular sentiment, but we feel it can be accomplished quite successfully with disciplined planning.
How We Make Our Investment Decisions
The “game” is not to beat the market, but to help clients identify and achieve their financial goals.
The Focus… client goals
The Strategy… creating the investment plan
The Action… implementing the plan
On-going Evaluation… the follow-through
Our investment process is centered on each client’s specific goals. Some real objectives we consider include: the client’s mindset, past investment experiences, emotional holdings, withdrawal patterns, income taxes, and today’s news. Each investment plan is created by blending these ingredients to achieve desired results to provide for real diversification, real income, and real opportunities to increase wealth (such as undervalued assets, unpopular industries, and contrarian thinking).
We use specialized independent research to make our investment decisions. We do not use consumer media information (magazines, television shows or radio programs) or research provided by large sales organizations to make our investment decisions. We believe it is necessary to keep an investment account current and in-tune with the markets and economic conditions, but fixed required changes are not the answer. Our on-going evaluations are accomplished through office investment meetings and scheduled account reviews.
Who should consider being a client?
Those who…
- Wish to preserve already created wealth
- Wish to generate income
- Wish to grow their assets
- Are already in the advanced stage of wealth accumulation
We understand that most people who have created a reasonable amount of wealth do not have the time, emotional energy, knowledge and discipline to build a financial plan in which risk tolerance, risk control, asset allocation, current income, tax efficiency, asset monitoring and balanced diversification are effectively interwoven. These people are looking for a holistic approach to a secure financial future. These people are potentially our clients. We understand others have the time and skills or just want to do it themselves.
Minimum Account Balances
There is not a specific hard minimum requirement, but individuals who do not have enough assets/income/wealth to implement prudent financial decisions would not be suitable clients. Those in the very beginning of their wealth creation process probably need the encouragement and enthusiasm of a commissioned sales person and not our more methodical, analytical, ongoing style. A good client for us is someone who is reasonably financially balanced. For example, someone with millions of dollars of assets that are highly concentrated and highly leveraged may have considerable wealth but limited ability to make changes or even careful decisions to control his/her future. Whereas someone else far less wealthy with only reasonable demands on the wealth may benefit greatly from our services.