Our Investment Process

Our approach embraces far more than numbers and data. We believe that investors deserve objective advice that is provided within the larger context of planning issues and family goals. Only by getting to know you and developing a clear picture of your circumstances, objectives, and challenges, can we create the most effective financial strategies for you.

We explore fundamental issues such as your time frame, risk tolerance, cash flow, investable resources, income tax situation, and liquidity needs to build a portfolio that will meet your short- and long-term goals. And because successful financial strategy is also pragmatic, an important part of our service to you is to help you maintain realistic expectations about investment performance as well as future spending requirements.

Given your objectives and constraints, we establish a written set of investment guidelines that are appropriate for you. Your investment policy statement documents your long-term investment plan and serves as a basis for making disciplined investment decisions over time. The presence of a policy emphasizes the long-term nature of the investment process, especially during turbulent, or exuberant, times. This helps to balance the investment performance goals and risk criteria; which increases the probability of successfully achieving your long-term investment goals.

Once your investment policy is established, we would not expect to change it until there is a material change in your personal or financial circumstances. Normally, an Investment Policy does not change in response to market moves, and should be long-term to prevent arbitrary or impulsive revisions.

Once we have created your investment policy, we construct a portfolio that satisfies your criteria. Your portfolio will include core components representing all major asset classes, and if appropriate, may also include specialized strategies such as emerging market equities or high-yield bonds.

Because the expertise and consistency of the managers we hire is critical, we adhere to a rigorous set of selection criteria to identify portfolio managers that best meet our clients' needs and circumstances. Our Investment Committee monitors hundreds of funds, undertakes an intense screening process to select style-specific managers, and holds those managers accountable for both performance and style consistency.

Effective investment management requires capability, time, and focus. Market activity and economic conditions have a direct impact on your asset mix and prompt the need for reallocation and rebalancing.

It’s our job always to be on watch for you. As your Investment Advisor, we continually monitor your investment portfolio, oversee the Portfolio Strategist’s decisions to rebalance and realign your portfolio, and then clearly communicate changes to you. We monitor your account continuously with a careful eye to rebalancing to maintain the risk control effects of asset allocation.

An important part of our job is to keep you well informed about your investment strategy and performance. Our goal is to engage you in the investment process by reporting – clearly, concisely and in a timely manner – everything you need to know about your accounts.