We believe investment management should be customized to our client’s risk tolerance, financial plan, and financial position. We strive to think differently, questioning the Wall Street crowd as we build our clients’ portfolios.

We build portfolios with individual securities (i.e. stocks and bonds), passive and active funds (i.e. exchange traded funds and mutual funds), and cash equivalents. Similar to the bucket strategy we deploy in financial planning, we build portfolios with three buckets in mind….

Investment Management Buckets:

• Asset Class Exposure
• Active Fund Management
• Individual Securities

Alan Baldwin at desk

As the investment world continues to evolve, our investment process evolves with it. We believe in active investment management, but we will utilize passive investment vehicles to obtain low-cost and targeted exposure to different asset classes.

We invest in active portfolio managers that we believe provide our investors / portfolios an edge in their given investment style. For example, these managers may be a top investment-grade fixed income manager or a specialized international equity manager that deliver our clients active management beyond our teams’ expertise. We will always seek “best in class” portfolio management.

Our individual security research focuses on the fundamentals of companies, the quality of management, brand impact, and growth potential given current market conditions. We invest in companies that can effortlessly describe what they do so that investors can apply simple logic to determine their potential prospects. Our team firmly believes that earnings, profits, and dividends are the ultimate drivers of total long-term returns and future growth.

Tax Efficiency

When managing money, a primary goal is to create large, sustainable capital gains! Gains are good when compared to the opposite. That being said, a related primary goal is to be as tax efficient as possible. Tax efficiency includes the following…

  1. Using tax deferred or tax exempt portfolios whenever possible
  2. Manage unrealized gains and losses throughout the year
  3. Paying taxes at the most opportune tax level (long-term versus short-term)
  4. Identify (and possibly avoid) assets that send out frequent capital gains distributions
  5. Monitor dividends and interest throughout the year
  6. Identify mutual funds or ETFs with high or low turnover