We start by listening to you to understand your goals and objectives.  With the information you share with us, we study and analyze it; we will develop various ways to help meet your objectives; always seeking solutions customized to your needs. We then present our findings and present our recommendations to you in a way you will understand (i.e. no technical jargon).  Once we come to an agreement and put our recommendations into effect, we will do so in an independent, objective and unbiased manner, always mindful of controlling expenses.  From there, we’ll meet to review your Envision® plan on a regular basis to make sure you are still on track to meet your goals and if not, we will take appropriate action. Inevitably changes will occur be it in the market, tax laws and regulations or the events in your life and the lives of your family and we will be there to guide you and make adjustments along the way.  

We understand that money is a complicated psychological commodity and our team strives to help clients remove the emotional barriers that stand in the way of them achieving their goals.  We utilize a disciplined investment approach that relies on the tried-and-true principles of maintaining diversification, strategically rebalancing portfolios and keeping a long-term perspective.  In addition, we will often refer back to the plan that we built together based upon your goals.  By utilizing this approach, we help clients make smart, objective decisions rather than simply reacting to changing market conditions and life changes.

We consider numerous factors when building a portfolio including the projected rate of return, risk and historical correlation for various asset classes.  In addition, we consider a client’s risk tolerance and risk capacity to build an investment strategy that will help meet your needs.

Historically, stocks, bonds and cash do not move in unison.  As a result, diversifying assets can help investors reduce risk. Our investment framework is based upon Modern Portfolio Theory.  Modern Portfolio Theory was developed by Nobel Prize Laureate Harry Markowitz in 1952 and theorizes that it is possible to construct an “efficient frontier” of optimal portfolios that seek to maximize return for a given level of risk.  Relying on your stated objectives, your time frame, and your risk tolerance, we help determine where you best fit on the “efficient frontier” and construct a portfolio that makes sense for you.

Asset allocation is not the only strategy we employ, however.  Of equal importance is asset location. Asset location is not a replacement for the aforementioned asset allocation blueprint – it is meant to complement it.  Asset location is a tax minimization strategy that recognizes that different types of investments receive different tax treatment.  In leveraging the tax preferences of tax-sheltered verse taxable type of accounts, we seek to maximize after-tax returns for our clients.

Over time, a portfolio’s allocation will change as some assets gain in value while others drop in value. Consequently, the overall risk of the portfolio will change and may no longer align with your initial risk tolerance. Rebalancing solves for this by selling the overweight assets and buying the underweight ones. Doing this also has a secondary benefit and that is it allows one to purchase assets while they are on discount.

One of the simplest ways to maximize performance of a portfolio is by keeping expenses to a minimum.  Not only our are management fees low, relative to our competitors, we construct portfolios with fees in mind by utilizing a combination of low cost index funds, ETFs and institutional class mutual funds whenever possible.