Investment Philosophy


Managing wealth and managing investments are worlds apart from one another. Wealth is highly personal and centers on individual emotions, goals, and dreams. Investments, by contrast, require analysis, discipline, objectivity, and a clinical lack of emotion. All too often we’re led to believe that investing is about maximizing returns. Unfortunately, a single-minded focus on performance can often distract attention from the importance of managing risk.

Edward Booth and Christopher Sawch

Our investment philosophy focuses on helping clients achieve their goals instead of chasing the highest return or “beating the market.” Translating a goals-based approach to investing, we engage every client in a multi-step process to identify their “ideal” and “acceptable” goals based on deliberately conservative assumptions. Next, we stress test multiple scenarios to help set realistic expectations and increase the probability of success.

Private Investment Management (PIM)


We manage four separate risk-based Private Investment Management (PIM) portfolios: Conservative, Moderate, and Aggressive. These strategies serve as core building blocks in client portfolios and are managed on a discretionary basis combining both fundamental and technical research. Each portfolio is tactically managed in response to changing market conditions and diversified across a spectrum of investments including Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), mutual funds and individual securities:

PIM Conservative is designed to fund short-term liquidity needs (1-3 years). The portfolio is invested primarily in high quality, income investments with a goal of providing modest income and maintaining stability. PIM Conservative is not required to be 100% invested at all times and may invest in cash and cash alternatives depending on market conditions.

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PIM Moderate reflects a balanced growth & income strategy and is intended to fund intermediate term priorities (5-7 years). PIM Moderate’s core target allocation is 60/40 stocks/bonds; however we may adjust this weighting significantly depending on market conditions. Similar to PIM Conservative, PIM Moderate is not required to be 100% invested at all times.

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As each Private Investment Management (PIM®) program account is individually managed, construction and ongoing management of portfolios may vary from those discussed here.

The PIM program is not designed for excessively traded or inactive accounts and is not appropriate for all investors. Please carefully review the Wells Fargo Advisors advisory disclosure document for a full description of our services. The minimum account size for this program is $50,000.