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What We Believe
1. Acquiring wealth is not an end in itself. Building portfolios
and estates, while important, should not be our primary goal. With
professional planning and discipline it is almost automatic. We help our
clients understand the role that wealth building plays (and more
importantly what role it does not and cannot play) in their lives. Our
primary goal is to help our clients live better lives by helping them to
balance wealth acquisition with other priorities. What's yours?
2. The biggest threat to wealth is not a "bear market."
Whether or not the market will rise or fall is unknowable and not worth
the time to ponder. It is out of our control. We do know what the long
run the trend has been, and will most likely continue to be, up. Taxes
are a different matter. Taxes WILL happen and when they happen to the
unprepared they are great confiscators of wealth. We believe that no
wealth is secure which has not been protected, as much as the law
allows, from taxes. Is yours?
3. We can do only as well in investing for our clients as the markets
allow. Except by taking outsized risk, currently exhibited by the
Internet mania, there is almost no chance of individuals overcoming the
odds of "beating the market" in the long run. We are satisfied
with matching, as closely as possible, the performance of the major
market averages. We do not pretend to be among the select, and
unpredictable, few who can beat the indexes. Do you?
4. The only factor we can control in the performance of a portfolio
of financial assets over time is asset allocation. We concentrate
our efforts on asset allocation rather than stock or fund
"picking." We believe that sound sleep in hard times is best
promoted by having an understandable plan and sticking to it. Our
clients know what we are trying to do for them and can ride out the ups
and downs with confidence. Can you?
How we add value for our clients
1. We seek to understand our clients' goals. There is truly no
value to portfolio building and management if the results of the
exercise are not going to help you achieve your goals. We help our
clients develop and understand their goals. We help you understand what
your portfolio can and cannot do. We do this face to face, one client at
a time. We have no interest in becoming the next big thing. We have an
interest in people. Does your financial advisor have a personal interest
in you?
2. We help to plan a tax strategy. Few people realize when they
look at their balance sheets that they are fiduciaries for the taxman.
There are no cures for this problem other than planning and time. We
help our clients understand how to organize their affairs to best
benefit themselves, their families and their favorite charities. Will
your financial advisor work through the hard issues of financial and
estate planning with you?
3. We construct a portfolio that we believe has the least amount of
risk consistent with meeting your goals. Contrary to the constant
drum of talk shows and the popular financial press, risk is the bad side
of the risk versus reward equation and is to be avoided as much as
possible. We do not fear risk but like the prudent sailor we must
believe that there is a squall just over the horizon and act
accordingly, just in case there is one. Is your financial advisor as
concerned about risk as you are?
4. We monitor the asset allocation of your portfolio to keep it in
line with your goals and make changes when necessary. We do not make
changes often because it is not often necessary. In fact, changes are
usually counterproductive so we try to avoid them. Rarely making changes
may make it seem like we are not earning our keep but it is probably the
single most important factor in your achieving your goals and our
success. Time must be allowed to work its magic. Is your financial
advisor patient?
Why it costs no more to do business with us
1. We stick to our investment discipline. Over the long run,
having a plan and sticking to it is the most valuable thing we do. Many
investors have a hard time ignoring the day-to-day value of their
investments and spend a lot of time worrying about it and what to do
about it. We do the investing and you live without the worry. Are you
ready to live without the worry?
2. We use index funds for equity investments and individual bonds for
fixed income investments. Indexing, in its simplest form, means
buying all of the stocks, bonds or other instrument of a market, or
asset class, instead of trying to pick winners and losers. This makes
the cost of index investing much less than investing through traditional
"managed" mutual funds. Bond funds charge fees only slightly
less than equity mutual funds. We believe these fees add no value for
our clients so we avoid them entirely. For more on index fund investing
and how index funds save you both fees and taxes, see our September
2000 Newsletter. Then
take a look at our investing cost calculator
to see how we
stack up to your current portfolio costs. Would you like to have help
reaching your investment goals for little or no extra cost?
3. We ignore the ups and downs of the market. It is human nature to
get excited about rising markets and nervous about declining markets. Yet
it is in the nature of markets to both rise and fall. This makes for a
lot of opportunity to make mistakes in investing. By ignoring the
short-term swings we help you take advantage of the long-term tendency
of financial markets to make you rich slowly. Do you have a plan in
place to get rich slowly?
4. We are not paid to sell you anything. Our fees, 1% of assets
under management, do not depend on your making transactions in the
market. We make our money when your assets grow in accordance with the
plan. That puts us squarely on your side when we decide what will be the
best investments for your portfolio. Do you want a professional on your
side?
 
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