Assess your needs – First, we must determine your long term needs and how they affect portfolio construction. With individuals and families, this may begin with a retirement plan. With institutions, we examine the investment policy statement. By analyzing cash flow requirements, investment time horizon, risk tolerance, liquidity needs and tax status, we formulate a long term strategic asset allocation of stocks and bonds.

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Analyze the markets – There are several key factors we regularly monitor to assess the attractiveness of different investments: Economic, Fundamental, Technical, and Quantitative factors.

 

• Economic factors describe the health of a local economy. Credit conditions, Federal Reserve policy, tax policy, unemployment statistics, interest rates, consumer spending and trade flows are some of the factors we consider important.

    

• Fundamental factors are expressed by companies in their earnings reports, dividend policy, profit trends, and growth rates. These data points give us a granular look at economic conditions.

 

• Technical factors are data points derived from price trends and market behavior. There are large amounts of money that trade in and out of the world markets, so it is important to understand when and where they are flowing.

 

• Quantitative factors are formulated from an analysis of economic, fundamental and technical data points. They are helpful at filtering through the multitude of data to draw non-intuitive conclusions.

 

Construct portfolios – Once we have assessed your needs and current market conditions, an appropriate portfolio can be implemented. We typically utilize index funds to minimize portfolio expenses. Portfolios are focused on either total return or tax efficiency.

 

Rebalance portfolios – Economic and market conditions are constantly changing. We believe in adjusting portfolios to capitalize on these changes rather than sitting passively in fixed asset allocations.