Our Principles
We believe there are investment principles that stand the test of time. In contrast, investment strategies must be evaluated and adapted as economic circumstances change. Our firm is committed to rethinking, modifying, or if necessary replacing many of the investment strategies used in today’s markets – particularly those strategies that have been very successful in recent years. In rethinking strategies, particular care must be taken to separate good new ideas from what are essentially fads that may have serious unintended consequences for investors.
Cost-conscious
We believe in watching every penny of investment costs for our clients. Investment costs may not appear to have a dramatic impact on a single year’s return, but over time they add up and may have a tremendous impact on what a client ends up with after many years of investing. Our goal is to keep our initial fee at or under .4% of client contributed assets and client total investment costs below 1%.
Conflict Averse
Our firm believes that conflicts of interest will severely interfere with our ability to serve our clients to the best of our ability and earn the highest possible returns for them over the long term. We will strive to avoid conflicts of interest, as set forth in our Code of Ethics, where we have developed an internal policy to help us address any potential conflicts that may arise.
In our opinion, if a firm offers several services, and some are higher priced than others, this creates a potential conflict of interest. If some services are higher priced than others, it is too easy to justify why a client needs the higher-priced services. Our firm attempts to control this important conflict by offering clients a single service: the development of a client-specific investment plan and its implementation. For this service, we are paid a single fixed fee which may be terminated at any time.
Risk Focused
No asset class is safe. Even cash can melt away from inflation or negative interest rates or evaporate in a moment of monetary collapse. Contrary to modern portfolio theory, the risk of catastrophic loss cannot be captured adequately by a mathematical equation. Fortunately, each asset class has a role to play in protecting you as well as in growing your portfolio. Risk is part of life and cannot be avoided. We believe that understanding risk is our clients’ best protection. We will work with each client to develop a risk management approach that is right for the client.
Independence
Our independence is important to us. We are not owned by or affiliated with banks, brokers, other financial firms, other companies, or outside equity holders. In our opinion, this helps us work solely for our clients, without being pressured to steer our clients’ business to industry affiliates or meet the earnings expectations of equity holders. We also believe our independence helps us remain long-term investors, forging our own path for our clients rather than “following the crowd.”
Long-Term Orientation
In our experience, the investment world often speaks of long-term investment but does not always practice what it preaches. We focus on creating long-term returns for our clients, and manage portfolios with this time horizon in mind.
Global Orientation
We invest all over the world. This gives our clients more investment choices and also potentially reduces risk through diversification.
