(This page describes our business approach and philosophy.  Go to the services page for a succinct and concrete listing of what we do for clients.)

What We Are All About

We aim to provide investment and financial planning services to substantial individual investors and small institutions who have come to believe that the most popular forms of assistance are not very helpful.  We do not agree with the implicit assumption that the advisor can reliably pick the investments with the highest returns over the next few years, or even that he or she can reliably identify others who can do so.  We also believe that the potential for helping clients through appropriate financial planning, risk management, tax management and avoidance of unnecessary fees is large and relatively under-exploited.

The behavior of financial markets is very different from our experience in other walks of life.  Their intensely competitive and rapid accommodation to news has non-intuitive results.  One consequence is that experts are often quite unable to predict the next market move or even which group of stocks will do better than another.  By definition it must be a surprise to a great crowd of experts who have already interpreted all the news they can get their hands on.  In fact, in many financial markets passively managed portfolios (portfolios managed without making asset selection or timing judgments) often outperform portfolios managed by highly regarded professional managers.

These facts, however, do not mean that individual investors will not benefit significantly from appropriate professional advice and investment supervision.  We believe the truly expert investment adviser focuses most attention on getting the right exposure to risk for a changing context, diversifying efficiently, avoiding unnecessary taxation, keeping fees and trading costs under control, and customizing his or her approach to the individual needs of the client.  Most investors could benefit from objective, knowledgeable and personalized investment assistance.  Our goals are to live up to this role, to offer customized service, and to make possible the client's educated choices.

Many small institutions with significant investment portfolio needs are subject to the same concerns.  In addition, they often need objective, disciplined "rules of the road" to help board or investment committee members reach sensible decisions with a minimum of stress.  They may also need expert advice in matching fluctuating investment results to the financial needs of the organization.

We emphasize financial planning and effective risk management to promote sustainable growth, preservation of capital, and income. We are happy to supervise portfolios for private investors or institutions that contain elements managed by others.  We are active in managing portfolio adjustments where needed, especially to fit portfolios to changing client risk and tax situations.  We also design specialized portfolios to help control the risks of concentrated holdings in a business or employer.  Though we use advanced tools where available and proven, our approach strives most for high-quality workmanship in fitting the solutions to the client.

What Ethics Mean For Us

We provide only services that we believe to be in the best interests of our clients. We are very modest with regard to our ability to forecast the best stock to hold, as well as to identify the bottoms and tops of market trends.  We use the lowest cost, most transparent strategies that meet client needs.  We give different advice to investors, either private or institutional, who appear to have different needs.  We avoid the conflicts of interest that arise from being in too many businesses or accepting commisions for recommending products.