For most clients, our value lies in managing the risk in their portfolios. We do this by first getting clear about their goals (estate planning, retirement, care of a dependent or heir, college costs, etc.) Then we design an investment management plan that helps them reach those goals with the least amount of risk. This involves diversifying the portfolio, monitoring each account and making adjustments towards the stronger areas of the market and away from the weaker ones.

Markets go up and markets go down and you need a strategy for dealing with both scenarios that won’t keep you up at night. We don’t pretend to know exactly when these ups and downs will occur but when the market appears to be high, we take some risk off by reducing your allocation to stocks and vice versa when the market declines. We have no problem moving to cash when necessary to protect our clients’ portfolios. This strategy has served our clients extremely well over the past decade.

Exactly how much your allocations change will depend on your ability and willingness to take risks, i.e. your “risk personality”, as identified during our planning meetings. For example, if you are a conservative investor, we would reduce amount of stocks in your portfolio when the market’s upward momentum slows down. In other words, we would take profits a little earlier than someone who is less conservative.

What makes us different is that we provide on going monitoring and review of your portfolio and we do so in an objective fashion, free from the mandated investment policies dictated to advisors at large brokerage firms or banks. We work for our clients, not for commissions and not for some large Wall Street firm or insurance company.