To be successful, we believe portfolios must be structured, using the few investing principles that stand the test of time and scrutiny. Since most individuals and even many professionals do not follow these basic tenants, this approach differentiates our firm, and we feel makes us preferable to many investment managers.

Our approach is to develop a custom-designed strategy that will stand the test of many investing environments, requires modest trading and keeps expenses low. This means building low cost diversified portfolios that incorporate important client positions, preferences and needs. We evaluate possible asset allocations attempting to incorporate as many non correlated asset classes as is practical in a variety of forms.

Once an asset allocation is agreed upon, we select investments that are in keeping with the strategy. We construct portfolios using individual securities (such as stocks, CDs and government/municipal bonds) and low cost index funds and ETFs (exchange-traded funds). We adjust portfolios periodically to ensure they stay close to the desired allocation and add securities (or adjust weightings) when we feel it is particularly timely.

Typically, we use passive management strategies believing that few superior managers exist. Instead, we settle for market returns which turn out to beat the majority of managers (75% of them, over a 10 year period). As a result, we can be relatively assured of capturing the market returns. And, since we focus on asset allocation and diversify among many different markets, our clients get an overall return commensurate with the returns on all the included asset classes. This way, we can control the factors within our control, minimize the negative impact of those that aren't and help investors keep a higher share of what they earn.