Hiring the Managers

Our manager selection process starts with a strict set of screening criteria focused on identifying managers with a demonstrated ability to provide consistently positive risk-adjusted returns and downside protection over rolling time periods.  Our criteria include costs - a strong determinate of future performance, management's personal investment in their funds, tenure, ownership and compensation structure, and an understandable investment process.

This process has been honed and proven over more than two decades of actual experience.  While not all of the funds we select pan out, enough do to make it a worthwhile exercise.  And, in those sectors where we cannot find a promising active manager, we use low-cost index funds, often with an ESG tilt.

We avoid investments that are not regulated by the Investors Act of 1940, including private equity, hedge funds and venture capital. In doing so we reduce the enormous overhead required to perform the appropriate due diligence and protect our clients from the liability of failed investments (think Madoff or, local examples Aequitas, Grifphon, Private Consulting Group, Capital Consultants, etc.). Our research shows the fraction of potential outperformance is far outweighed by the risks of failure and costs of due diligence for all but the very largest organizations.

The Skeptical Gatekeeper

The one thing our industry does best is sell product. Often the marketing and sales department of a firm is several times the size of the actual investment management team. We have decades of experience with salespersons touting the latest and greatest, and greet each with a skeptical eye. In keeping with our simple K.I.S.S. philosophy, our portfolios tend toward the proven, while leaving the experimental to others.