Good Asset Allocation
Good asset allocation is crucial to matching our clients’ portfolios with their goals, needs, situations, and risk parameters, all of which are subject to change. The exercise of allocating funds among various investment vehicles and asset classes is at the heart of investment management and what we do well at Third Act Retirement Planning. Asset classes exhibit different market dynamics, and different interaction effects. Thus the allocation of money among asset classes and among investment vehicles, within asset classes, will have an enormous effect on the performance of an investment portfolio. We believe it is vital for us to provide good asset allocation to our clients.
King Solomon, one of the wealthiest, wisest, and most successful investors to ever live said, “Divide your portfion to 7 or even to 8 because you do not know what danger may come upon the earth.” [Ecclesiastes 11:2] By danger this could means inflation or deflation for example. A globally diversified portfolio is important to reduce big drops because large decreases in account values effect long term returns more than anything else.
Manage Costs, Fees, and Incentives
As another part of our more technical aspects of investments and value that we provide, it is important that we also need to manage cost, fees, and incentives as best as possible for our clients. We research funds looking for cost-effective funds (and exchange trade funds, or ETFs) and even funds in which the manager is also invested. There is certainly value in managing cost and understanding where your portfolio sits in terms of competition.
Rebalance Portfolios
We also rebalance portfolios periodically as required throughout the year, keeping an eye on our clients’ investment policy statements and costs as a function of trading in non-fee-based accounts, and any tax implications.
Security Selection
Here at Third Act Retirement Planning we also provide security selection for our investment and wealth management clients. Data makes it clear that it is not likely that any particular financial advisor will be in the group that consistently outperforms markets, indices, or benchmarks. Security selection has value because we are a knowledgeable, studied, and educated professional who does this for a living. We save our clients time and effort and, hopefully, add a level of comfort by providing this service. We do believe that stock picking may be dead, but various studies demonstrate that certain investment characteristics can and do outperform with persistence over time (even though they can and do underperform for significant periods). At Third Act Retirement Planning we stay on top of trends and make sure that our clients’ portfolios continue to line up with the best research as well as client needs, goals, and situations. Our clients prefer not to spend time developing the expertise and experience that we as a financial advisor and money and wealth manager have already acquired. Our clients are delegators. Reinventing the wheel makes no sense!