Custom Core Portfolios
What are Custom Core Portfolios?
Portfolios of 15-25 stock and bond fund positions customized to achieve your return and risk objectives. Managed relative to one or more "benchmark" funds. Low turnover. Tax efficient. Suitable for IRA or taxable accounts.
Is a Custom Core Portfolio right for me?
Our Custom Core Portfolios are similar to most investment portfolios. These portfolios are “custom” in that we determine an appropriate benchmark fund that would be a logical alternative to ours, such as a multi-asset balanced index fund (often one of the Vanguard LifeStrategy funds). They are "core" in that they emphasize broad stock and bond asset classes. Our goal is to provide a higher return after fees with lower downside risk over time compared to the benchmark fund by tactically over- and under-weighting the 15-25 individual constituent funds.
Multi-Strategy Portfolio
What is the Multi-Strategy Portfolio?
A portfolio of 25-40 positions with an emphasis on diversification of stock and bond risks. Expected average market beta of .6 relative to the S&P 500 (60% of the stock market's risk). Designed for IRAs.
Is the Multi-Strategy Portfolio right for me?
Our Multi-Strategy Portfolio is designed for the portion of an IRA account that an investor wishes to allocate to a portfolio that will diversify core stock and bond risks. Although some clients allocate 100% of their IRA to this portfolio, a more typical allocation would be 30% to 70%. The long-only nature of this portfolio means that its correlation with stocks and bonds—while lower than most core portfolios—remains fairly high.
Global Macro Portfolio
What is the Global Macro Portfolio?
A portfolio of 25-40 long positions and 25-40 short positions, each up to 100% of capital. Further capital of up to 50% may be invested in hedging positions. This portfolio has a heavy emphasis on diversification of stock and bond risks, and features very low correlation with stock and bond returns. Expected average market beta of .3 relative to the S&P 500. Not suitable for IRAs (which do not allow short positions).
Is the Global Macro Portfolio right for me?
The Global Macro Portfolio is our most powerful diversifier of stock and bond risks because of its very low correlation to stock and bond returns. Some clients allocate to our Global Macro Portfolio a portion of their overall portfolio that might otherwise be allocated to bonds. While there are no guarantees of future returns, our performance objective for this portfolio is higher than what might be expected from a core bond investment.
Directly Indexed Stock Portfolios
What are Directly Indexed Stock Portfolios?
Designed for clients who have large (>$1 million) taxable portfolios of individual stocks, especially those with large unrealized capital gains, directly indexed stock portfolios seek to control tracking error relative to a chosen benchmark index while at the same time minimizing capital gains taxes. Portfolios may also be tactically tilted towards various factors--often the same factors we tilt towards in other strategies using ETFs.
Is a Directly Indexed Stock Portfolio right for me?
Because of the stock-specific risks and transaction costs involved in managing portfolios with many individual stocks, this strategy fits only large (>$1 million) taxable (not IRA) portfolios of individual stocks. Most often, we suggest this strategy to clients who come to us with large taxable stock portfolios if they already have large unrealized capital gains. However, this strategy may also be attractive for clients starting with cash because of its long-term tax efficiency.