We start by listening to you, through discussions with your advisors, then we take a look at your Dashboard to build a personalized portfolio. As your life changes, the strategy adjusts and adapts, so it aligns with your changing needs.

Smart Weighting is our strategy for giving your portfolio more even exposure across size, economic sector, industry, and individual securities. In a hypothetical back-test* from 1990 to end of June 2019, Smart Weighting would have produced better returns with a lower risk profile (measured by standard deviation) than a traditional market-capitalization weighted index like the S&P 500.

If appropriate, we’ll put together a tax analysis before we make adjustments to your portfolio. This way you’ll see potential impact of any adjustments, plus other options, to help you make a decision you’re comfortable with. We deploy strategies such as tax location (placing higher yielding securities in tax-sheltered accounts) and proactive, year-round tax loss harvesting. We do these on an ongoing basis, to increase tax efficiency. We also like to avoid inefficient investments, like mutual funds.

Once your target strategy is set, sticking to that target is key. Using our proprietary software, we monitor your account on a daily basis to uncover rebalancing opportunities as they arise. We then make adjustments if appropriate, buying when things are lower than their target & selling when they are higher than target, to help you stay on track. This combination of people and technology allows us to rebalance as-needed, rather than on a rigid, calendar-driven schedule.

We prefer individual stocks and ETFs for two main reasons. First, they are key to our Smart Weighting^™ strategy. Additionally, we can manage them in a tax efficient way and rebalance in a more precise manner. We avoid mutual funds because they come with tax inefficiencies and, in many cases, there are high fees tied to actively managed funds.

Muni bonds are often a great way to generate tax-free income within your portfolio. When it’s appropriate, we’ll use individual municipal bonds from your state of residence. Of course, if you live in a state that does not pay state income tax, individual municipal bonds may not be the best option for you. As your fiduciary advisor, we’ll discuss how best to incorporate munis into your strategy if your situation warrants.

For investors who have $5+ million in liquid assets to invest, and who meet other specific criteria, Private Equity may be incorporated into your portfolio. Private Equity allows you to access companies that do not trade on public stock exchanges. Historically, top tier Private Equity funds have been shown to outperform public markets. Along with a potential boost in performance, incorporating Private Equity allows you to diversify into an additional asset class. When building a Private Equity portfolio, we recommend you do so over multiple years so we can commit small amounts of capital to a variety of funds to ensure a properly diversified Private Equity component.**
** Available to certain qualified clients that meet suitability requirements and have $5 million or more invested with Personal Capital

Your portfolio is separately managed from all other clients and is never pooled. This way, we can fully take into account your personal investment needs and preferences. This may be a fully integrated Socially Responsible Portfolio, or simply avoiding a certain stock due to large outside exposure or compliance issues, and any adjustment in between. The majority of our clients choose to customize their portfolio in some way, so simply chat with your advisor to find out how we can best fit your needs.