Investment Management
A prudent, proactive approach to managing your investment assets
We provide investment portfolio management for select individuals, institutions, foundations and endowments. Our proactive investment discipline not only enables us, with discretion, to position your portfolio for long-term growth, but also enables us to shift quickly to a preservation strategy during uncertain economic times such as the one we are currently experiencing.
• Strategic/tactical investment management
• Tax-efficient and tax-free income portfolios
• Cash management
• Preservation portfolios
• Alternative investment strategies
Our investment philosophy
Through Commonwealth Financial Network, Zeller Kern offers access to a fee-based portfolio management platform which seeks to achieve substantial risk-adjusted, after-tax returns coordinated with your individual objectives. We carefully plan, prepare, manage, and monitor your investment portfolio according to your wealth objectives, and do so in a way that is objective, tax-efficient, and risk cognizant. Our advice is independent. We use no proprietary investments.
How we manage your portfolio
Our investment portfolio guidance is governed by our in-house investment committee and six-step Focused Wealth® Investment Process. Utilizing a two-layered quantitative model, this proactive process helps us anticipate trends and act early with a “sell” discipline before major downtrends and “buy” during major uptrends. It guided all of our managed portfolios out of the market in early 2008, and back in during the rally that started in April of 2009. In a downturn, our goal is to preserve our clients’ wealth, while positioning for growth when conditions are favorable. We consider each client’s needs carefully to arrive at the appropriate portfolio design and objective.
We model our policies and procedures through the industry’s fiduciary standards. Our investment platform uses both passive tools (indexes, etc.), active tools (open-ended mutual funds, closed-ended mutual funds, private money managers, etc.) and individual bonds and T-Bills. To evaluate active investments, we use state-of-the-art institutional investment manager software, research, and quantitative models. In managed portfolios, we apply rigorous allocation modeling with tactical guidance. Zeller Kern can increase liquidity within your portfolios when our economic and quantitative models produce evidence for us to do so. The result: a flexible, responsive investment process that strives to produce substantial risk-adjusted returns while preserving assets.
Your customized Investment Policy
We believe that a detailed, carefully considered Investment Policy is the key to long-term success. We work closely with you to draft an Investment Policy that reflects your individual goals, tolerances and circumstances. Your Investment Policy provides accountability and direction for your investment assets and states your return objectives, income objectives, tax brackets, desired wealth transfer balances, liquidity requirements, risk tolerance, investment constraints, investment process, and review procedures. We can draft Investment Policies for individual clients, foundations, pension plans, and trusts.
We are accountable to you
We expect you to hold us accountable for our performance, and we give you the tools to do so.
Transparency of fees. We explain our fees in detail, up front. You will know exactly how we will be compensated for our services.
Detailed reporting. Each quarter, we provide a detailed performance report, enabling both of us to evaluate the results relative to your stated objectives.
Portfolio monitoring. We monitor your accounts regularly to ensure that your portfolios are secure and consistent with your goals.