Asset allocation and prudent management of the individual asset classes within portfolios are critical to investment success.
Holding passive investments that seek to imitate the composition and performance of a benchmark index can provide beneficial diversification; however, complementing these holdings with well researched and deeply understood securities serves to expand the opportunity set, mitigate risk, and drive enhanced long-term investment returns for investors. Furthermore, the choice of benchmark is an active decision that carries with it compounding performance effects over time. Indexes that may seem comparable, can experience varying returns as seen below in a chart of the average annualized returns over a 15 year period across different market cap indices from March 31, 1999 through March 31, 2014:
We exercise a disciplined and repeatable research process informed by proprietary research as well as the industry-leading research of the largest financial institutions. This process includes the establishment of a capital markets outlook, an asset allocation analysis, and a security selection list. Our time tested approach and financial expertise is the greatest driver of our success in analyzing the global economy, financial markets, and their underlying securities.