An Investment Philosophy Built on Resilience

Our investment philosophy is built around principles, discipline and science, not trends, fads or one size fits all rules of thumb. Attempting to pick one stock over another, get into or out of a market at the “right time”, or chasing the latest craze has proven a sure way to lose money over the long term.

Instead, we build models that seek to capture the returns of markets across the globe at a low-cost and stick to a disciplined rebalancing strategy. Over time, sticking to this discipline and spending our remaining time and energy on those financial decisions we can control adds value to our clients’ investment experience and peace of mind to their overall well being.

Discipline – Investing can be an emotional battle between fear and greed, and reacting to current events or short-term market moves can cost you real wealth. Although every investor must assume some level of risk, asset allocation can help dampen the fear, and provide you with a sound investment plan to reap the rewards for your exposure to risk.

Integrity – We value our clients’ trust. We believe in setting realistic expectations and do not promise the unachievable. Our approach to investing does not include moving in-and-out of “hot” sectors or trying to chase the next best fund. We reject the herd-mentality approach to investing and concentrate on building solid portfolios designed to help preserve the wealth you’ve created.

Strategy – After determining your appropriate mix of cash, bonds and stocks, we implement your plan using a highly rated institutional money manager:

Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) – DFA’s investment philosophy is based on the belief that markets work and investment returns are determined principally by asset allocation. What makes Dimensional’s approach unique is each of its funds follows a strategy based on rigorous academic research. The firm has no economists forecasting business cycles or interest rates, no investment strategies shifting allocations between stocks and bonds, and no analysts searching out “the right” stock.

Instead, DFA’s funds employ a strategy designed to capture the return behavior of an entire asset class. This differs from a traditional passive management approach in which indexes are merely replicated. Dimensional’s funds do not simply track traditional market indexes, but are designed to capture separate dimensions of worldwide returns which are accompanied by independent sources of risk. These dimensions are identified by one or more of the leading financial economists with which DFA maintains a relationship. Their research has documented that, over the long term, small cap stocks outperform large cap stocks, and value stocks outperform growth stocks. These returns seem to be compensation for risk. In fixed income, risk is described in its relation to bond maturity and credit quality. Dimensional’s funds deliberately target specific risk and return trade offs. They are diversified and painstakingly designed to work together in your total investment plan.

Want to learn more? Check out this video explaining the “why” behind why we feel that Dimensional Funds are a superior investment strategy.

Advisory Services Network, LLC and Dimensional Fund Advisors are not affiliated.