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Managing investment risk to achieve goals

However you regard your economic status, you want to continue to enjoy the security and benefits it brings you, your family and your causes. You do seek growth through investing. But you do not want to live anxiously because your wealth is invested outside your comfort zone.

For three decades, we've believed that managing risk to achieve goals is the more reliable approach to growing wealth over time.

A proven strategy for preserving wealth

Economies and markets go up and down. Investment trends come and go. When will bad times hit next?

No one can be certain.

This is why wealth is best grown like a sturdy tree—steadily from a good foundation. It is best to avoid extending the main branches until they can withstand the storms and droughts certain to visit.

Our counsel remains the same as in 1976: Pursue wealth preservation first. Be skeptical of the investment fads of the day.

Managing risk to achieve goals doesn't mean standing still. It means gaining ground versus inflation while reducing exposure to the painful and significant losses that can come through chasing high—and highly uncertain—returns.

Seeking growth appropriate for you

We like growth. We like helping our clients grow their assets.

We create portfolios to meet individual risk, liquidity, income and total return objectives. Our typical client portfolio has a diversified selection of stocks and bonds with intermediate average maturities. Client holdings are allocated to maintain value during volatile markets.

Under the right circumstances, and in moderation, we will recommend and include potentially higher growth investments that also carry higher risk. These might include international investments, venture capital, covered call option-writing strategies, high-yield bonds and other investments.

Such investments are held in accord with the client’s situation—and his or her ability to sleep comfortably with the added risks.

We serve you passionately yet invest for you dispassionately. Why? Because the steady approach is the wise approach to building wealth. Every bear market leaves us further convinced.

Holding steady during good markets and bad

Emotions lead people to the wrong decision at the worst moments. The bull market of the 1990s is an example. Feeling they were missing out on the gains, many people invested or increased their holdings in already overpriced stocks just as the markets peaked.

The worst bear market in 25 years decimated their portfolios.

That downturn— the S&P 500 declined 37 percent and NASDAQ 67 percent from the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2002—was similar to previous bear markets. As in the past, many of those chasing risky returns came to regret their choices.

As we have through every market rise and fall, we remain focused on our time-tested methods to help preserve assets in the most difficult of times. During the downtown from 2000 to 2002, when the S&P 500 Index lost more than one-third of its value, our typical balanced client portfolio was up one percent.

Those that fit our investment style are people who prefer to increase wealth steadily while reducing the risk of sudden or significant investment losses.