Business acumen may create wealth, but prudent investment is required to maintain it, let alone make it grow.
In House
We have qualified money managers on staff and investment is in our roots. We are asset-class agnostic, and believe that where it comes to asset classes everything has its place. We routinely design, implement and maintain sophisticated investment strategies to meet the needs of discerning clients. This is our core competency.
External Managers
We have learnt what works, what should work but doesn’t, and what a lemon looks like- in all of its various forms. Via long-standing industry relationships we have access to top-performing fund managers and strategies that do not advertise.
Investment Service Overview
Our investment management proposition, whether bundled with other services or utilised on a standalone basis, aims to meet the advanced objectives of our investors.
- Qualifies and quantifies investor objectives
- Codifies the method and parameters for investment
- Determines optimal budgeting of risk
- Ensures that capital is allocated appropriately
- Provides for enhanced oversight
The Investment Policy Statement (IPS) describes a client’s financial goals and investment objectives, while documenting the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved in managing portfolios. It codifies the do’s and dont’s for the clients service providers and specifies strategy, asset allocation, selection criteria and monitoring parameters.
For discretionary managed portfolios asset allocation is ordinarily top-down, starting with asset class, then sector/sub-division, then individual asset choice. From there we use quantitative models to arrive at the optimal allocation between portfolio assets to meet the objectives of the client.
For externally managed strategies and discretionary fund managers (DFMs) we conduct due-diligence on managers that meet our selection criteria which include tenure, historic performance (alpha generation), structure transparency, liquidity and manager buy-in.
For us to objectively evaluate performance we determine an appropriate benchmark to compare strategy and portfolio performance with. Strategies that routinely outperform their benchmarks will remain in our good favor, whilst those that underperform will be divested from, failing a return to positive performance during their grace period.
Reporting lets us know what the bottom line is for our investments. Performance attribution lets us know where gains and losses were made. In combination, we get an ongoing and clear picture of the portfolio and are able to determine if the objectives and requirements of the Investment Policy Statement are being met, or whether course-correction is required.
Service Areas
Exchange traded and OTC equities. Off-market private placements. Pre-IPO stock.
Reduce specific asset, or overall portfolio risk using a variety of hedging techniques. Hedging instruments will ordinarily be listed futures, listed options, or OTC swaps. Hedging techniques are bespoke for each client portfolio using a proprietary methodology with development and management occurring in-house.
For executives or founders that hold large quantities of company stock specific techniques can be employed to: reduce concentration risk, reduce taxes, create liquidity without selling the stock, hedge price risk or guarantee a minimum divestment price. The strategies are commonly used by 10b5-1, NSO, RSU, SARS, ISO, ESO, ESOP plan participants and company founders.
“Absolute return” or “market neutral” managed investment strategies have a nominal or negative correlation with equity markets and enable clients to focus on capital protection without sacrificing the potential for capital appreciation- usually without meaningfully increasing market risk. We are most proficient in the origination and aggregation of Managed Futures (CTA) and Fund Of Hedge Fund (FOHF) strategies.
Broadly speaking an “alternative investment” is a non-exchange traded investment that has a low or negative correlation to capital markets. The addition of these investments to client portfolios is proven to reduce downside risk and create another driver for returns resulting in outperformance (alpha) of the portfolio compared to traditional, capital market only portfolios. The list of potential ‘alternative‘ investments grows year on year and could include any number of assets; from limited production sports cars, to intellectual property and music rights, to portfolios of internet domain names.
Historically real estate has been the bastion of the diversified portfolio. Stable, consistent, tangible and with a history of price appreciation, real estate has been a tried and tested asset class for the safe parking of capital. Opportunities are innumerable and span the globe and all of its markets. Most commonly, we focus on that which we understand and try to reduce our exposure to seasonal trends. Residential, commercial, hospitality and special situations assets constitute the majority of our interests.