Demand More than Check-Box-Wealth Management

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In our opinion, investment advice has been increasingly commoditized. Wall Street, along with the massive mutual fund complex, has taught investors that proper asset allocation will help them achieve their financial objectives. In order to help investors develop a proper asset allocation strategy they have designed a system of boxes that most investors have seen. It divides investment strategies into value and growth; large, mid and small companies; international; emerging markets; real estate; commodities; alternative strategies; fixed-income strategies of short, medium and long maturities, varying credit quality, international bonds, bonds of emerging countries, etcetera. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list but is meant to illustrate the multitude of boxes that many advisors suggest investors ‘check’ to achieve a diverse mix of assets. Essentially, the product du jour of recent years for the mutual fund complex has been to create the new ‘must have’ box for investors. Check-the-box wealth management is a valid investment strategy, but we believe it is a commodity service. We think too many investors overpay for these asset allocation strategies and we attempt to provide more value to our clients than check-the-box wealth management.