Consulting Philosophy and Approach
What do we accomplish for clients?
The people at FiduciaryVest have 80+ years of collective experience which spans most of the US investment consulting industry’s history. Over that period, we have learned a lot from our clients. It is our clients who taught us what they want from a consulting relationship and how they want it delivered.
Clients want competent, unbiased advice, presented in condensed visual form.
As indicated in FiduciaryVest‘s corporate by-line, it is our overall mission to provide strategic investment solutions to client-fiduciaries. In doing so, we form what amounts to a working partnership which typically has formal meetings at regular intervals.
What special benefits can clients expect?
Because nearly all of our clients are committees, or boards made up of fiduciaries who oversee one or more large pools of investment assets, and
Because the individuals who serve on such panels are often exposed to significant personal liability, and
Because anyone affected by the investment decisions might file a lawsuit (perhaps a class-action) claiming to be damaged by those decisions,
FiduciaryVest developed an overall service approach captioned as follows:
We help clients become unattractive defendants.
Our methods for achieving this rather comprehensive goal are straightforward: We reach conclusions and recommendations that are adequately researched, thoroughly documented and, above all, logical and appropriate to the client’s specific context. Finally, we guide the implementation of agreed-upon actions, via an additional well-documented process.
What deliverables does FiduciaryVest provide?
An important fundamental for FiduciaryVest is that we deliver our advice in written form, including extensive use of tables and graphics that will clarify and simplify the necessary text. Graphs convey concepts and relationships, particularly for data. (Words generally do a poor job at that task.)
A typical FiduciaryVest client will receive custom-tailored research, advice, documentation and implementation of the following services that, taken together, form a sound investment program:
- Situation assessment, including development of risk-taking ability and risk tolerance limits, asset allocation forecast modeling (when appropriate);
- Comprehensive investment policy document: investing context, objectives, risk exposure, asset allocation targets, restrictive guidelines, etc.,
- Policy implementation plan, including appropriate and recommended investment management styles and management allocations, based on strategic asset allocation modeling that incorporate the risk and return objectives of the plan trustees.
- Investment management (and/or mutual fund) searches and transition implementation, and
- Investment performance measurement and evaluation reporting, including quarterly meetings to for review and action-recommendations (including re-visiting the situation assessment and policy, when appropriate).