When thinking about a client’s core portfolio, we believe that the Future is Unknowable and that Evidence, not Hope, should drive decision making. As such, we do not believe in timing the market or building concentrated portfolios that take unnecessary risks.
Our ETF portfolios reflect this philosophy. By using ETFs to build exposure, we are able to:
We build 2 types of ETF portfolios:
These portfolios are designed to obtain diversified global exposure at low cost allowing investors to “set and forget” their exposure. We customize these portfolios on several dimensions after lengthy discussions about objectives and goals for investment:
These portfolios seek global diversification and an excess return over global equity and fixed income markets over the long-term. No short-term trading here. We categorize positions into 3 buckets to achieve our desired outcome in a risk-controlled way:
Clients often want to obtain exposure to a specific theme or region, but either do not want to concentrate exposure, or do not have sufficient funds to allocate directly. That’s where our thematic ETF portfolios come in. From building an Asia tilt, to targeting commodity or real estate exposure, we are able to design the right portfolio for the task. These ETF portfolios are standalone – they may complement exposure elsewhere, but they are not driven by clients’ risk objectives. They provide specific exposure and are used by clients when they have a high conviction view.
After defining ETF portfolio goals, the next critical step is ETF selection. This is often overlooked by investors, with many simply choosing a ticker they remember or one that they find from a google search. However, we believe there is a benefit to seeking out the right ETF for each job in a portfolio and as such spend significant resources on our ETF selection process.
Once the desired exposure is determined, we identify all ETFs available globally that could potentially provide that exposure. Each ETF is then screened a variety of characteristics:
Only after all ETFs are scored and the most suitable one is chosen, do we proceed to implementation. By quantifying and scoring ETF characteristics, we put our clients first in delivering a consistent and fiduciary approach to ETF portfolios, without regard to brand, or other non-client-driven considerations.
Learn more about our available ETF portfolios.