Investment Philosophy

We adhere to highly-developed investment principles and processes that have been time-tested over decades by academic researchers, real-world investment professionals, our firm, and our clients.

Alignment with Objectives

We construct investment portfolios to meet client objectives. We avoid imposing one-size-fits-all programs.

Clear Understanding

We encourage clients to take only those risks that can be understood and that have commensurate return expectations. We avoid unwarranted complexity. We endeavor to provide transparency—around risks, rationale for recommendations, processes, fees, etc. We aim to minimize the substantial, often-hidden costs from taxes, inflation, management fees, and transaction fees.

Asset Allocation

We believe that asset allocation is the primary determinant of both long-term returns and the variance in those returns. We recommend strategic diversification and systematic portfolio rebalancing. We believe that taxable investors should limit tactical allocation maneuvering.
We respect the power of time to reduce volatility and to drive compound growth. We select asset classes and managers, not securities. We recommend vehicles in illiquid, alternative investment classes where warranted by risk-adjusted return expectations and client liquidity.

Manager Selection

We recommend only managers whom we trust and who we firmly believe will outperform on a risk-adjusted basis in their asset class. We aim for low manager turnover. We seek and negotiate fee arrangements that align manager incentives with our clients’ interests. We take advantage of our clients’ net worth of more than $10 billion to gain access to otherwise inaccessible managers and to negotiate institutional fee structures. We receive compensation solely from our clients and none from managers we recommend. Client investment decisions do not affect our compensation, a fact that enables us to avoid conflicts of interest.

Judgment

Although we used highly sophisticated analytical and forecasting models, we recognize the limitations of those models. We apply our team’s extensive experience and judgment to all investment recommendations.

Investment Research and Knowledge Management

We are committed to sophisticated research and knowledge management on asset allocation and manager selection. We seek top-tier investment opportunities globally in traditional and alternative asset classes, including fixed income, absolute return, long-biased hedged equity, public equity, private equity and venture capital, real estate, natural resources and inflation hedging. BRF committees oversee research on asset allocation and on each major asset class. All senior and mid-level professionals are required to contribute substantial time to the research function. We also work on an integrated basis with a handful of outside specialist firms who complement and deepen our asset class research.