By SJS Founder & CEO Scott Savage
Ever wish you could be a fly on the wall?
At times, for instance, such as when you take your car in for service, and leave the mechanic thinking to yourself, “Did my transmission really need that much work?”
Or, how would you like to be a fly on the wall in the locker room when your favorite basketball team loses by two points? How about when they win by two?
We all can’t help but imagine at one time or another what words are said, and what actions are taken when no one is looking, when the public eye is nowhere to be found. Intriguing, isn’t it?
Well, what if you were buzzing around and landed on the windowsill in the conference room at SJS during one of our regular Investment Committee meetings?
You would have a nice view of the great outdoors, and maybe see a deer ramble by. You’d also hear some open and honest discussions about your investments, such as:
How heavily should we weight international stocks in your portfolio?
Do we adjust bond duration longer in light of the Fed’s position on interest rate hikes?
If a change seems compelling, is this the right market condition to implement?
As a fiduciary, we are committed to this level of due diligence. In other words, we sit on the same side of the table with you, whether there is a fly on the windowsill watching, or not.
How can the work of SJS’s Investment Committee benefit you?
We look for ways to lower your cost of investing. We review the expenses of the funds we recommend to see if there may be an alternative that invests in the same way but costs less, which may help your bottom line. If we see a clear benefit to you that outweighs any potential costs of making changes to your investments, we will make adjustments to your portfolio.
We review investment offerings that might be appropriate for clients who share a specific need, such as greater tax efficiency or a preference for an investment strategy that prioritizes social responsibility. This extra effort helps us provide investment strategies that are meaningful for you, even if they may not be the best fit for all clients.
We consider whether rebalancing or tax loss harvesting may be appropriate, either to manage risk or to offset portfolio income by selling investments to realize losses.
By observing this meeting, you’d discover the massive amount of research and thoughtful evaluation that we consider when making decisions on your behalf. You might be surprised by how much work had gone into the design of your portfolio long before you ever flew into our building.
A lot of what you would hear might sound technical and complex, but as the fly on the wall, you also would hear something beyond all that financial talk. You’d hear our genuine concern for you, your family, and your well-being. And if you heard all that, we’d be glad to know you were listening.
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