white papers

The Power of Dynamic Asset Allocation

Diversification plays an important role in investing and the implementation of diversification within a portfolio can be a powerful tool that mitigates risk. However, diversification itself may not always be enough to achieve an investor’s goals and, in some instances, can even stand in the way. We believe a dynamic approach to portfolio construction that improves upon traditional asset allocation methodologies can offer better risk-adjusted returns.

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A Captive Guide for Managers

In this guide, insurance portfolio managers Don Miller and Jeff Matthias describe a time-tested approach for steering both young and established insurance companies towards the potential for improved risk-adjusted returns with ample consideration given to an insurer’s unique situation.

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Stock and Bond Market Risk Measures: A Review of Common Risk Statistics

There are many ways to measure risk in a stock or bond portfolio. Investors might look at price volatility, return fluctuation in relation to a benchmark, how a portfolio responds in a down or up market, and more. The following are common statistics investors use to help align their portfolios with their individual risk tolerance and set them up for optimal risk-adjusted returns.

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Risk and Rewards of Rising Rates

As every fixed income investor knows, bond prices fall as rates rise. Obviously, falling prices reduce returns. In today’s low yield environment, portfolio income offers little protection, meaning price changes dominate total return. However, fixed income investors with long time horizons should actually root for higher rates, despite the short term losses incurred.

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Active Management | Gaining a Leg up

The growing popularity of equity index funds and equity index exchange traded funds (ETFs), combined with several academic studies of the costs and benefits of active management versus indexing, have raised questions in the minds of many advisors and investors about the benefits of active equity management. We believe these studies have given “active managers” a bad rap by grouping all active managers into a broad, single universe and not differentiating between those managers who are truly active, and add value, and those managers that call themselves active but offer little opportunity for outperformance, net of fees, based on their true investment style.

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