Our Mission
SIG delivers a purposeful approach to investing through our Wealth Overview & Action Plan. We aim to provide financial clarity through 3 areas of focus; Organization, Planning and Investing. Each focus has a corresponding Action Plan that serves as a personalized living document. This allows our team to maintain focus and accountability on meeting our client’s financial goals. We believe these three areas of focus deliver an all-encompassing wealth management experience for our clients.
The Wealth Overview & Action Plan (WOAP) is not appropriate for all SIG clients. Please seek council from a team member to see if the WOAP is right for you.
Our Organization and Planning Process
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Define
Build
Manage
Define
The purpose of the Picture is to give peace of mind that your financial goals are clearly articulated and consistently monitored. This document highlights your SIG team, your externally selected financial partners, as well as other relevant information to your financial life. The Picture also details the high-level purpose for your wealth, creating a mission statement that evolves as you do. This hosts a snapshot of pertinent information, which we take into consideration while creating the Financial Plan and structuring Investment Portfolios.
The purpose of the Financial Plan is to define what is most important to you. We utilize goals-based planning software to analyze a variety of outcomes over your lifetime and varying market cycles. With your information gathered (assets, spending, savings, timing of events), the software simulates approximately 1,000 different market scenarios (Monte Carlo). Based on these results, we are able to discuss and customize your plan to help provide clarity and confidence in achieving your financial goals.
SIG focuses on three buckets for the financial needs of our clients; Short-Term Liquidity, Lifetime Spending and Legacy (Estate Planning).
We design a customized portfolio commensurate with your Financial Picture and Plan. SIG’s Investment Committee conducts in-house, proprietary fundamental research on four core buckets of Investment Management:
- Managed Portfolios – Focused on core asset allocation and risk-adjusted returns through third party managers. We make tactical decisions to over and underweight allocations, based on market conditions.
- Tactical Portfolios – Focused on individual stock selection. We are sector and market cap agnostic and seek to purchase companies that have durable and competitive industry advantages supported by strong management teams.
- Separately Managed Accounts (SMA’s) – SIG relies on the expertise of outside managers to supplement our core areas of focus. For example, in credit (bonds), our partners have wide access to bond offerings and more favorable block pricing.
- Private Offerings – SIG supplements its core investments with a host of private investments, some of which are offered exclusively by SIG. These investments include Hedge Funds, Private Equity, Private Real Estate and Venture Capital.
This is a living document that details necessary actions from the Financial Picture, Financial Plan and Investment Portfolio. This allows our team to monitor and maintain focus & accountability for our clients’ financial goals.
Build
Once financial goals are determined, SIG will use this information to arrive at the appropriate risk target for potential investments that correspond to a client’s investment goals. A portfolio asset allocation will then be designed to best meet the needs and objectives of our clients within their risk tolerance.
Investments included in a client portfolio are selected based on quantitative and qualitative research. SIG conducts regular investment committee meetings during which our investments are reviewed and analyzed.
SIG assesses risk by utilizing various technology platforms to conduct in depth analysis of general market risk, the overall client portfolio risk and the client’s individual holdings. Our investment expertise and technology allows us to track market exposure and potential manager drift, ensuring that we are not over or under represented to a particular sector, region or company.
Manage
In addition to individual stock or bond selection, SIG may use ETF’s, Mutual Funds, or Third Party Managers to complete a client’s investment portfolio. We review the risk and performance characteristics of a manager’s process, resources, depth and experience of the management team, along with other key qualitative elements of the manager.
Elements of this review can include:
I Performance relative to benchmarks II Performance relative to peers III Volatility characteristics IV Correlation statistics V Risk-adjusted returns VI Fee/expense ratio comparison to potential alternative investments VII Depth of investment team VIII Evaluation of investment process IX Analysis of infrastructure X Managers’ Investment Policies and any potential drift from those policies XI Financial strength of the management and/or parent company ongoing manager due diligence process
A select group of managers are approved by our investment committee for use as the core holdings in our client accounts, the performance of which are monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure they are meeting our long-term expectations. During the ongoing due diligence process, we continue to monitor performance, composition of investment team, adherence to investment process and style, any potential structural changes (such as expense ratios or share classes), and suitability of the parent company. Although we meet weekly as an investment committee, we have a series of additional checklists that are performed on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis to confirm and document the performance of our managers, including periodic meetings and conference calls with the management of the various strategies we utilize.
Independent decision making
Since we are completely independent, we are not committed to any manager or firm, thus giving us true freedom to terminate a manager if their performance, or any other factor, is not in the best interests of our clients. We are able to conduct our due diligence absent of product pressure from a parent company, as we do not have one. This independence facilitates free and uninhibited access to review potential managers, whereas some of our peers may be limited to what is promoted on their firm’s platforms. It is still common practice for some Wall Street firms to require compensation in order to platform a money manager, whereas as an independent advisory firm, SIG receives no compensation from any money managers, thus providing for a true open architecture platform.
SIG charges a single fee based on invested assets, excluding cash and cash equivalents as we do not bill on those assets. Cash and cash equivalents may be managed for income free of charge. This single fee is all encompassing for any and all of the services SIG provides to its clients. The Custodian may charge brokerage or other service fees, depending on the nature of the transaction. Certain investments, such as ETF’s and Mutual Funds, may bear additional expenses or fees that will be included in the actual product returns. If applicable, fees charged by third-party managers will be clearly disclosed to clients in investment documentation. Please see the SIG Form ADV Part 2A Disclosure Brochure for a full description of all applicable client fees and expenses.
SIG typically provides our clients individualized Quarterly Performance Reports, along with our internally generated market commentary. In addition to our quarterly reporting package, our custodians will provide monthly statements and SIG clients may view their accounts on a real time basis on the custodian’s website as well as daily portfolio views on SIG’s online access client portal.
Onboarding
Introductory Meeting
Needs Assessment
Presentation of Plan
Introductory Meeting
Our first visit is centered around the review of our process and your needs. In this meeting, we seek to understand your high levels goals to determine if we are a mutual fit.
Needs Assessment
If both parties feel we can help achieve your goals, our team provides you with a list of documents needed prior to our data gathering meeting. This Needs Assessment meeting is a 30 minute virtual visit/ phone call designed to gain further clarity on the purpose of your wealth and investment needs.
Presentation of Plan
After we have reviewed and assessed all relevant information, we will schedule an in-person final meeting to review your personalized investment goals and planning needs.