Investment management and strategy

Professional stewardship. We believe that superior investment performance can be achieved with the guidance of seasoned professionals. Professional management of your investments can help maximize potential returns for your chosen risk level, while also reducing the number and the complexity of the financial decisions you need to make.

Clients must be well informed. It is important to us that you are confident in your investment strategy, and that your portfolio reflects your goals. We are dedicated in our efforts to make ourselves accessible to you, keep the lines of communication open, and present investment information in a clear and concise manner.

Physicians are unique. Physicians choose us to manage their investments because we understand and anticipate their specific financial, practice and personal needs. We undertake a comprehensive discovery process with each client to better understand needs, goals, time horizons, tax considerations and other concerns. This information forms the foundation of a personalized financial plan.

Investment discipline and client goals must match. While we leverage many structured and proven investment processes typically associated with large pension plans and other institutional investors, we also take a very individualized approach to build every client’s investment portfolio. We maintain the flexibility required to ensure that each client’s individual purposes and goals remain at the forefront at all times.

All known risks must be considered. While risk is a necessary component of active wealth management and cannot be eliminated entirely, it can be managed. We believe it is important to help you understand the tradeoffs between risk and reward, and will help you identify performance and risk levels you can live with.

Active managers can outperform. The potential to outperform market indexes must be evaluated. In financial markets that are less efficient and where an investment manager can be expected to outperform the index, an active strategy may be pursued. In highly efficient markets where it is less likely that active management will outperform the index, a passive strategy may be pursued. In efficient markets where a material deviation from the risk profile of the index is justified, active management may be pursued.

Multiple investment styles can reduce risk. We believe a multiple investment style approach is more effective than focusing on one particular style. Just as asset diversification typically proves beneficial for an investment portfolio, we believe that active and judicious diversification among investment styles also improves the risk/return profile of a portfolio.

Tax efficiency is a priority. Our investment strategies seek to maximize after-tax returns within the context of appropriate asset allocation and risk tolerance. By deferring or minimizing the taxes you pay, you can keep more of your money invested and working for you.

Access to our investment experts. We believe our clients’ portfolios should benefit from the knowledge of proven experts—both within MD and from among the world-class companies we have selected to provide valuable investment insight. This collective expertise is then used to create and monitor investment methodologies and asset allocations that are both industry leading and readily adaptable to changing conditions.

Asset allocation is the foundation of investment performance. Employing time-tested models to develop asset allocation strategies and diversified investment mandates, we work to find the optimal balance between portfolio risk and return.

Address financial goals first. Your financial goals are the needs, wants and wishes that form the foundation of your investment plan. When we create an investment portfolio, we believe it should be constructed from the outset with a view toward achieving your defined financial goals.

Costs impact portfolio returns. We try to minimize the costs that affect a portfolio’s return—however, we will never do this at the expense of your investment goals or to the detriment of the quality of the investment management service we provide to you.

Investment manager selection and oversight are key. To achieve the mandate of our MD mutual fund and pooled fund products, we believe it is necessary to have the right combination of investment managers in place. We work diligently to search the globe for investment managers with proven skills and complementary styles. The selection and monitoring of investment managers who will meet or exceed prescribed performance standards are both essential in terms of meeting our clients’ overall objectives.