Investment Capabilities

Our Approach
Seiler’s approach to investing begins with a focus on each client’s investment objectives and circumstances:  return expectations, risk levels (tolerance, ability, need), time horizon, need for income, liquidity, tax status, etc.  We then design an investment plan that will work for you, over the long-term.  We aim to maximize returns by creating a well-diversified portfolio that captures the upside in up-markets and protects you during down markets, all while minimizing transaction costs and taxes.

Asset Allocation & Balanced Portfolios
We design and implement an asset allocation that is appropriate for each client’s particular set of circumstances, based on a proprietary three-factor model developed by Dimensional Fund Advisors.

• Market – Stocks have higher expected returns than fixed income
• Size – Small company stocks have higher expected returns than large company stocks.
• Price – Lower-priced “value” stocks have higher expected returns than higher-priced “growth” stocks.

The investments used are institutional, passively managed asset class mutual funds for the core of our portfolios, with overweight holdings in value, small and international asset classes.

These funds are employed to capture the return behavior of an entire asset class.  The approach is based on Modern Portfolio Theory, which states that markets are efficient and that investors’ returns are determined principally by asset allocation decisions, not market timing or selection of specific securities.  Generally, an inefficient market would enable an investor to attempt to obtain a profit by exploiting security prices that do not accurately reflect all available information.  

We do not rely on economic forecasts or employ shift allocations between stocks, bonds and cash, nor do we search for undiscovered stocks.  The consulting firm Future Metrics studied the performance of 201 major U.S. corporate pension plans over a 17 year period 1987-2003 whose strategy was to outperform the benchmark.  The results were that only 13% (26 plans) succeeded, whereas 87% failed to outperform the simple passive benchmark.  Accordingly, individual investors with less resources available to them would likely do even worse.

We believe that a truly positive investment experience is one which allows our clients to enjoy their time pursuing life’s interests.  Our responsibility is to define and include an appropriate amount of risk within the investments, periodically rebalance the portfolio after evaluating income tax and transaction fees, and minimize costs that would otherwise reduce returns.