OUR
COMMITMENT
We are committed to providing personalized, low-cost investment management. We design a portfolio for each client that fits his or her unique aspirations and risk tolerance. Building an appropriate portfolio starts with asset allocation: Choosing the right mix of stocks, bonds, real estate securities, and cash. Next, we select the most promising securities, primarily low-cost mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). Personalized portfolio tailoring is crucial; a well-tooled investment plan that is a great fit for one client might be a terrible fit for another client. We do not subscribe to “robo-investing”—impersonal computer-driven strategies—or one-strategy-fits-all model portfolios.
Over the long run, stocks have returned about twice as much as bonds, but those generous stock returns have been accompanied by tremendous volatility. In just one recent decade, during the 2000−2002 “tech wreck” and the 2007−2009 “Great Recession,” stocks lost roughly half their value, twice! Even though bonds and cash equivalent yields are currently near historic lows, they are essential in providing the relative stability that will be sorely needed in the next stock meltdown. They can also be a source of funds for additional stock investments when prices are low.
During periods of market—and emotional—stress, one of our most important responsibilities is to provide clients with perspective. Toward the end of the 2009 bear market, the financial press made much about the “lost decade": Stock returns had been negative for ten years! With many of the headlines predicting a second Great Depression, for some, it was a time when abandoning stocks appeared to be the only rational action to save what little they had left. But impatient—or panicked—sellers not only locked in their losses, they bailed out at the beginning of one of history’s most profitable bull markets. To survive, you have to invest with your head and not your stomach.
Clients’ portfolios are invested in publicly traded securities: predominantly mutual funds and ETFs. We also manage real estate investment trusts (REITs) and dividend-oriented stock portfolios, using highly respected outside research firms.
We work on a fee-only basis. Some financial advisors work for commissions, which often provides them incentives to sell you products you may not need. Other advisors are fee-based, which means that they take fees for some products and commissions for others. We don’t think either of these two options is investor-friendly.
As a Registered Investment Advisor with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tweddell Goldberg is required to act as a fiduciary for our clients. This is a legal—and, to us, an ethical—standard. In deciding how to invest your money, we must treat your money as prudently as if it were our own. This is a relationship of special trust and confidence. We are required to act with undivided loyalty to our clients. [Please click here to view a copy of our Customer Relationship Summary]