At Strathmore Capital Advisors, we believe in the importance of a comprehensive wealth management strategy. Such a strategy involves much more than simply how your assets are invested. As we build your investment portfolio, our team will also want to discuss issues such as taxes, insurance and estate planning. Reason: Decisions in each of these areas can impact the decisions you make in other areas. For example, your investment strategy shouldn’t ignore the role of taxes, and your estate plan should be designed to work in concert with your insurance holdings.

The purpose of a comprehensive wealth management strategy is to avoid the silo effect, which occurs when each component of an investor’s overall financial plan is designed independently from the other areas. The result of this lack of coordination is that certain parts of your financial plan may be in direct conflict to the rest of your plan. By integrating each area of your financial life, you give yourself a greater chance of truly realizing your most important financial goals.

Historically, investors tend to do the wrong things at the wrong times. As a result, an investor’s behavior is one of the key drivers of long-term investment performance.

Consider this example: In 2009, in the middle of the worst stock market downturn since the Great Depression, investors fled the stock markets in search of safety. As the market hit bottom in March 2009, investors that month were busy pulling $25 billion out of stock funds. Unfortunately, many of those investors missed out on the subsequent stock market rebound in 2009, when the S&P 500 index ended the year up 37%.

Indeed, many investors sabotage their long-term investment results due to poor decision making. During the 20 years through 2011, the average equity investor’s portfolio returned 3.49% a year. That compares to a nearly 8% annual return for the S&P 500 Index. A significant reason for that underperformance is investors’ tendencies to sell at market bottoms and buy at market highs.

At Strathmore Capital Advisors, we believe there’s a valuable lesson to be learned from the mistakes of the average investor. Instead of basing crucial investment decisions on short-term market developments, we work with our clients to build and maintain a disciplined long-term investment strategy that can survive the ups and downs of the market. It’s this all-weather approach to investing that we believe offers investors the best foundation for pursuing their most important financial goals.

During the last decade, more investors have expressed interest in Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) investing. So, what does ESG mean in practical terms?

It means asking questions about investments that go beyond the bottom-line financial numbers. ESG investing considers things like:

• Does a company show good stewardship of the environment?
• Does a firm promote social justice for employees, customers, and communities?
• Does leadership guide the company in a responsible and ethical way?

To be clear, we still take a data-driven approach to these areas because it’s critical to weigh the impact of each in context and to consider factors that can be measured. It’s taken a few years to reach this point, but today, we can say with confidence that the technology and analysis exists to help align these priorities with financial success.

At the heart of ESG investing lies the desire for greater transparency. Investors want to feel greater confidence in the long-term success of their investments. These factors help create a more complete picture of what someone can expect from a company, both in terms of performance and sustainability.

If you’re considering ESG, know that such an approach still supports our proven philosophy of building broadly diversified investment strategies based on sound principles and implemented efficiently.

We're able to provide investment solutions through Sustainable and Social Core Portfolios to meet our clients needs.