Your Best Interest
Peirce Capital Management, LLC is a Registered Investment Advisor, not a broker.
Brokers are required to provide “suitable products” to their clients.
Registered Investment Advisors are fiduciaries, required to provide “for the best interest of the client”. Fiduciary duty is generally considered the highest legal duty one party can have to another.
The difference between these two levels of accountability creates a huge difference in the approaches that are used.
Approach
A Registered Investment Advisor is free to use what the advisor determines is the best approach for the client, based on the large amount of academic research available to us. Registered Investment Advisors often focus on a diversified portfolio of low cost, passively managed mutual funds…because we can!
Brokers are typically constrained by the products consistent with their company’s business model, which perpetually have the conflict between the return to the client, and the return to the company.
““You should fire your broker and find an investment advisor. Brokerage firms would like you to think that they perform the same function as investment advisors. Many brokers call themselves ‘financial consultants’ or ‘financial advisors’. But they are not the same as independent investment advisors…an investment advisor’s fiduciary duty is on a higher plane, like that of a lawyer, a trustee, or the executor of an estate.””
Academically-Based Solutions
How much of investing is art, and how much is science?
It is much more science than your broker would like you to believe. Now SPECULATING – that’s an art, and one which we (and frankly, you) have no talent for. INVESTING involves optimizing long-term expected returns at the minimum level of volatility consistent with the clients need, ability, and willingness to take risk…and while many advisors will disagree about the precise allocations to achieve that goal, the academic solutions to that problem are well understood.
Some suggestions:
keep expenses low
don’t time the market
take advantage of small/value risk premiums
diversify
avoid risk in fixed income
proactively manage taxes
if it promises return without risk … run the other way
And no – do not fill up the vault with gold.
“The only thing new in investing is the history that you don’t know.”
Comprehensive Client Services
Peirce Capital Management is committed to making sure that when it comes to financial opportunity, we leave very little on the table. That means being aware of, and proactive about, taking advantage of the many opportunities in the financial landscape: Roth accounts and conversions, 401k plans, deferred comp, estate planning, etc. We focus on optimizing these opportunities.
Some things we don’t do – We don’t act as a CPA or an Estate Planner, but we make sure that these services are properly coordinated for you, as appropriate, while acting as your financial CFO.
