Our Philosophy

Core purpose:

Through our work we enable clients to maximize their financial resources so that they can face the future with confidence.

Core values:

1. Integrity: honesty and putting the interests of our clients first are paramount.
2. Servant attitude: we have great concern for the needs of our clients and seek to make a meaningful contribution to their well-being.
3. We are always striving to improve the way we do things.
4. We seek to not only meet, but also exceed client expectations.
5. Our analysis and recommendations are objective and given in an independent manner.

Independent environment:

• We have no proprietary products:
  
  Companies that create their own in-house products and services often "push" these solutions on their clients, because they are more profitable for the company. At EGE Advisors, Ltd., we do not "manufacture" anything internally in order to avoid conflicts of interest that could adversely influence the recommendations we bring to our clients.

• We have an extremely wide range of solutions available to our clients:
  
  We are uniquely positioned to have almost unlimited flexibility in being able to access the entire universe of investment solutions available for our clients. These solutions range from the placement of individual securities, to the oversight of your portfolio by institutional money managers, and include the use of load-waived and no-load mutual funds, partnership and private placement structures, etc.

• Our compensation is tied to our clients' best interests:
  
  We believe that commission-based compensation models unnecessarily introduce an element of conflict into an advisor-client relationship. Instead, we charge a fee that is a percentage of the assets we oversee, similar to the way mutual fund managers have gotten paid for decades. We do not receive commissions or transaction fees when we make changes to our clients' portfolios. Our only financial incentive is to make our clients' investments grow in value, consistent with their goals and risk tolerance.
  
  We believe this model eliminates the conflicts of interest that exist in many other settings and truly allows us to be an advocate for our clients.

Our process

Asset allocation analysis:

Asset allocation addresses the decision as to how a client's portfolio should be divided up between stocks, bonds, cash, and alternative vehicles. There have been two Nobel Prizes awarded for studies on this subject. One of the primary findings from these works is that the allocation decision has a very significant impact on long-term performance.

We utilize this part of the process as a key risk management tool, modeling risk-return trade-offs from various portfolio designs with our clients. Our goal is to structure an investment strategy that will allow our clients to weather financial storms, such as the tough bear markets of 2000-2003. We also endeavor to capture the maximum amount of return possible based on the risk tolerance that is appropriate for each client.

Comprehensive financial planning:

The asset allocation process addresses investment risk, specifically fluctuations in value. Most clients realize that this may not be their most significant risk. Typically, the larger concern is, "do I have enough assets to reach my goals with a high degree of probability?" We can easily reduce investment risk by utilizing a high percentage of CD's, Treasury Bills, or money market instruments. Each has little volatility and little risk regarding loss of principal. However, after paying taxes on their returns and factoring in inflation, often times these vehicles will not provide the necessary growth to accomplish one's goals.

We therefore need to understand what the objectives are for each of our clients' respective investment portfolios. That means we need to consider retirement income goals, college education liabilities, tax issues, estate planning considerations, charitable gifting strategies, potential inheritances, buying a second home, insurance needs and any other financial contingency that a client may have. As we examine and counsel on these diverse needs, we seek to make sure that our advice is coordinated with other professionals that may be involved with our client's situation.

It is not until we know that the allocation design is both comfortable enough to address our clients' risk tolerance and that the projected growth rate from this design gives them a high degree of probability of reaching their goals, that we proceed to building the portfolio.

Building the portfolio:

Each major asset class is made up of numerous styles and sectors. For example, within stocks there are large cap value stocks, small cap growth stocks, international growth stocks, etc. Within each asset class, we employ further diversification using a variety of investment styles to manage risk and optimize return.

The Second Level Of Portfolio Structuring
What TYPE of Stock? What TYPE of Bonds? What TYPE of International?

Use of Specialist Money Managers

Once we have designed a fully diversified portfolio structure suited to a client's financial objectives and risk tolerance, we move on to the final level of portfolio construction. Using a variety of resources, we identify and select a team of all-stars who each specialize in a narrow sector of the market. This approach enhances the likelihood of success and helps to further control risk. Selecting specialists with the expertise, experience and proven record from among the thousands of money managers and mutual fund options is a challenging task, but we have the resources and experience to do so effectively.

Continuous Portfolio Management

Each manager or mutual fund is continually monitored. Being independent allows us to replace any of these vehicles if we identify a better alternative for our client portfolios. In addition to identifying options that complement each other and provide good portfolio diversification, we are constantly striving to reduce investment costs by using our collective "purchasing power" to access institutional shares of mutual funds and to negotiate manager fees. We also pay a very keen eye to minimizing the impact that taxes can have in reducing our clients' returns.

These steps are all designed with one purpose in mind: to provide the best professional guidance to help our clients achieve their unique financial goals.