In today’s high cost environment, the small to medium sized institution ($1 million to $50 million) portfolio can benefit from the all-in-one solution of the manager who acts as both a consultant on portfolio structure and objective statement design as well as the capable investment advisor, like Hartline, who can execute the plan.

What has changed to make this a viable solution?  There has been a tremendous consolidation of product with mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) over the past 10 years.  One can now buy entire sectors in either managed or indexed form in single securities.  The costs have decreased and the imbedded knowledge (not necessarily management, but structural design) has increased so that the products can be added to portfolios without significant overlap.

Hartline has managed entire endowments for many organizations over the past two decades and previously, its managers had experience of the same type for two decades before that.  Portfolio construction has much to do with diversification and establishment of appropriate ranges of asset types based on historical returns and volatility of each asset type.  Many are based on statistical assumptions (often faulty assumptions such as “the bell curve” – see Fooled by Randomness by Taleb).  Portfolio sector selection made by committees is often unresponsive to the quick moving realities of the current markets.  It is helpful to have managers like Hartline that can be communicative with their committees in ways that meet the needs of the organization.  They also can satisfy the committee’s need to deal with the liability of exercising their fiduciary duties to the organization.

Coaching of the investment committee of a board by Hartline can be helpful when new members are added or a new topic or product is introduced to the fund.  It can also help in deflecting the constant marketing calls from everyone with product to sell.  Building knowledge is important in order to properly address the risks that are taken or avoided.  It is not enough to reject anything new under the guise that it is “too risky”.  Building vocabulary and knowledge will bring more potential opportunities to the organization (both in terms of risk and return).