Investment Planning
Investment planning is an integral part of your wealth management plan. Our process begins with defining your portfolio objectives and designing a plan specific for you and your goals. We believe structure and risk management are different based on your accumulation and withdrawal phases. Plan success is dependent on portfolio success, which requires hitting your long-term return target and your shorter-term risk management targets. Balancing these objectives requires efficient, low-cost investments and risk management processes personalized for your situation.
DEFINE AND DOCUMENT PORTFOLIO OBJECTIVES
To establish clear portfolio objectives, it’s essential to create an investment policy that outlines specific return and risk targets. Most investors understand the inherent trade-off between these two factors: reducing risk often leads to a decrease in potential returns. Risk is commonly characterized by its association with volatility, but its true measurement lies in determining your potential losses. Portfolio objectives encompass several key elements, including your investment timeline, desired returns, acceptable levels of risk, cost considerations, and the establishment of management guidelines for tasks like asset allocation, trading strategies, rebalancing efforts, and decisions regarding exposure to or avoidance of particular investments. These objectives are central to your overall financial plan, providing a clear framework for your investment strategy.
ACCUMULATION AND WITHDRAWAL PHASE
Creating an effective investment plan begins with an awareness of the two primary investment phases: accumulation and withdrawal. The accumulation phase embraces volatility since savings are being made consistently. Any drop in the market allows for contributions to buy in at a lower price. The Retirement Red Zone is five years before and after retirement as you prepare for taking withdrawals. Studies have shown that exposure to a deep drawdown during this period can negatively affect your plan. The withdrawal phase still requires a suitable return, but there must be a focus on a clearly defined risk management process to minimize deep drawdowns. When distributions occur with drawdowns, portfolio balances decline deeper making recoveries more difficult. A good retirement income plan utilizes guardrails for income management; avoiding the lower guardrail is very important to consistent income. (See Retirement Income Planning).
RISK-MANAGED PORTFOLIOS
Risk management is commonly overlooked in the investment management process. Portfolio theory was created for institutions and endowments that have an infinite time horizon. Consequently, they can easily ride out market deep drawdowns. Vantedge manages low-cost and efficient portfolios designed for the accumulation phase and the withdrawal phase. Our VTAC (Vantedge Tactical Asset Class) portfolios have a risk management overlay designed to be fully invested when markets are trending up and protected when the portfolio has dropped 10% from a trailing high level. We created the Risk Control Center provides daily levels of Equity Drawdown Exposure, providing confidence that you have an active plan, and your wealth is protected against equity drawdowns.
TAX EFFICIENT PORTFOLIOS
Tax efficiency considers reducing the impact of taxes and the preservation of wealth. Simply taking losses to offset gains is often not the best wealth plan. Asset location is planning for the type of asset to own based on its taxable location. For example, individual or trust assets are taxed annually on interest, dividends, and capital gains at their specific rates. Qualified plans are taxed on distributions which the investor controls until their required minimum distributions begin. Tax-deferred assets from insurance companies can have tax-free elements and taxable elements. How assets are owned, their location, and how they’re invested can have significant benefits annually and in your legacy plan.
Holistic Wealth Management
Holistic Wealth Management is an integrated and coordinated approach to all areas of Wealth Management. At Vantedge Wealth, our advisors create a collaborative environment with clients to find common sense, easy-to-comprehend approaches to their personal finances.
