Bernhardt Wealth Management has developed the Strategic Investment Management Process™ to ensure that our clients’ portfolios are customized to their unique needs and goals, and periodically updated to reflect any changes to those needs and goals. This process enables us to achieve three important goals:
- To create a road map for each portfolio, based on the client’s true financial goals
- To institute a regular review process that keeps the client’s portfolio on track even when life circumstances or the markets have changed
- To communicate progress to each client in a clear, useful way
At Bernhardt Wealth Management, we base all our portfolio recommendations on the four principles of Our Investment Philosophy. In keeping with these principles, we implement investing strategies that emphasize asset class allocation and minimum trading. The result is a portfolio that harnesses the power of the normal movements of the market while minimizing investment costs and taxes.
We believe that financial security and peace of mind are the result of developing an Investment Plan, and then following it consistently. Using our dynamic and disciplined Strategic Investment Management Process™, we work closely with each of our clients through four distinct phases:
INVESTMENT PLAN DESIGN
We assess (or reassess) where the client is now and where the client wants to go, and we outline any actions that may be required to maximize the client’s probability of achieving those goals. This is called a Gap Analysis. Based on the Gap Analysis, we develop or refine the personal Investment Plan. This Plan provides a road map for the development of the client’s portfolio, clearly defining goals and the investment strategies we will use to help achieve them.
INVESTMENT IMPLEMENTATION
Once the client approves the Investment Plan, we make all the necessary changes to the portfolio to implement the plan. After the trades are completed, the client will receive trade confirmations showing the number of shares, the date the trades were executed, the price per share and all other pertinent information regarding the purchases and sales.
QUARTERLY REPORTING
Shortly after the end of each calendar quarter, we will provide each client with an easy-to-understand, detailed review of his or her portfolio. This report will allow the client to easily determine how the portfolio as a whole and each asset class has performed. The report will also provide a summary of activity that has taken place for the quarter, the last 12 months and since the inception of the account.
PORTFOLIO OPTIMIZATION
The one thing we can always rely on is change. Because proper asset allocation is so important, we conduct a review each quarter of every asset class in each client’s portfolio to determine if it is still appropriate to his or her overall plan. If market conditions have caused the actual allocation to shift from the target allocation by an amount greater than our predetermined levels, or if life changes have shifted the client’s priorities and tolerance for risk, we will rebalance the portfolio. This review automatically happens every quarter, but it can also be conducted whenever circumstances warrant a reassessment.
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e use Regular Progress Meetings to ensure that the Investment Plan still reflects the client’s objectives. Whenever we determine that there has been a shift in the foundations of the
Investment Plan, we will begin the process again. Periodically repeating the Strategic Investment Management Process™ creates the opportunity to make sure that each client’s portfolio remains consistent with his or her deepest goals and values. We will repeat this process as long as we continue to work together.
