Investment Management

Our Investment Management service is designed to implement and manage your Investment Strategy.  Our goal is to efficiently and effectively manage investments to achieve the highest possible return at an acceptable level of risk.  In the pursuit of this goal, we adhere to a disciplined process diagrammed below. 

The first step in our process is to set a client’s investment objectives, including the desired rate of return and the level of risk to be assumed by each client.  Part of our responsibility is to educate clients on the trade-off involved between risk and return.  Some clients are more comfortable with less risk and, as a result, are willing to accept potentially lower rates of return.  Other clients are willing to assume a bit more risk with the expectations that they will receive higher rates of return over the long term. 
The next step is to set, in writing, the client’s investment objectives.  This will include identifying the benchmark that will be used to gauge relative performance, as well as any constraints and/or unique requirements.  All this is documented in our Investment Policy Statement. 

We understand the preservation of capital should always be the first objective.  Our client portfolios are diversified into several asset classes, so that over the long run any weaknesses in one area are offset by gains in another.  Ulivi Wealth Management follows a strategic asset allocation policy that targets the percentage of funds to be invested in each asset class.  Our portfolios are diversified among equity and fixed income, real estate, and inflation-linked asset classes.  We believe that over 90% of the variation in investment returns of a large, well-diversified pool of assets can typically be attributed to asset allocation decisions.

We then start the process of selecting individual investments.  For each asset class, we select those investments we believe best represent that particular class.  We prefer to use index funds and/or exchange traded funds, because these can be very representative of the asset class we are trying to mimic; they are low cost, well diversified, have great liquidity and offer tax advantages.

We execute your strategy on a non-discretionary basis, which means we only make the trades that have been pre-authorized by clients.  Client’s accounts are held at an independent custodian, TD Ameritrade Institutional.  This is a publicly listed New York Stock Exchange discount brokerage firm. They offer low commission rates, a wide selection of mutual funds (over 13,500), equities, fixed income instruments and in depth research by Standard & Poor’s, Argus and more.  TD Ameritrade is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which means the securities in your account are protected up to $500,000. In addition, up to an aggregate of $250 million in extra securities protection is provided by London insurers.  This coverage provides protection against brokerage insolvency and does not protect against loss in market value of securities. 

We monitor portfolios on an ongoing basis and we prepare reports measuring their performance.  These reports also analyze the performance of individual investments and compare the performance of individual portfolios to pre-established benchmarks.  The goal is for you to be able to answer the following question: “How are my investments doing?”   We also meet regularly with you to explain and analyze the performance of your investments.  If changes need to be made, we make the appropriate recommendations to you. 

Clients are provided transaction confirmation notices and monthly summary account statements from TD Ameritrade.  The Advisor contracts out, and gives access to client portfolio data, to Morningstar Office, Inc. for the purpose of preparing performance and other analytical reports for the Advisor.  Morningstar Office, Inc. has no trading authority for any client accounts of our firm.

In conclusion, we follow a disciplined investment process that we believe will help you generate the rates of return you’ll need to sustain your optimum withdrawal rate throughout retirement.  

To learn more about our strategies, please go to “Monitoring Service”