Investment Management

Navigating the complexity of today’s investment markets

Investment markets are global and they are non-stop – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They not only require acumen, but they require scale. CW Advisors and CWAS (collectively CWA) possess that scale.

CWA staffs a dedicated investment team and employs state of the art technology to effectively manage risk and implement portfolio decisions with tax efficiencies and customization across multiple client accounts.

At CWA, we believe there is no one-size-fits-all investment solution for clients. We are proud to employ a multi-strategy investment platform that allows advisors to choose a strategy that will best meet the needs of the client based on the client’s financial goals and risk tolerance.

CWA’s investment strategies are designed to mitigate the three primary types of investment risk that should be considered when selecting an investment strategy. From Strategic to Quant, each strategy employs an increasing level of risk management.

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Strategies

Strategic Market

Strategic Market

Classic Strategic Asset Allocation
Our Strategic Market Strategy is classic Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), designed to replicate market performance over the long term. The Strategic Market Strategy will appeal to advisors and clients who are willing to absorb market volatility in an effort to achieve mean historical market returns and who are uncomfortable with manager or strategy risk.

Like other strategic portfolios that follow the principles of Modern Portfolio Theory, Strategic Market owns a diversified portfolio of 19 asset classes that are periodically rebalanced based on tolerance bands for each asset class. Moreover, the portfolios are designed to be low cost. We use select ETFs with low internal expense ratios and ETFs with no transaction fees, whenever possible.

What sets the Congress program apart, however, is that it enables advisors to add additional value to an often commoditized investment solution. For example, (a) CWA manages accounts at the household level, which further reduces transaction costs for clients with multiple accounts; (b) CWA employs enhanced tax strategies like asset location and tax loss-harvesting so advisors can meaningfully improve after-tax returns on a client by client basis; and (c) CWA can accommodate additional client customizations associated with legacy securities, billing, cash management and others.

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Strategic Market Hybrid

Strategic Market Hybrid

Strategic Market Hybrid is a combination of our Strategic Market Series and various equity separately managed account (SMA) strategies of Congress Asset Management. Our Strategic Market Series is designed to replicate market performance over the long term while the SMA overlay seeks to provide less volatility and better downside capture. The goal of this strategy is to provide an asset allocation baseline and outperformance from actively managed individual equities.

Strategic Market Hybrid offers three risk models – Conservative, Growth and Appreciation

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Dynamic Market

Dynamic Market

Strategic Asset Allocation + Risk Overlay
Our Dynamic Market Strategy provides investors with a traditional strategic portfolio but with an additional level of risk management. Dynamic Market will appeal to advisors and clients who prefer a more passive, low cost and tax efficient investment solution but who also wish to mitigate market volatility by adding an additional layer of risk management.

The idea is simple. The portfolio is divided into two distinct allocations: a core allocation (70% of the portfolio) and a satellite allocation (30% of the portfolio).  The core allocation is a traditional “buy and hold” portfolio that employs diversification and rebalancing to manage risk.  The satellite allocation employs a risk overlay that dynamically adjusts exposure between equities, fixed income and cash based on market conditions and, in so doing, tilts the aggregate portfolio to a defensive, neutral or aggressive position.

Dynamic Market Series offers three model portfolios to investors: Conservative, Moderate Growth, and Appreciation.

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Dynamic Prime

Dynamic Prime

Global Tactical Asset Allocation
Dynamic Prime is a global tactical asset allocation strategy offering a more active approach to risk management. Dynamic Prime will appeal to advisors and clients who are willing to assume manager risk in an effort to reduce portfolio volatility.

Dynamic Prime adheres to the Modern Portfolio Theory principles of diversification and rebalancing but it seeks to improve risk management by taking into consideration the value characteristics of asset classes. CWA believes that global markets offer a sufficient number of asset classes, geographies, sectors and industries to construct a diversified portfolio without owning asset classes with an unattractive risk-reward profile. By avoiding more vulnerable asset classes, this strategy may avoid the “pot holes” that can damage cumulative returns and increase portfolio volatility.

Dynamic Prime offers five risk models from Conservative to Ultra Appreciation.

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Dynamic Quant

Dynamic Quant

Global Tactical Asset Allocation + Quant Satellite
Dynamic Quant is a global tactical asset allocation strategy with a meaningful quantitative component. Dynamic Quant will appeal to advisors and clients who are willing to assume manager and strategy risk in an effort to reduce portfolio volatility.

Dynamic Quant is a wealth manager’s quantitative solution. Many advisors are aware that some clients are attracted to a more quantitative investment solution. And as fiduciaries, these advisors are also aware that some quantitative strategies have performed very well right up until the moment they did not. Dynamic Quant satisfies the interest of clients who prefer a more quantitative approach and also the interest of the advisor who wants to hedge against the possibility that one day the quantitative strategy could perform poorly. Dynamic Quant employs a core satellite structure with its proven Dynamic Prime strategy in the core portfolio (62.5%) and a US rules-based quantitative strategy in the satellite portfolio (37.5%).

Dynamic Quant offers only one risk model. The tactical nature of both the core portfolio and the satellite portfolio allows the mix to be quite different in a bull or bear posture. In a neutral posture, it will own 75% equities and 25% fixed income. A bearish posture will see 19% equities and 81% fixed income while a bullish posture will see 87.5% equities and 12.5% fixed income.

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Clean, Green, Global

Clean, Green, Global

For the Socially Responsible Investor
Our Clean, Green, Global is a platform of portfolios based on two different strategies: Strategic Market – emphasizing passive investing and Dynamic Market – offering an active satellite component along with a passive core. Both strategies are diversified across 16 asset classes and include index-based ETFs. Many of the ETFs screen the underlying holdings to favor companies that rank highly* on factors relating to environmental, social, and governance characteristics.

In short, the Clean, Green, Global platform is designed for those investors who are interested in positioning their investment portfolio to be more socially and environmentally responsible but want to be secure in the knowledge that a professional manager is selecting and adjusting the holdings when necessary, in their best interest.

Clean, Green, Global offers investors a chance to align their own personal core values regarding the environment, gender equality, social consciousness, and even corporate governance, with their choice of investment strategy.

*Rankings are provided by the third-party index provider and based on their unique proprietary methodology.

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