Our Philosophy

Financial confidence means something different to everyone, but regardless of your definition, we believe some of the most important components are thoughtfulness and communication. When it came time to name the company, we wanted a name that reflected our custom tailored approach to each client’s unique needs along with the high value we place on proactive communication.

When we thought back to discussions we had with clients about our strategy an interesting pattern began to emerge. We noticed that 7 concepts consistently came up in conversations that connected our investment philosophy to the way farmers harvest their crops. These conversations inspired our name and reflect our commitment to providing our clients with comprehensive services rooted in strategy and experience.

1. Research: Be it seeds, fertilizer or farming equipment, experienced farmers commit time and energy to acquire resources that are most likely to yield their expected results. The same should be true for investors. Time should be spent on evaluating investment tools, and securities selection.

2. Intentionality: If you want to give your portfolio the opportunity to grow you need to feed it with the right mix of investments. That means you need to have some growth investments in your portfolio. How much of your portfolio should be focused on growth? That depends on your age and how soon you want to retire.

3. Diversification: Farmers face a variety of challenges and risks including bad weather and price fluctuations. Farmers and investors can both benefit from diversification. In the farmer’s case they plant some crops that are more drought resistant, so that a lack of rain won’t ruin them. Investors need to spread their dollars across a variety of investments to help reduce the risk in their portfolio.

4. Respect for Risk: The markets have their own cycles that like nature, are hard to predict and need to be planned for. Knowing the risks involved, investors need to construct their portfolio to take nature into account rather than assuming things will always remain the same. Rebalancing is then necessary to reflect changes in market cycles and investors' lives.

5. Teamwork: Just like farm workers need to work together to get everything done, investors need to consider working with professionals as a team in order to achieve established goals. Whether they work with a broker or an investment manager, each team member is a vital part of the portfolio’s success.

6. Discipline: Farmer's self-esteem comes from pride in a job well done, which also allows them to learn self-discipline along the way. This is not very different from managing an investment strategy. Work could involve monitoring current positions, tax loss harvesting, rebalancing a portfolio, or researching future opportunities. Prudent investors naturally learn to work with a professional that knows how to tend a portfolio, use the proper tools, and do what is necessary to increase the probability of achieving targeted results.

7. Patience: Crops don’t grow overnight. Farmers know they will put in months (sometimes years) of work before they see the fruits of their labor. When you invest you should not expect to “get rich quick” – you can expect to experience obstacles in the form of market fluctuations or changes in legislation. You need to invest for the long term and make adjustments based on a long term focus and not as a reaction to a short term event.