Time-Tested Methods
Our investment philosophy is based on six principles.
Long-Term Investing vs. Speculating
The Firm believes that while markets can be inefficient and volatile over the short-term, they are relatively efficient over the long-term. Further, attempts to trade on short-term market fluctuations generally result in timing errors, higher costs, and lower long-term returns.
Asset Allocation vs. Security Selection
Asset allocation is the percent of a portfolio dedicated to different asset classes such as stocks, bonds, and cash. Whereas security selection is the specific stocks or bonds that are purchased. Research has shown that over 90% of a portfolio’s long-term returns are attributable to the asset allocation decision. Therefore, we spend our time getting the asset allocation right.
CB Capital will diversify across different asset classes, sectors, geographies, etc., to optimize the balance of risk and return in our portfolios.
Indexing vs. Picking Stocks
The majority of long-term investment returns for a given portfolio are attributable to the strategic asset allocation decisions rather than timing and/or individual security selection decisions.
Therefore, CB Capital does not routinely purchase individual equity securities in an attempt to “beat” the market but focuses instead on utilizing exchange traded funds “ETFs” and strategic asset allocation to achieve the Client’s long-term objectives.
Diversification
In a practical sense, diversification is not placing all your eggs in one basket. In investing, it also involves holding investments that will react differently to the same market or economic event. For example, when the economy is growing, stocks tend to outperform bonds. But when the economy slows down, bonds often outperform stocks. By holding both stocks and bonds, you can lessen the losses on the downside while still achieving the long-term goal of the portfolio on the upside.
CB Capital will diversify across different asset classes, sectors, geographies, etc., to optimize the balance of risk and return in our portfolios.
Minimize Taxes
The Firm utilizes several techniques to manage client portfolios in working towards the investment objectives, while also being as tax efficient as possible. This is achieved through utilizing specific types of securities, rebalancing techniques, and minimizing trading and by locating your assets in appropriate accounts to give you the highest net after-tax value.
Low Fees
Normally, you know the price before you make a purchase. For example, if you go to a store, the items will be marked with price tags. If you purchase something online. the price is clearly listed next to the item.
Unfortunately, this is not the case in the in the world of investment advice. In fact, it can be difficult to know exactly what fees you are truly paying and what the long-term impact of this is.
The following is a partial list of the fees that are common in the industry:
• Account/custodian fees,
• Sales commissions (or front-end loads)
• Surrender charges (or back-end loads)
• 12b-1 fees
• Advisory/management fees
• Transaction fees
• Expenses within specific investments (i.e. expense ratios in mutual funds)
There is a cost of doing business, but you may be wondering which fees should I pay. If so, for what amount? How will these fees impact my investments over the long-term?
Over the long-term, a seemingly small difference in fees can significantly erode the performance of a client’s portfolio. For example, an additional one percent (1%) fee paid annually over a 30-year period can lower the ending value of a portfolio by approximately 30%. Specifically, a portfolio that would have had an ending value of $1,000,000 will only have an ending value of $700,000, or $300,000 less.
At CB Capital, clients are only charged a management fee, and that fee is below average. In addition, we utilize investments that carry much lower internal expense ratios, and our custodian(s) charges minimal transaction costs, if any.
