Investment Philosophy

Investment Philosophy

“Take no more risk than is necessary in order to achieve your goals and objectives. It's not about the market. It’s about the Plan!"

Let’s be clear; everything has some risk associated with it. The key to achieving long-term goals is the avoidance of unnecessary risks. Achieving what one might consider above average returns is, more than likely, going to require a very high risk tolerance with no guarantee that above average returns will be achieved over the long-term. At Main Street Private Advisors we share the belief that successful investors place a high degree of emphasis on what is known as “downside protection.” Downside protection is, in simple terms, protection against loss. We believe that, in general, the best way to achieve downside protection is to have a well- diversified portfolio that consists of multiple asset classes as well as investments that don’t directly correlate to the stock and bond market. We at Main Street Private Advisors agree with the old adage, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” When building an investment portfolio, we combine our asset classes in such a way that the allocation of each asset class will vary in order to reduce the volatility of the portfolio while, at the same time, as we target a desired level of return, we maintain the minimal level of risk. The asset classes will vary in proportion to the level of risk that is agreed upon. While there is no guarantee that this methodology will increase overall returns or even outperform a portfolio that is less diversified our experience shows us that, over time, this approach has shown favorable results.

We also believe that combining both “Active” and “Passive” management approaches will, over the long term cost clients less than they would pay for a 100% “active management” approach.

Levels of Risk and Accompanying Strategy * see “Note”

1. Conservative - an investment strategy that seeks to preserve an investment portfolio’s value by investing in lower risk securities such as bonds and cash. If a stock allocation is employed in a conservative strategy it will usually be no more than 5 -10%. And the stocks will be blue chip stocks that pay attractive dividends.
2. Moderately Conservative – an investing strategy that emphasizes preservation, however the investor is willing to allocate a higher percentage toward stocks than a conservative investor. Allocation might be approximately 70% in bonds and money market securities and approximately 30% in blue chip stocks.
3. Moderate – an investing strategy that is oftentimes referred to as “balanced.” Allocation might be approximately 60-65% in stocks of various asset classes and 35% - 40% invested in bonds and money market instruments.
4. Moderately Aggressive - an investing strategy that will typically hold an allocation of approximately 70%-75% in stocks of varying asset classes and approximately 25%-30% in bonds and money market securities.
5. Aggressive – An aggressive portfolio will hold just about 100% of its holdings in stocks of varying asset classes.

Note: The allocation models given are not hard and fast. They merely represent fairly standard ranges. Different companies may be guided by different models. Depending upon market conditions, trends, and other factors allocation models can change.