Investment Management Services

Our clients are from all walks of life. We work with individuals, families, non-profits, and corporations. We work with retirees who are looking to preserve assets or need expertise around issues like estate planning. We work with younger individuals and families who need a financial plan and are focused on growth, saving for college, or a new house. Our clients have an eye on the long term, growing their money steadily over time. We stay away from investors aiming for short-term gains who like to jump in and out of the market based on what they hear on the news.

Understanding risk tolerance is one of the first steps we take when sitting down with clients whether they are new or have been with us for years. Assessing risk tolerance is one of the foundations for creating a sound plan. Everything is on the table. We discuss how clients reacted to the plunging market in 2008. What if 20 or 30 percent of their portfolio was wiped out in a single day? How much risk are they willing to take? How much risk should they take? We want clients to feel comfortable and sleep well at night knowing their money is safe and in the appropriate investments.

Once risk tolerance is established, we customize our client’s portfolio based on what they want to achieve. Do they want to keep working? Do they want to retire as soon as possible? Are they trying to preserve assets or are they looking to take on more risk because they have years of investing ahead? We have a solution for every customer and for every situation.

Our investment philosophy relies on data, evidence, and logic. We never rely on guesswork or gut instinct. We control what we can control. Many investors try to control the market by timing it. They are in and out of investments, reacting more on emotion, news, momentum, and guessing where stocks or bonds are heading.

We control what we can control by using index funds, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to diversify our holdings and spread risk. We cherry-pick the best funds in the best accounts. We like to buy funds that run the gamut of the market – a little bit of everything – while keeping costs and taxes low. When the market sells off, we are poised to scoop up the good deals.

Greenspring primarily utilizes index and index-like funds to help diversify our clients’ portfolios and minimize risk. In addition, our Investment Committee and advisors use additional strategies – small-cap, value, and profitability. While our portfolios own a little of everything, we like to be slightly heavier in small-cap stocks found on the Russell 2000, “value” stocks, or shares of companies we believe hold great promise but are selling at a low price, and stocks whose companies demonstrate higher profitability. These strategies and others provide additional opportunities for our clients.

One of our missions is to make sure our clients stick to the strategy we put together and remain disciplined investors. Greenspring Advisors have decades of experience. We know that the market’s behavior can be difficult to understand. We can help prepare our clients for periods when the market’s performance is lackluster. We remind our clients that stocks returned on average more than 11 percent over the past 10 years, so even if there are bumps and bruises along the way, there are few substitutes for investing in the markets. At the end of the day, we are data-driven, conservative, and disciplined. We are fiduciaries who have our clients’ best interests in mind every day of the week.