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.

While index funds, mutual funds and ETFs help diversify our clients’ portfolios and minimize risk, our advisors use additional strategies proven to be successful. One of those strategies is investing in small companies that are found on the Russell 3000. Another is investing in “value” stocks or shares of companies we believe hold great promise but are selling at a low price. These strategies provide additional opportunities for our clients and have proven over time to boost performance.

One of our missions is to make sure our clients stick to the strategy we put together and remain discipline investors. It is easy to be disciplined when the market climbs day after day, but when stocks tumble some investors react abruptly and want to change courses. Greenspring advisors have decades of experience. We know how the market behaves. We know what drives it and what makes it pull back. We know that the market falls 10 percent every 18 months and that there will be a bear market every five years. We also know how to 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 interest in mind every day of the week.