Money Managers

What do we Look for in Money Managers

When selecting Money Managers we pay special attention to the following:

• Registration - Money managers must be registered investment advisers (Within the state where business is conducted, and with the SEC).
• Long-Term Performance - Money Managers should show at least five years of information on quarterly performance.
• Stability - Money managers should show stability of investment personnel.
• Well-Informed - Money Managers should be able to discuss investment strategies and philosophy.
• Free of Legal Actions - Money Managers should verify that they are not subject to or have pending, litigation censures/regulatory investigations. Client must be notified if any of these occur.
• Fiduciary Status - Money Managers should recognize fiduciary status in writing.
• Ownership - Investment company owners who are the decision makers have a tendency to do better with investments than regular employees.
• Size of Firm - Smaller companies are characterized by a stronger focus on one style of investing.
• Assets under Management - Companies should be able to invest the money being placed.
• Trading capability - Investing expenses impact your plan's performance.  Analyzing the company's trading capabilities to ensure that costs are well managed is key.
• Research - How much research is the company doing on its own as opposed to accessing it from Wall Street along with many other firms?
• Conflicts of interest - Are the company's alliances in terms of money management free of other activities?

Series Exams and Licenses

The following Table lists the most important professional licenses:

Highly Trained Managers

StateTrust believes that knowledge is power and understands that technology creates continual change. Thus, we require continuing education for our staff.  Our consultants take part in StateTrust dynamic training seminars and internal reviews to ensure that we are always up to date.  They are also sent to financial industry and economic seminars in order to stay up to date with the latest industry information.

Continuous Education

Our Managers, Investment Advisors and officers are engaged in continuous Employee Education and Technology Training. Among the areas of interest are:

• Financial Industry Updates.
• Economic Seminars.
• Internal Reviews.
• Topics related to Compliance and Due Diligence.
• Other continuing education courses and seminars.

Qualitative Factors

The following are qualitative factors used by StateTrust in selecting Money Managers:

• Personnel - A rating of the quality of people working for the investment management firm, analysts assess the background, number of years with the firm and the depth and diversity of experience for each key employee.
• Investment Process - A rating of how well the firm has developed and articulated its investment philosophy. Analysts evaluate manager's criteria on stock or bond selection, asset allocation and other aspects of active portfolio management.
• Investment Research - A rating of the quality and suitability of the firm's information and data resources used for making investment decisions.
• Implementation of Process - A rating of how well the portfolio managers implement the firm's stated investment discipline or strategy as well as how consistently the firm adheres to its sell discipline.
• Business Evaluation - A rating of the financial and operating strength of the firm, specially the firm's profitability and capital structure. Analysts also rate the adequacy of facilities, administration and operations.

Quantitative Factors

The following are quantitative factors used by StateTrust in selecting Money Managers:

• Return Analysis -  We measure annualized returns on a one, three, five, seven and ten year basis against the benchmark.
• Consistency of Returns - We measure the dispersion of a manager's quaterly results against the portfolio benchmark to determine if returns are not more volatile than benchmark returns.
• Risk Analysis - Provides an indication of how volatile a manager's performance has been over extended periods of time.  Risk is measured by comparing the manager's standard deviation for up markets and down markets to its corresponding style benchmark.
• Value Added Analysis and Benchmark Tracking - Quantitative research provides investors with the means to gauge the historical manager's value added performance contribution against the portfolio benchmark.

Active Style Management

The benefits of Active Style-Management are:

• Seeks excess returns over benchmarks.
• Provides solid diversification*.
• Measures and tracks style shift. 
• Contributes to a more consistent performance analysis.
• Stands alone or complements other portfolio-management techniques.
• Saves plan sponsor time performing attribution analysis.

The disadvantages of Active Style-Management are:

• Reduces the manager's absolute control of the equity asset mix.
• It is more complex to market to clients.
• It complicates the task of research and portfolio management.
• Can result in underperfoming benchmarks

Style Benchmarks

There are two fundamental uses for style benchmarks in the context of performance measurement. Style benchmarks are intended to reveal the manager's ability to add value as defined by excess returns (positive alpha) or risk measurement, and provide a more appropriate tool for calculating performance-based fees.

• Basket of Stocks - These securities are weighted in some appropriate way to reflect the manager's style, resulting in a portfolio whose traditional characteristics match those of the manager's invested portfolio.
• Style index - The second type of style benchmark is a style index or weighted average of a selection of style indexes.
• Style Universe Mean or Median - The Frank Russell Company and other consultants track enough managers to categorize them by investment style, such as growth managers, or market-oriented managers, with a value tilt.

* Diversification does not guarantee a profit or ensure against loss.