Conversations - Spring 2001
LWA
NEWS
The Summit Business and
Professional Women’s Organization recently honored Clare and Diahann when LWA
was named this year’s recipient of the Helen Dooley Edwards Award.
This award recognizes individuals or businesses that promote the
interests of working women in the areas of education, advancement, recognition
and cooperation. Clare and Diahann received the award at a Summit BPW dinner
on March 19. Many of the LWA staff
attended the event. Please visit
our website for more information and a picture taken at the event (www.lassuswherley.com). The Journal of Financial
Planning, the official publication of the Financial Planning Association,
recently featured an interview with Diahann, as part of its “best practices”
series. Diahann was asked to answer
a number of questions including, “How did you get started in financial
planning, and what makes you stay in the profession?” and “What has helped
you the most in achieving success?”. You
can access this article through http://www.journalfp.net/fpajournal/bp04022001-art1.cfm
or
let
us know and we will be happy to send you a copy. The LWA girls’ softball
team has started their practice in preparation for the upcoming season.
This year the firm is sponsoring a 6th to 8th grade
team in the New Providence township league, which will include Catherine Tamburo,
daughter of Lynn Tamburo, our Vice President.
Lynn’s husband Nick will once again be one of LWA’s coaches.
We’ll keep you posted on the team’s progress.
DEALING
WITH A VOLATILE MARKET Our theme for this year will be “Dealing with a
Volatile Market.” We felt that this was appropriate considering the behavior
of the market over this past year. Our objective is to help you understand how
your portfolio is designed to deal with volatile markets. Let us know if there are other topics that you would like to hear about. This newsletter is designed to provide information to you, so let us know what you would like to read. Please e-mail Zuzana at zuzana@lassuswherley.com with any topics so that we can include them in upcoming newsletters.
USING
MARKET INDEXES TO BENCHMARK YOUR PORTFOLIO’S PERFORMANCE By Gigi Collins, CFA In recent months, and in some cases the last year,
many of us have experienced negative portfolio results at one time or another.
While we are all hoping for the markets to turn in the upward direction,
it is becoming increasingly clear that ups and downs will continue to be
the pattern. It is how far up and
how far down that defines volatility. Let’s
take a moment to talk about how diversification over asset categories and being
invested in solid performing mutual funds with consistent long-term track
records has affected your performance. First, let’s examine the performance of a portfolio
that is invested 100% in stocks: 40%
S&P 500 Large Cap, 25% Russell Small Cap, 25% MSCI EAFE International, and
10% NASDAQ Technology stocks. The
annualized performance for the period 12/31/99 to 3/31/01 was –19.55%.
Obviously, this portfolio is extremely volatile and while diversified
over different market caps and sectors, is a very aggressive portfolio.
The lack of bonds increases the risk level and overall aggressiveness of
the portfolio. Now, let’s look at the performance of a
conservative portfolio that is 50% bonds and 50% stocks:
50% SB Bond index and 50% S&P 500 Large Cap.
The annualized performance for the period 12/31/99 to 3/31/01 was
–3.4%. This portfolio is less
volatile and diversified across stocks and bonds.
Being diversified allows your portfolio to weather the downturns in the
market. You are able to capture the
upturns in whatever the “hot” asset class is today while tempering the
downturns with an asset class that is not doing quite as well. These two portfolios demonstrate very different risk
levels and very different results. These
portfolios, like the composite we include in our cover letter, do not take into
account any of the normal ongoing expenses for investment.
When we design portfolios, we consider your targeted returns and your
risk tolerance. We select individual investments based upon long-term
performance, expenses, volatility, risk and other factors we believe are
important. Looking at fund performance for the annualized time period 12/31/99 to 3/31/01: Here are some index returns that we use to assess
performance for different asset classes along with the average return for our
recommended funds in the asset category. Please
note that the index does not have any expenses while the funds have basic
expenses included. In the general bond category, the SB Bond Index was
11.73. The LWA recommended bond
fund list average was 10.78%. In
the large cap category, the S&P 500 was
-17.22%. The LWA recommended
list in the large cap category was –17.86%.
In the international category, the MSCI EAFE was -22.31%.
The LWA international funds returned –22.37%. By Gigi Collins, CFA As you know, we constantly monitor the investments on
our Recommended List. Recently we
have determined that we need to reclassify the Baron Asset Fund from the Small
Cap to the Mid-Cap asset category. The Baron Asset Fund was started in June, 1987, and
has been managed by Ron Baron since the beginning. He focuses on stocks that will have a dramatic growth over
the next three to five years. Because
of that, the fund has more of a buy and hold mentality and, therefore, low
turnover or less realized capital gains from the sale of assets (lower taxes).
Over the last few years, because of this long-term buy and hold strategy,
Baron Asset has had many of the companies they are holding in the fund increase
in market capitalization or overall value.
This means that what was once considered a small company is now a
middle-sized company. The fund is still a very solid fund and remains on our
Recommended List. What is changing
is where it is grouped for asset allocation purposes. Because we have been holding this fund since the early years, many portfolios may have large unrealized capital gains. Therefore, it may not make sense to immediately shift out of this fund. If we determine that we need to make changes to your portfolio, we will provide a new model.
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