We Invest Our Money Alongside Yours

Since 1957 we have managed money for wealthy individuals, pension plans, charitable foundations, funds of funds, the firm, and family members.

We Are Educated and Experienced

Our senior portfolio manager, Thomas Herzig, has 25 years of investing experience. Two of us have Ivy League degrees. Four have CFA designations. One of us formerly worked for the SEC, one for a major U.S. bank, and one for a major brokerage firm.

We Are (Careful) Opportunists

We have been in the market too long to think any one approach works forever, and tend to avoid the artificial distinction between value and growth investing. If forced to choose, we would join the value camp. Contrarians by nature, we often like stocks depressed by short-term difficulties. We always seek a margin of safety in the price. Over the years we’ve found that long-term success in investing comes as much from avoiding large losers as in finding big winners.

We Tailor Our Approach to Your Needs

We are investment professionals rather than “asset gatherers.” Unlike many larger firms, we get to know the needs and wishes of each client, many of whom have been with us for decades. And unlike mutual fund holders, each of our clients knows exactly what holdings are in his or her portfolio and can discuss them with us at any time.

We Keep Things Simple

We are structured as a broker-dealer and receive all our compensation in the form of commissions on purchases and sales of securities. This lets us keep administration to a minimum. Pershing LLC, one of the largest U.S. clearing firms, with $700 billion in client assets, does our back office work and holds your securities.

We Tell You the Costs

Many investment accounts, including those containing “house” funds sold by major brokerage firms, are loaded with poorly disclosed costs totaling 3% or more. Over time these annual costs take a huge bite out of your capital. Generally the total investment costs paid by our clients average between 1% and 1.5% of average invested assets for accounts over which the Firm has investment discretion authority and, in most cases, less for non-discretionary accounts.

We Are Performance Oriented

We have tracked the “time-weighted” performance of individual accounts since the mid 1980s, long before it was common to do so. We have had outstanding results, especially over the past five years, which we will be happy to discuss. Past performance, of course, does not guarantee future results.

What is a CFA designation?

What is "time-weighted" performance?

What does a clearing firm do?

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