Posts Tagged ‘asset management’
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
As Featured on Forbes.com
by Harvey Rowen
When Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) like myself choose investments for clients we have a fiduciary responsibility to find the most appropriate investments. We want to avoid taking too much risk while also looking for returns above the benchmark.
We take that responsibility very seriously. We look for mutual funds, for example, that we believe will provide good returns without taking unwarranted risk, funds we think will be stable for the long run and will put the investor first.
Over time, we have developed an effective technique for selecting what we consider to be best-of-breed mutual fund managers and investment companies. As an investor, you can use this same approach when researching where to invest your 401k, IRA, college savings fund or other investment.
Get the answers to these questions before you invest in a new fund.
1. Have returns been generally consistent through both up and down markets? (more…)
Tags: asset management, Forbes.com, Harvey Rowen, Mutual Fund Selection, Portfolio Management
Posted in Blog, Mutual Fund Selection, Starmont In The News | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
Last month Starmont’s Harvey Rowen was interviewed by Servcorp and highlighted in their monthly newsletter! Servcorp is the company Starmont leases their San Francisco office from at 555 California Street. This office has made it much easier for our Clients to meet with us and through Servcorp Starmont has access to offices in Irvine, CA and New York allowing for convenient places for us to meet with Clients on both coasts.
Here is the interview…Harvey shares his personal history as well as his perspective on the advice business – Read on and Enjoy!
| Client Spotlight |
| This month, our feature client is Harvey Rowen. He is the CEO andFounder of Starmont Asset Management. One of the things I most admire about Mr. Rowen is his dedication to his clients. Being an Asset Management company, the economy has been rough on his industry, but he constantly strives to keep all his clients financially secure and happy. Mr. Rowen is currently a full-time Executive Suite client at our 555 California Street center, and working with him has not only been an exciting experience, but he is also someone I can look up to. I asked him some questions so we could get to know him a little better:
Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Born, Chicago, Ill. (more…) |
Tags: asset management, Harvey Rowen, Investments, Portfolio Management, Starmont, Stock Market, Wealth Management
Posted in Blog, Starmont In The News | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
| January 3, 2012
To Our Valued Clients and Friends,
Happy New Year!
May 2012 be a year of peace, happiness, prosperity, and a lot less stress!Starmont spent the last week of December reviewing taxable accounts, and seeking to “harvest losses” by selling positions in those accounts that had losses, so as to offset taxable gains in those accounts. In some cases we were able to eliminate all taxable gains; in most cases we were able to eliminate some but not all of the taxable gains, and in some cases we had no losses in the taxable account to harvest. The end of December is the one time of the year that those of us at Starmont wish we had more losses in our Clients’ taxable accounts.You will be receiving confirmations from Charles Schwab, or e-mail notices from Schwab letting you know that confirmations are available to you on-line, reflecting the sales. We will be e-mailing to Starmont Clients, and to your CPAs, the final Gain/Loss report for all taxable accounts prior to the January 15th due date for final estimated income tax payments for 2011.The sales left large amounts of cash in taxable accounts. (more…) |
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Tags: asset management, Harvey Rowen, Investments, market performance, Starmont, Taxes, Wealth Management
Posted in Asset Allocation, Blog, Client Communications | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
November 28, 2011
To Our Valued Clients
As the attached chart shows, in the past 115 years there have been four secular bull (up) markets in the United States, and four secular bear (down) markets, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA).
A secular bull market is a long term upward trending market, where each successive high point is higher than the previous one.
Conversely a secular bear market is a long term downward trending market, where the trend does not rise above the previous high.
According to the attached chart, the four secular bull markets lasted 43 years in total, while the four secular bear markets lasted 72 years. Yet the cumulative return for the secular bull markets was 1,601.06%, while the cumulative return for the longer lasting secular bear markets was 4.05% (through December 2010). For that reason the DJIA over that period of time has gone from about 50 to over 10,000.
(more…)
Tags: asset management, equity allocations, Harvey Rowen, Investments, market performance, Portfolio Management, Starmont, Stock Market, Wealth Management
Posted in Blog, Client Communications | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 1st, 2011
Starmont’s Vivian Groman was once again a contributor to the Women Advisor Forum with this month’s blog post. In her post Vivian provides advice to other advisors on how to support Clients through the markets’ volatility. At Starmont, we serve our Clients by providing sound investment advice and the personal relationship that support Clients through any market condition or life experience.
Read Vivian’s Blog Here
Tags: asset management, financial planning, Starmont, Stock Market, Vivian Groman, Wealth Management
Posted in Blog | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
October 25, 2011
To Our Valued Clients
Here are your Third Quarter Reports.
The Quarter to Forget, an October to Remember (so far)
As we told you in our October 7th e-mail, the third quarter produced the worst results for stocks and bonds since the market meltdown in the Fall of 2008, wiping out 2011 gains and putting returns solidly in the red as of September 30th.
The good news is that October has been a very strong month and returns for 2011 have returned to the black, or are close to it, as I write this in the last week of October. If this week is decent, your Schwab October statements will bring a smile to your face and some joy to your heart.
Europe and Congress: Full of Promise but Resolution Still Elusive
Just as fear of a European meltdown and some troubling economic data about the pace of GDP growth and unemployment caused the terrible third quarter, the belief that European leaders now are serious about solving that problem and some solid U.S. earnings reports and resultant low p/e ratios, have caused the October rally.
In order for the rally to continue (more…)
Tags: asset management, Debt Ceiling, economic outlook, Economy, Harvey Rowen, Investments, market performance, Portfolio Management, Starmont, Stock Market, Wealth Management
Posted in Blog, Client Communications | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Find Out What’s Driving Your Investment Performance – Has Fear Replaced Reason?
We are experiencing unprecedented volatility in the financial markets. As you watch your investment performance, your stomach may be queasy from what feels like a never-ending rollercoaster ride! And the volatility continues with no apparent reprieve.
Many seasoned market analysts would say that this cycle of volatility is largely driven by headlines and will most certainly end. These analysts think that fundamentals (reasonable analysis), and presumably more predictable times, will once again prevail over the financial markets. Others disagree and claim the market has shifted from what has historically driven performance to what is being called the “new normal,” a normal that most of us will not necessarily like.
Please join us for a discussion with Starmont’s Harvey Rowen and Steve Cassriel, Vice President at Dodge and Cox Funds, a firm which has been investing on behalf of investors like you for over 80 years. Steve will talk about the role of fundamental investing-why and when he thinks fundamentals will prevail and value based investing will once again drive the markets.
See more details below…
WHEN
Conference Call – through your phone or PC with slides
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
12:30 PM TO 1:30 PM (Pacific)
RSVP
To register and receive webinar call-in instructions email Suzanne Monaco at smonaco@starmont.com
(more…)
Tags: asset management, economic outlook, equity allocations, Harvey Rowen, Investments, market performance, Portfolio Managers, Starmont, Stock Market
Posted in Blog, Events | No Comments »
Monday, October 10th, 2011
October 7, 2011
To Our Valued Clients,
The last few years have been very volatile. In reporting to you on where we are today, I thought that it might be helpful to review where we have been over this wild ride, how Starmont has been able to preserve and grow your assets during this time, and what we plan to do going forward.
How We Got To Where We Are
In 2007 Starmont became concerned with the write downs US banks were taking on the mortgage backed bonds they carried on their books. Our concern was that those write downs could lead to failed banks and to a serious disruption in our country’s financial system and markets.
In December 2007 we started to sell down the equity funds held in our Clients’ portfolios. We continued selling through June 2008. We invested the proceeds of the sales primarily in bond funds.
In September 2008 Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America, and the U.S. government “invested” $80 billion in AIG.
The result was a panic in the financial markets, (more…)
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Tags: asset management, economic outlook, equity allocations, financial planning, Harvey Rowen, Investments, market performance, Portfolio Management, Starmont, Stock Market, Wealth Management
Posted in Blog, Client Communications | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
| September 20, 2011
To Our Valued Clients,
We finished trimming equity allocations last week, as we said we would do in our previous e-mails.
It was a good week for equities, mostly because of positive news out of Europe, but the outlook is still cloudy-at best.
Vivian and I went to a PIMCO conference last week. They are still on the “bumpy road to a new normal” theme, and the new normal is not positive. Their current forecast for the next 3-5 years:
- –One or more members of the European Union will default or restructure their debt, causing dislocations across the financial markets;
- –The United States will deal with its debt problem through a combination of austerity (driven by Congressional Republicans) and inflation (driven by the Fed). Neither is good for the stock and bond markets;
- –The Emerging Countries (led by China, and including India and Brazil), will continue to grow, but at slower rates as they try to contain inflation in their economies.
While PIMCO is not necessarily right, (more…) |
Tags: asset management, economic outlook, equity allocations, Harvey Rowen, Investments, market performance, Portfolio Management, Portfolio Managers, Starmont, Stock Market, Stocks, Vivian Groman, Wealth Management
Posted in Blog, Client Communications | No Comments »
Monday, September 12th, 2011
September 5, 2011
To Our Valued Clients and Friends,
Welcome back.
Labor Day marks the end of the summer season (even though Autumn does not officially begin until September 23rd). Kids go back to school, or off to college. The baseball season enters its final days, and the football season kicks in. Everyone comes back from vacation, and the pace of life picks up. The weather turns cooler (except that I am predicting a very hot Indian summer here in the Bay Area); swim suits get put away and sweaters and jackets begin to appear.
It has been a full summer for the Starmont community. People got married; people got divorced. Babies were born and others were conceived and are cooking for delivery in other seasons. No one in the Starmont community died, but we have had deaths in the past and expect them in the future. People went away—on trips across the United States; to Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia and the Pacific. People stayed home and had staycations. Body and soul were nourished and made ready for whatever is to come.
During the summer the global economy slowed and the U.S. debt rating was lowered from AAA to AA+ for the first time in history. (more…)
Tags: asset management, Congress, Harvey Rowen, market performance, Portfolio Management, Starmont, Wealth Management
Posted in Blog, Client Communications, The Market | No Comments »
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