Investing for You and Future Generations
Hawthorn simplifies your life by providing comprehensive investment management and consulting services. Our mission is to provide well-informed, objective advice about your finances, and to create a disciplined framework for making investment decisions.
Our investment process begins with a full understanding of your needs and aspirations, including your long- and short-term objectives, tolerance for risk, current portfolio mix, tax situation and other, unique circumstances.
We focus on the long-term rather than attempting to make numerous short-term judgments. At Hawthorn, we believe that growth of capital can best be achieved through an integrated, diversified, valuation-based and tax-aware approach.
Our Investment Philosophy
Our investment philosophy is based on these four guiding principles:
- Integration. We make investment and asset allocation decisions with a firm consideration of tax, financial and estate planning implications.
- Diversification. Through broadly diversified portfolios, we seek to manage risk and improve consistency of returns.
- Valuation Based. Every asset has a "value" based on its inherent net worth. We use proprietary metrics to identify attractive purchase points and appropriate exit or hedge opportunities.
- Tax Awareness. We consider the tax ramifications of our decisions and recommendations.
Constructing Your Portfolio
Our advisors initiate each relationship with a comprehensive review process designed to help you articulate your investment objectives and risk tolerance level. Together, we create a formal Investment Policy Statement (IPS) from which all investment decisions are made. The IPS generates a plan for asset allocation, portfolio constraints, and strategies for creating a portfolio, as well as includes a discussion of each applicable capital market.
Hawthorn considers the entire investment universe -- traditional investments of all capitalizations, styles and geographies; hedge funds; private equity; real estate; commodities; structured solutions and other options -- when building diversified portfolios. We manage with a focus on objectivity, searching out investment opportunities that we believe can offer strong, risk-adjusted returns. It does not matter whether these opportunities exist at PNC or elsewhere. It just matters that we find them.
Implementing Your Plan
Once you have approved your initial plan, we apply the same, thorough attention to the details of its implementation. All investments managed by Hawthorn on your behalf are subject to ongoing monitoring and analysis. Client meetings are regularly scheduled and we conduct a comprehensive review annually or whenever a significant change in your objectives occurs. You will receive fully transparent reporting, including statements and performance reports created to your specifications.
You can be confident that Hawthorn has the discipline to adhere to your investment guidelines, the flexibility to listen to your changing objectives, and the sincerity to foster a collaborative relationship focused on preserving and growing your wealth for future generations.
Investment Policy Development
Hawthorn develops an Investment Policy Statement based on each client's objectives. It outlines asset allocation and benchmark and performance metrics, and is the basis from which all investment decisions are made.
Strategic/Tactical Asset Allocation
Hawthorn creates investment portfolios in response to each client's unique needs and objectives. Guided by the Investment Policy Statement, we strategically allocate assets across a broad menu of investment vehicles, and manage the tactical aspects to keep on track with your plan and your expectations.
Portfolio Management
Hawthorn provides wealth management that integrates the unique goals and objectives of each client with the best thinking of our investment professionals. The asset allocation, security selection and portfolio management techniques utilized all tie back to a designated estate and financial plan. Strategy implementation and manager selection are accomplished in a tax-aware manner.
Manager Search and Selection
We use a disciplined approach to identify outside managers with stable investment management teams who strive to provide consistent and well-executed investment processes.
Alternative Investments
As important diversification strategies, Hawthorn considers private equity, real estate, structured products and other investment vehicles. Because we believe in the merits of both passive and active investing, index funds and exchange-traded funds could also be included in our recommendations. As your needs and markets change, we continually evaluate and consider alternative investments.
Performance Measurement
Hawthorn provides transparent and customized reporting also available to you through your secure online access.
Performance Attribution
We strive to create portfolios which generate returns that meet or exceed our client's expectations. The Hawthorn Investment Policy Committee seeks to add value to portfolios through proper strategic and tactical asset class weighting, manager selection and tax-aware portfolio construction techniques. We utilize performance attribution tools to help measure the risk/return trade-off, as well as the success of our strategies.
Capital Markets
The use of capital market solutions allows Hawthorn to further customize client portfolios. Structured notes, option overlay strategies and hedging techniques are all solutions Hawthorn can bring to clients to achieve their portfolio objectives.
Management of Concentrated Holdings
The strategic analysis of concentrated equity positions within the holistic management of a portfolio is integral to how Hawthorn works with its clients. We measure how such a position impacts the overall risk and return profile of the portfolio and then consider potential solutions, including: selective sales, hedging, gifting or the use of exchange funds.