Research is the heart of consistent, long-term investment success. Volumes have been written, studied, and studied countless times over on the various methods of investment research and strategy employed by investors.

At Grace Legacy Capital, we believe institutional investment research is best accomplished by those who specialize in that particular field. Institutional investors have defining risk characteristics and return targets, significantly differentiating them as an entity from that of individual investors.

As a result we have chosen to partner with Fiduciary Advisor Advocates (FAA) and Callan Associates, a dedicated institutional research and consulting firm, for our primary investment manager and market research tools. Callan Associates is an industry leader since 1973 in the field of institutional research, producing proprietary analysis and databases on asset classes, strategies, and managers across the globe. Partnering with Callan Associates and Fiduciary Advisor Advocates, we leverage expertise in investment manager research, economic and market analysis, institutional best practices, and custom performance reporting tools.

We believe the institutional consulting process is best seen through the scope of a continuum of fiduciary best practices. This approach differentiates our services from those of our peers, and demonstrates our value proposition distinctly and demonstrably.

To illustrate our point, consider this common scenario. Most consulting firms approach the engagement of a new client in three stages. Stage one involves a review of existing documents, investment policy statement, asset allocation, and potentially rewriting or replacing altogether some of these foundation documents. This stage of the consulting engagement is structural, during which time the fiduciary issues and concerns may be addressed with board or committee members.

Upon completion of the structural issues of the organization, stage two commences, whereby the consulting firm begins its work in the field of its genuine specialty – investments. Reviewing managers, selecting managers, hiring managers. In most cases, stage two is characterizes by many meetings – committees reviewing potential investment managers, evaluating candidates for hire and termination.

Stage three is the maintenance stage of the client relationship, whereby the consultant “reviews and rebalances” the investment manager lineup from time to time. This process involves more meetings, authorizations by the organization, performance reviews of the previous quarter. If an investment manager lags behind, the consultant may suggest replacing the manager with another one, at which time stage two begins – more activity and meetings to find a suitable replacement.

This three stage process has been widely adopted and followed by the institutional consulting community for decades. To a certain extent, we employ several of the key characteristics of the process ourselves.

Yet we illustrate this scenario to point how we differentiate our consulting process, the continuum of fiduciary best practices. Clearly this approach to consulting adopts a static model toward best practices and fiduciary standards. Whereas the focus on fiduciary standards and practices ceases after stage one in our scenario, Grace Legacy Capital embraces and focus on fiduciary standards throughout the entire client engagement.

Where stages two and three expose clients and their staff and board (perhaps unknowingly) to significant fiduciary risk through the manager selection and termination process, the rebalance process, and the adherence to Investment Policy Statements, we work to protect our clients from risk to the extent possible by embracing the latest fiduciary implementation procedures and technologies. In so doing, we significantly cut down on the resources, time, energy, personal liability, and frustration that many middle market clients experience with the static consulting model.

We employ our fluid model of fiduciary consulting as a differentiating value to our clients. It is what separates us from our peers, but it also defines the support and expertise we bring our clients. We know that a $50 million client must operate with the same discipline and standards as a $1 billion client in the eye of regulators and the law. We can help you do that in ways very few consulting firms can.