Founded in 2009, Lyons Wealth Management is recognized as a top-ranking Wealth Advisor and Portfolio Manager having earned a 5 Star Rating by Morningstar. We believe that every investor should have a written financial plan to determine their "number" in order to reverse engineer a plan to reach their goals. This number is the amount of investment value you'll need to achieve a full and happy retirement that could last as long as 30 years! Most investment professionals follow a planning protocol but, in our opinion, they fall short in it's execution.
They then use the "status quo" approach to money management. While this may be a fantastic business model for the investment firm, it doesn't accomplish the real essence behind "why" investors seek a "professional" in the first place. If you have sat in front of "pie charts" and been told that "strategic asset allocation" is the key to success, then you are familiar with what this exercise entails. They are simple static allocations, enhanced with the promise of rebalancing, and the tease of "tax-loss harvesting". It's not a sophisticated approach to money management but it is easy to monitor and charge you a fee in return for a lack of any sophistication. Again, a great business model and revenue enhancer for the firm applying it.
WE DON'T DO THIS.
We do believe in the capital markets and agree that over time the markets and portfolio values will be higher. However, we differ from the mainstream philosophy of plowing investors through bear markets and telling them to "be patient" and "hold the course". When bear markets show themselves and investors are at their highest level of emotional risk it's often due to fear, driven by media hype and doomist headlines. This is the point when investors will most likely make a potentially life changing and unrecoverable financial decision to "get out" at the worst possible time.
It is our observation that bear markets show tell tale signs of their coming onset. So, similar to weather prediction, we do recognize the black economic clouds on the horizon, hear the thunder in the distance, and rely on our proprietary methods to try to avoid large swaths of the prolonged downturn storm.
We know that timing is never perfect, but to protect investors from this sort of thing is what most folks hire a portfolio manager for in the first place.