What do I own?
What is in this ETF or mutual fund?
Do I have the right types of investment accounts?
Am I diversified?
Are my cash levels appropriate?
What do these symbols even mean?
Investing can be complicated. Yet what people want is usually pretty straightforward. Wealth is what you save from your hard work. You want it to help you meet your goals. You don’t want to lose too much money in a bad market.
Most people become more successful when they hire a professional manager. The U.S. stock market has been the greatest wealth generator in history. It has turned countless middle-class savers into millionaires. These are our clients. Some have more money than they ever expected. Now they can pursue their interests freely in retirement. They can also provide for their children and their grandchildren and support charitable causes close to their hearts. This freedom is thanks in great part to the stock market’s phenomenal growth.
Many of our clients started investing on their own and hired Provident as they got older and wealthier. Some came to us around the time of retirement. Others hired us to take over an investment management function that used to be performed by a spouse or a parent. Our job is to make sure their money and their goals align. It is also to streamline and execute the day-to-day money flows.
For over forty years, Provident has been a trusted partner for stock investors with portfolios over $500,000. Provident manages over $1 billion for over 300 clients across over 1,000 accounts. Let’s explore whether Provident is the right manager for your unique circumstances.
While the stock market has created tremendous wealth, that is not to say it is always an easy place to make money. Investing has become increasingly abstract over time. There are a lot of traps. Sometimes your instincts can be your own worst enemy.
Without management, a stock portfolio drifts toward chaos. The prospects for businesses and industries change over time. Growth slows. Companies go out of business or get acquired. Diversification erodes as a few big winners dominate the portfolio. At Provident Investment Management we believe in the power of the stock market, and we have experience helping clients reorient their portfolios to better align with their goals. We believe that most investors benefit when they hire a professional to help them get organized and, crucially, to stay organized.
And don’t diminish the value of understanding the nuts and bolts of investing. There are right and wrong ways to simplifiy—or sometimes to expand—your own financial schematic. There are also taxable, nontaxable, and tax advantaged accounts. Do you know what is available and how to use different accounts to achieve your goals? Different account types have different implications for your estate. Trusts come in many different forms.
There are thousands of investment managers. Most are fundamentally honest, but not all have the same capabilities. Many managers put their clients in funds that are managed by someone you will never meet in a faraway office. They would struggle to tell you what those funds’ underlying investments are. It is hard to have confidence in the unknown. Furthermore, some managers invest clients accross several funds with overlapping underlying holdings. This adds complication but frequently serves no real purpose.
Every manager thinks their own funds are the best. The truth is that every fund runs hot and cold. At Provident, we know that clients make the most money by following a consistent plan that keeps them invested. Doing so requires confidence in your manager, and confidence comes from understanding.
Provident has expertise managing individual stocks based on our own research. Our portfolio managers all hold the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, the gold standard for investment research. We also have two Certified Financial Planners® to assist with various client needs. No one person controls your portfolio. Every client has access to our entire staff. When your portfolio is ready for professional management, consider a company with a long track record helping individual investors manage stock portfolios.
Since 1981 we have helped clients nationwide achieve their financial goals by making a plan, then sticking to the plan through up and down markets. Invest organized. Invest Provident.