Investment Management

Our investment process is rooted in the science and data that shapes the investment process at many of the nation's largest university endowments. These simple themes include:

Diversify your assets:

If you have all of your assets in one basket, you are at great risk if you drop that basket. Combat the problem by finding a lot of baskets - interesting baskets - in which to put your eggs.

Keep fees to a minimum:

In a low return environment the reduction of fees can represent a meaningful increase in investment returns. At ONS we carefully consider investment alternatives that may allow our clients to benefit from lower fees.

Buy-and-Hold strategies are excellent in long term bull markets:

...similar to the returns of 1982-1999. However, market environments continually change, as they did in the "lost decades" of 1966-1982 and again from 2000-2008. Therefore, we believe that active management should be blended with buy-and-hold to smooth the ride, reduce volatility, and increase long-term results.

Pursue active management only in those markets where there is great opportunity:

In tough market environments professional trading strategies offer an opportunity to add significant value to clients' capital preservation objectives. Many of our clients have accumulated their wealth and are more interested in preserving it and staying ahead of inflation, than they are in outperforming an equity benchmark. Therefore, we look to minimize equity exposure to accomplish our client's goals.

Our investment strategy group seeks to intelligently synthesize the best available economic and investment research, allowing them to craft asset allocations designed to maximize after-tax, after-fee, risk-adjusted returns.