The Approach

You want to make smart investments and keep your taxes low. You may be interested in passing assets down to the next generation or making a meaningful charitable gift. You want to protect your assets from being taken unjustly. No matter what your financial concerns and goals are, you want to address your issues and manage your wealth with prudence and intelligence. BALDWIN shares your desire.

The goal of every BALDWIN action is to keep your wealth working for you, not against you. BALDWIN begins by working on your high priority investment issues, helping you make budgetary, asset allocation, and security selection choices that increase the probability of achieving your goals. From there, BALDWIN looks at your tax efficiency and other crucial areas, keeping an eye on your investment policy statement, rebalancing, and advocating discipline when needed. BALDWIN’s approach endeavors to alert you to potential hazards ahead, both known and unknown, as well as give you a bigger picture of your future opportunities.

What keeps you headed toward your goals in the midst of change is an investment policy statement. The investment policy statement summarizes your current plan. Both you and BALDWIN sign the investment policy statement, helping BALDWIN to champion rationality over emotions and stop either of us from changing long term plans in response to short term investment performance.

BALDWIN maintains model portfolios as a reference point to help formulate the customized asset allocation targets contained in each investment policy statement. Because BALDWIN believes in taking a long term investment approach, our model asset allocations are strategic (not tactical) and, as a result, change slowly. To fulfill each customized asset allocation mandate, BALDWIN generally recommends and invests in a mix of bonds, ETFs and mutual funds. BALDWIN likes vehicles and strategies that provide desired asset class exposure without style drift, that charge low fees, and that minimize taxes. BALDWIN prefers to put tax inefficient strategies – like real estate investment trust (REIT) funds – in tax deferred accounts such as 401(k)s or IRAs. And, BALDWIN monitors clients’ portfolios to make sure asset allocations remain within certain predefined ranges. If your portfolio is out of range, BALDWIN rebalances in accordance with a predetermined approach.

For taxable accounts, when current prices are below purchase prices, BALDWIN systematically harvests tax losses. You can use these realized losses to offset realized gains generated from rebalancing, trading, or freeing up cash. Because markets are volatile, BALDWIN monitors for tax loss harvesting opportunities year-round.

A well-rounded approach to wealth management includes a plan that facilitates good communication and shared strategies among the diverse experts you employ to care for your assets and other aspects of your life. BALDWIN aspires to align all of your advisors behind the same goals. If additional expertise is needed, BALDWIN helps you find the right advisor to match you and your family’s approach.