Process

At MainStreet Advisors, we believe that a sound investment process provides clients the security of knowing they have laid the groundwork for their long-term investing plan. We employ a disciplined approach to constructing portfolios and analyzing securities. The investment process is driven by our committee structure, which provides an organizational framework and allows members of our investment team to apply specializations across asset classes.

We believe in constructing efficient, diversified portfolios intended to be held and measured across a full investment cycle. We recognize that asset allocation, rather than security selection, is the primary determinant of investor returns. In portfolio construction and management, we aim to minimize investor costs from trading, expense ratios, and taxation.

Investment Process

For each client’s investments, we follow a rigorous investment process. Financial needs, risk tolerance, investment time horizon and outside investments are among the many factors we evaluate. Key elements of our investment process our outlined below:

Through formal and informal communication, assessing a clients' goals and objectives is an important part of our investment process. If needed, an Investment Policy Statement will be utilized and created as part of the process.
Asset allocation is a process that aims to balance risk and reward by allocating a portfolio's assets according to stated goals, financial needs, risk tolerance and investment horizon. We analyze numerous combinations of asset classes before recommending the appropriate asset allocation.
Security selection is the process of choosing specific securities within a given asset class that meet our screening qualifications. We begin with our universe of securities. We analyze these securities using stringent criteria, narrowing down our universe to a smaller group of investment options. These investments are reviewed to determine the appropriate vehicle is selected for each asset class. We focus on fundamental analysis in order to identify the securities best suited to each portfolio’s needs.
Once asset allocation has been established, our portfolio management team works to build portfolios with securities from each asset class. Our Investment Committee and subcommittees generate investment ideas, conduct research and analysis, evaluate risk/return parameters and determine asset allocation to assist clients in their portfolio construction.