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We develop customized, globally diversified, and tax-efficient investment portfolios tailored to your financial plan and built to stand the test of time. Read our recent market updates, investment tips, and more below.

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Investments

Market Update for 4/3/25

President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs were more aggressive than the market had anticipated, leading to heightened levels of uncertainty. Here’s what you should know.

InvestmentsVideo/Podcast

What is Tax-Loss Harvesting?

At Mission Wealth we proactively tax loss harvest across our client’s taxable accounts where suitable and when opportunities present themselves. This video explains what tax loss harvesting is and how...

Investments

How to Prepare for the Next Bear Market

Anyone who’s retired in the past 10 years has been very fortunate. They’ve experienced a massive bull market and they may even have a higher net worth today than when...

Investments

The Uncommon Average

The importance of having a long-term investment philosophy — combined with disciplined rebalancing — cannot be overstated.

Investments

Timing Isn’t Everything

Over the course of a summer, it’s not unusual for the stock market to be a topic of conversation at barbeques or other social gatherings. A neighbor or relative might...

Investments

The Index Bogeyman

Should the rise of index funds be a cause of concern for investors? Using data and reasoning, we can examine this assertion and help investors understand that markets continue to...

Investments

Bitcoin in Focus

As an investment, Bitcoin elicits polarizing views. Proponents may argue that bitcoin is on the verge of the greatest bull run ever, while critics consider the currency worthless and a...

Investments

New Alliance Spurs Social Investments

Mission Wealth’s social values portfolios create a basket of stocks that mimic the broader market and rank highly on a scorecard of environmental, social and corporate governance practices.

Investments

Avoid Being An Average Investor: 7 Rules

After reviewing thousands of financial statements, we have a good idea of where most people make mistakes and what behaviors can be adjusted to improve performance. The following are seven...

Investments

The Power of Long-Term Investing

Given where we are in this current business cycle, now 8 ½ years into a monumental bull-market run, investors are left asking themselves “how much longer can this rally continue?”...

Investments

Positioning in Times of Low Volatility

 By Brian Sottak, CFA®, CAIA® Research Analyst and Alternatives Specialist Summary Following the global financial crisis of 2008, we have witnessed U.S. stocks rally significantly. Historically low levels of volatility...

Investments

How to Navigate Changing Market Conditions

 Bear markets, downturns, crashes — they are inevitable. No market will stay consistently stable and investors need to be prepared to navigate rapidly changing market conditions. With help from a...

Investments

How Diversification Reduces Risk

 Diversification is an important technique for reducing risk in your investments. You have surely heard the phrase “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” In the financial world,...

Investments

Repatriate the U.S. Infrastructure?

 By Brad Stark MS, CFP® Founder and Chief Compliance Officer   During his time on the campaign trail, Donald Trump talked a lot about fixing the crumbling infrastructure of the...

Investments

Venture vs. Vulture Capitalists?

 By Brad Stark, MS, CFP® Co-Founder and Chief Compliance Officer   Both venture capitalists and vulture capitalists are investors, but they focus on different types of investments. Let’s pick both...

Investments

What Is Risk Management?

Another way of saying “risk management” is “wealth protection.” Life is full of risks – the key is to identify them ahead of time and make smart decisions.

Investment Management for Individuals, Families and Businesses

At Mission Wealth, we develop customized, globally diversified, tax-efficient portfolios tailored to your financial plan and built to stand the test of time.
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Our 9 Principles of Investment Management

At Mission Wealth, we are deeply rooted in an evidence-based investment strategy built on decades of Nobel Prize-winning research. We ignore the media noise and Wall Street hype, relying instead on a long-term approach and proven principles that reward investors over time.

1. Investments should align with your financial plan.

Investment decisions should not be made in isolation, but rather as part of an overall plan that fully integrates all aspects of your financial life.

2. Successful investing results from a long-term disciplined approach.

Successful investing is best achieved over the long term by implementing a clearly defined investment strategy and focusing on maximizing risk-adjusted returns, not beating the benchmarks.

3. Fear and greed degrade portfolio returns.

Succumbing to fear and greed and making emotional short-term decisions, such as chasing market performance or trying to time the markets, consistently leads to significantly worse performance than the broader markets.

4. A multi-strategy approach mitigates market risk.

Investing in the stock market is often unpredictable, but the value of a diversified multi-strategy investment portfolio can help to reduce overall risk.

5. Portfolio design is the greatest influencer of returns.

Proper investment diversification and asset allocation account for over 90% of the returns that an investor will earn, while at the same time a broadly diversified portfolio can reduce overall market risk.

6. Tax-efficient investing leads to greater long-term returns.

Maximizing after-tax returns by incorporating tax-loss harvesting and asset location strategies significantly improves the long-term performance of your portfolio.

7. Custom portfolios deliver long-term benefits.

Custom portfolios align your investments with your risk tolerance and values and allow you to utilize existing low tax base holdings to achieve your long-term financial goals.

8. Rebalancing takes advantage of opportunities.

Disciplined, systematic re-balancing of your portfolio maintains your risk and return profile and takes advantage of “buy low, sell high” opportunities.

9. Costs make a difference.

Choosing low-cost investments and practicing efficient trading execution can reduce overall costs in your portfolio and produce higher net-of-fees returns.

How Can Mission Wealth Help You?

Contact us to get a FREE portfolio review today!
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About Our Specialty Investment Services

We build custom portfolios for our clients based on a deep understanding of their goals and objectives as derived by our financial planning process.

We Develop Customized, Globally Diversified, Tax-Efficient Investment Portfolios

At Mission Wealth, we develop investment portfolios tailored to your financial plan and built to stand the test of time. As always, our portfolios are designed to help you get the most out of your investments at a comfortable risk level. Furthermore, our portfolios can be customized to integrate your legacy holdings so you do not pay any unnecessary taxes due to the portfolio transition.

We identify and select quality investments and strategies to address a wide range of financial needs. Whether your objective is to fund retirement, generate higher income, grow for the future, diversify concentrated holdings, provide a world-class education or increase tax-efficiency, we can guide in you the right direction.

We are deeply rooted in academic, evidence-based research. All too often, greed and fear drive investor behavior rather than prudence. We focus attention on what has proven to significantly reward investors over time, including risk management, global diversification, fee reduction, tax efficiency, yield and tactical rebalancing. In order to avoid portfolio overlap, we will enhance your portfolio by adding asset classes that complement your existing holdings. We can also build custom bond ladders and create a Socially Responsible Portfolio for you.

We Research and Advise on Alternative Investments

At Mission Wealth, we’ve been researching and advising on alternative investments for nearly two decades. We help clients identify the appropriate fund managers based on their risk/reward requirements, and we have significant experience helping clients construct a suitable portfolio that meets their long-term financial goals.

Why consider Illiquid Alternatives?

These funds provide access to unique investment opportunities, offering the potential for enhanced return and yield over those typically available in daily liquid public markets, such as “traditional” stocks and bonds. Illiquid alternative funds may provide investors with access to a persistent liquidity premium. Historically, the liquidity premium for Private Equity has been 5.69%, while the liquidity premium for Private Credit has been 3.87%.*

These strategies intend to offer attractive risk profiles with lower levels of volatility than equities, but also generally less correlated returns to US and international equity markets – potentially guarding against equity market sell-offs.

These types of strategies had historically been reserved for larger, institutional-type investors (think large pension plans, endowments, etc.) but through our strategic partnerships we are able to offer them to our clients, where appropriate. We partner with best in class managers with extensive experience and track records managing these unique opportunity sets.

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*All numbers are annualized. Private Equity liquidity premium calculated as annual return for the Cambridge Private Equity Index minus the Russell 3000 Index. Private Credit liquidity premium calculated as annual return for the Cliffwater Direct Lending Index minus the average of the S&P/LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan Index and the Bloomberg Barclays High Yield Index. Return calculations based on time period September 2004 through December 2018.

Obtain Solutions for Concentrated Stock Positions

We can help clients whose portfolios include large holdings. Even if the stock has done well, a client may want more diversification or have new financial goals that require a shift in strategy. The choices appropriate for clients are complex and will depend on their unique situations and tax considerations.

When a single stock dominates a portfolio, selling the stock may be complicated by more than just the associated tax consequences: 

  • There also may be legal constraints on the ability to sell (if working for the company).
  • You may have practical considerations, such as the possibility that a large sale could overwhelm the market if thinly traded.
  • There may be an emotional attachment to a stock, such as if a large position was inherited or was a major factor in increasing net worth.

We also advise on 10b5-1 plans and help in the coordination with your CPA to make sure you have the most tax-efficient outcome possible.

*Every exchange fund is different, please reference the prospectus for details prior to investing. Information provided here is to be viewed as general in nature. Investors need to financially qualify for certain transactions and products. Please seek professional advice, including tax and legal.
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Receive Ongoing Monitoring, Tax-loss Harvesting, Portfolio Rebalancing & Performance Reporting

We build custom portfolios for our clients based on a deep understanding of their goals and objectives as derived by our financial planning process. Asset allocation and global diversification are employed in an attempt to maximize risk-adjusted returns. We employ disciplined, systematic rebalancing of your portfolio to maintain your risk and return profile to take advantage of “buy low, sell high” opportunities.

We are long-term investors who monitor underlying investments daily, rebalance portfolios quarterly, and proactively replace managers when warranted. We make periodic tactical changes to adjust to changing market conditions.

Our dedicated investment department will continue to monitor the investments, rebalance on a quarterly basis, tax-loss harvest when appropriate, and provide quarterly performance reporting to our clients.

Align Your Portfolio With Your Values Through Socially Responsible Investing

At Mission Wealth, we select and proactively monitor companies and investments deemed to be “best in class” based on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) criteria. Through our sophisticated research software, we can scour the universe of stocks, bonds, funds and ETFs and include those with high ESG scores. We then put them together into our Social Values Portfolio, which is a diversified basket of investments.

Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) aligns an investor’s portfolio with their specific values and beliefs. SRI is a well-established and growing approach that considers societal good in addition to financial return. Globally, at least $21 trillion is professionally managed under an SRI mandate (Global Sustainable Investment Alliance, Global Sustainable Investment Review, 2014).

In recent years, Socially Responsible Investing has grown to include far more Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors. ESG-focused institutional investment will rise 84% to over $33 trillion by 2026, making up 21.5% of assets under management (PwC Report, 2022). We provide our clients access to this cutting edge ESG research via our partnership with MSCI and their extensive global database on thousands of underlying corporations.

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We Construct and Maintain Well-Diversified Portfolios of High Credit Quality Individual Bonds

Bonds are allocated in a way to produce an intermediate duration profile, while taking advantage of changes in the level of interest rates. We assess the relative attractiveness of various bond yields, targeting the most attractively priced maturities while maintaining diversification across bond portfolios.

For taxable accounts, we optimize tax efficiency by targeting Federal and State tax exempt municipal issues. We manage taxable fixed income portfolios for clients nationwide.

For clients with existing securities, we analyze those holdings to determine which bonds meet credit and duration criteria, while overlaying tax efficiency optimization to generate a recommended list of portfolio adjustments. We also incorporate any client specific requests or exclusions to create tailored fixed income portfolios.

We limit our individual fixed income securities to those rated A or better, thereby avoiding issuers with a higher level of default risk. We access bond pricing from hundreds of brokers, enabling us to find best execution for any given security. Once purchased, we actively monitor positions to ensure they continue to meet our investment criteria.

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*Like any investment, bonds can lose value and are not risk free. Some but not all risks include duration, interest, credit, default, liquidity, etc.
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Receive Tax-Smart Implementation & Low Trading Costs

The decisions you make about when to buy and sell investments, and about the specific investments you choose, can help to determine your tax burden. We use a combination of mutual funds and exchange-traded funds and our process is designed to minimize transaction costs as well as taxes when we rebalance or trade positions. We also “asset locate”, meaning we put the less tax-efficient asset in your tax-deferred accounts, while the more tax-efficient assets can provide more benefit in your taxable account. This helps to increase your after-tax portfolio return.

Investing tax-efficiently doesn't have to be complicated, but it does take some planning. While taxes should never be the sole driver of an investment strategy, better tax awareness does have the potential to improve your returns.

There are several different levers to pull to try to manage taxes: selecting investment products, timing of buy and sell decisions, choosing accounts, taking advantage of losses, and specific strategies such as charitable giving can all be pulled together into a cohesive approach that can help you manage, defer, and reduce taxes.

Of course, investment decisions should be driven primarily by your goals, financial situation, timeline, and risk tolerance. But as part of that framework, factoring in taxes may help you build wealth faster.

We Can Build a Cash Management Solution for Clients

We can build a cash management solution for our clients consisting of individual Certificates of Deposit, Variable Rate Demand Notes, Money Market Funds and Treasury Bills. We often provide this service free of charge as part of a larger relationship with our clients.

In today’s low interest rate environment, every last basis point counts as does the safety, security, liquidity, and peace of mind that these very high credit quality investments provide.

Minimize After-Tax Income with Custom Income Strategies

If you are seeking additional income from your portfolio, we can create custom income strategies to maximize the after-tax income generated by your portfolio. We utilize buy-write strategies as well as ETFs that favor companies with higher dividend yields.

This income tilt can be very beneficial, especially in the current low (and rising) interest rate environment we are experiencing. Additional income can be generated via the use of REITs, direct credit, direct real estate, along with other alternative investments and fixed to float bonds.

View our Investment Education Video Library

Take a look at our investment education library to understand more about investment costs, investment discipline, tax-loss harvesting, the benefits of rebalancing, and more about our process.

Mission Wealth Education: The Importance of Asset Allocation from Mission Wealth on Vimeo.

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