Alpha is a risk-adjusted measure of a portfolio or investment’s return compared to a relevant benchmark like the S&P 500 or the US Aggregate Bond Index.

This is important because it shows how your investment manager has performed historically against the market so you can make an informed decision about whether it justifies fees being charged.

Canopy Financial Solutions is intently Alpha-focused and uses unique strategies based on momentum and risk mitigation that has historically produced well above average Alpha, especially over longer periods of time.

Keep in mind that people choose financial professionals for a variety of reasons and goals. Investment performance is certainly important; however, each person needs to decide whether they are receiving appropriate value and service from their financial professional.

Nothing, except for the fact that it relies on premises that are debatable like the Efficient Markets Hypothesis.

The MPT method of managing portfolio risk is through broad diversification of asset classes so that if one area of your portfolio is sustaining losses, the owning of multiple other classes will likely offset massive declines in value. Proponents of MPT constantly tell you that you have to “ride out the down years” because it’s impossible to know where market tops and bottoms are.

If you own enough of the entire market itself then you will never drastically underperform a benchmark — but also never have the opportunity to match or overperform. And all of that of course is before fees and expenses come into play.

Significantly.

I still believe in diversification of assets but not OVER-diversification like seen in most cookie-cutter model portfolios.

We use a Dual Defense (DD) approach thanks to special technical analysis software from SumGrowth Strategies, LLC and AlphaDroid technologies.

Quite simply, we mitigate risk by seeking to own only the trend leader of a candidate basket of investments during bull markets, and then mitigating downside losses by employing Bear Market Strategies when our StormGuard-Armor indicates an onsetting bear market or “black swan” catastrophic event.

Easy now, one question at a time.

1) As a fee-only RIA, Canopy Financial Solutions does not make any commissions or transaction fees from trading, therefore, any changes to portfolio holdings are to capitalize on momentum opportunities and not an attempt to “churn.”

2) True, in a nonqualified (taxable) investment account, capital gains to lend to potentially higher taxes depending on your OVERALL tax situation and filing status. Capital gains are the result of successful investing. While active management may result in complete shifts in and out of bull/bear strategies, the intent is that the extra ROI (or Alpha) offsets taxes on the upside, and “taking profits” to avoid bear market losses preserves account value to a much greater extent than your tax obligation.

Actually no.

My commitment to simplifying wealth management is most evident in our fee structures.

I charge a flat 1% annual fee for Assets Under Management (AUM). This means that my fee depends on your account value and my ability (and incentive) to grow that amount.

The 1% annual fee is broken down into a monthly charge (0.0833% of AUM)) that is clearly shown on your client invoice each month. This fee is automatically deducted from your investment account balance so there is no action necessary on your part.

Since many of our portfolios use individual stocks and almost never include mutual funds, the expense ratios are significantly less than the average model portfolio.

Altruist Financial, LLC is our primary asset custodian and investor platform. Altruist boast a modern, yet simple client interface and is designed to support the needs of independent RIAs like Canopy Financial Solutions.

Clients who onboard through Altruist will immediately notice the smooth digital account opening experience that literally takes just minutes to establish.

Altruist also offers a separate high-yield cash account that is a great place for clients to partition and safely grow emergency funds or short-term idle cash — a key component of your PROTECT asset bucket.