Kenfield Capital Strategies
11900 West Olympic Boulevard
Suite 520
Los Angeles, CA 90064
About Us
Finding the right investment advisor is similar to choosing a physician. While expertise, experience, education and reputation are all important, the ability to communicate effectively is often the deciding factor.
KCS was founded by a former physician well known for his ability to relate to patients. We therefore take the client relationship very seriously and aim to make you feel comfortable with your recommended investment strategy. We understand that a financial and investment plan must be individualized. We work with you to determine exactly what your personal plan requires.
As an independent, Fee-based investment advisor, we have no mutual funds or other financial products that we must sell, giving us the flexibility to match your investment goals, time-frame and risk profile with your investment strategy.
We aim for the highest return consistent with your risk tolerance by diversifying your portfolio by asset class, geography and style to create the optimum mix of investments.
To better serve our clients, we offer in-house financial and estate planning, along with the outside services of carefully selected financial planners, certified public accountants, estate attorneys, insurance agents and real estate professionals. This enables KCS to be a one-stop source for wealth management services.
Our Investment Strategy
We believe you should be as serious about managing your financial assets as you are about caring for your health. Doing either successfully requires both advance planning and expert advice. At KCS, we provide a strategic plan along with professional advice to make your money grow.
Our philosophy toward investing can be summarized as follows:
- Make an investment plan that fits your needs and goals, and stick to it.
- Diversify among different investment types to improve performance and reduce risk.
- Regular reassessment of your investments to make certain you remain on track to reach your goals.
Successful execution of this approach requires the expertise, experience and full-time commitment that only a qualified investment advisor can provide. We don’t recommend managing all your investments on your own. Your time and energy is best spent on your career, family and enjoyment, not worrying about your money. Hiring a professional whose interests are aligned with yours—a fee-based investment advisor who wants your money to grow just as much as you—makes more sense than pouring over the financial section of the newspaper in your “spare” time.
Our approach to buying stocks is to diversify globally and among industries, and to be sensitive to individual client preferences and changes in the market environment. To accomplish this we make use of a variety of techniques including modern portfolio theory and other quantitative approaches We also use investor psychology, and economic and financial analysis.
We don’t rely on any single method or employ a “black box” system; rather, we combine flexibility with rigorous analysis to obtain the best risk-adjusted returns for our client.
In addition, we are very sensitive to costs, never charging commissions, trading as infrequently as possible, and minimizing management fees by avoiding mutual funds when possible.
We also aim to minimize taxes by managing taxable accounts in the most tax-efficient manner possible.
Our Investment Process
At KCS, we begin the investment process with the client’s financial goals and risk tolerance. We use this information to match each account with an appropriate model portfolio. We then tweak the portfolio so that the client has the most appropriate investments for his or her needs and goals.
Our model portfolios fall into 3 broad categories:
- Growth and Income
- Conservative Growth
- Aggressive Growth
The first category is for clients who require income as well as long-term growth of capital, while the latter two are for those for whom current income is not important. The decision between conservative and aggressive growth is determined by the client’s time horizon and risk tolerance.
To develop our model portfolios, we begin with asset allocation. We initially subdivide stocks into US and foreign, and bonds into inflation-protected and nominal (not inflation-protected). We use modern portfolio theory, along with market history and our assessment of future risk, returns and correlations among these assets, to allocate our model portfolios between stocks and bonds.
Since we are primarily equity managers, our bond allocations typically involve bond index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) rather than individual corporate or treasury bonds. For stocks, however, we primarily purchase individual equities (except in smaller accounts).
To obtain global diversification, our portfolios contain from 60 to 90 stocks divided among all major countries and industry groups. We weight each country and industry according to our assessment of those likely to perform best over the medium term, although we avoid straying too far from market weights.
We like to hold each stock as long as possible so as to minimize taxes and transaction costs, but we are not afraid to sell a stock when it is time. In some accounts, we make prudent use of stock options and/or short selling to reduce risk and/or increase leverage in order to enhance returns and/or help our clients sleep soundly at night. Of course, we monitor all portfolios continuously and make changes to allocations or individual securities when client needs or market conditions dictate.
Discretionary Management
Kenfield Capital Strategies' primary service is the discretionary management of client assets within separate accounts. This means that we manage your investments according to your long-term financial goals within individual accounts that you own and control. Unlike a mutual fund, your money is distinct from every other client's.
As part of our investment management process, we review your portfolio on a regular basis. We select stocks, bonds and other investments in your portfolio by matching your financial goals and risk tolerance with our assessment of which combination of assets should provide the best risk-adjusted return.
Our fee for this service is based on a percentage of assets, varying from 0.95% to 1.5% per year for equity and balanced accounts, depending upon account size. The majority of our clients also receive ongoing financial planning services: the comprehensive fee for both financial planning and investment management varies from 1.0% to 1.9% per year, depending upon total assets under management.
Discretionary management provides you with active portfolio management using the latest in modern portfolio theory and market psychology, custom tailored to your needs, often at lower cost than other investment services such as mutual funds or wrap accounts.
In addition, we communicate frequently with our clients, in part to make certain that we are always investing according to your current needs and goals.
We look forward to your inquiry!
Please be aware that Kenfield Capital Strategies has a portfolio minimum of $500,000 to accept inquiries through this directory.
