The ALM First Financial Advisors Approach?
ALM First’s investment team offers deep market experience producing proven results. Dedication to market research, trading-level analytics, and a balanced approach guide ALM First’s portfolio management decision-making process. As your partner, ALM First will work to ensure your investment portfolio can enhance performance, quickly adapt, remain compliant, and respond to changes in markets. Each fixed income strategy portfolio is managed to a specific mandate based on your institution’s goals and risk tolerance.
ALM First Financial Advisors’ Proven Strategies
Asset liability management is at the heart of ALM First’s investment philosophy. Focusing on our client’s portfolio goals, objectives, and liquidity needs is paramount to our continuing success. ALM First utilizes a thoughtful investment framework that seeks to maximize risk-adjusted returns within stated risk guidelines. All investment decisions are regularly reviewed to ensure that actual performance is aligned with expectations. When goals and performance are no longer aligned, portfolio rebalancing must be considered.
Focused Strategies
ALM First focuses on strategies based on four different portfolio frameworks: Core Spread, Cash+, Enhanced Liquidity, and Investment Grade Credit.
Core Spread Portfolio
The Core Spread Portfolio strategy targets a duration of 2.25-2.75%, and portfolios seek to generate excess returns relative to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 1-5 year Treasury/Agency Bullet Index. The investment team generates outperformance via duration targeting, sector allocation, and security selection, in that order, and portfolios are built with an emphasis on credit quality and liquidity. Example holdings can include agency mortgage-backed securities (single-family and multifamily), floating-rate securities, repurchase agreements, and bank notes.
Cash+ Portfolio
The Cash+ Portfolio strategy targets a duration similar to a 3-month Treasury bill. For investors looking to enhance cash returns with minimal interest-rate risk, the Cash+ Portfolio maintains a more stable market value while generating income in excess of the Fed’s interest on excess reserves (IOER) rate and other money market intstruments. Example holdings include repurchase agreements, high credit-quality floating-rate securities (e.g., ACMBS and CMO), and bank notes.
Enhanced Liquidity
The Enhanced Liquidity portfolio strategy targets a duration similar to a 9-month Treasury bill. Emphasizing credit quality and liquidity, Enhanced Liquidity portfolios seek to deliver excess returns relative to its T-bill benchmark. Portfolios consist primarily of agency mortgage-backed securities (single-family and multifamily), floating rate securities, repurchase agreements, and bank notes.
Investment Grade Credit
The Investment Grade Credit strategy focuses on investment grade credit in the 1-5 year area of the yield curve. It is designed to deliver a low tracking error return relative to the BAML 1-5 US Corporate Index. As with many of portfolio strategies, ALM First seeks to add excess returns through sector allocation and security selection.
What is the value of partnering with a registered investment advisor?
As a leading strategic partner for financial advisory services, ALM First Financial Advisors has a simple goal: Generate superior returns per unit of risk for our clients through our clearly defined investment process. Discover the differences between working with a registered investment advisor and a broker-dealer:
- SEC-registered investment advisor – ALM First Financial Advisors has a fiduciary duty to always do what is best for our clients, given their portfolio, policy guidelines and risk appetite, and market conditions.
- Fee-based – Unlike commission-based broker-dealers, ALM First Financial Advisors does not receive compensation for trades made on behalf of clients, nor do we own or hold fixed-income securities. Our fees are tied to the total assets we manage, not the number or type of transactions we execute. This allows us to only focus on providing clients objective advice that fits their needs…not ours.
- Holistic approach – ALM First Financial Advisors customizes its investment strategy design for each client, grounded in a sound structure that is in line with the client’s specific balance-sheet risk profile. Our process involves risk assessment and management, analysis of hedging alternatives, and expert modeling techniques that allow clients to quickly respond to market fluctuations and regulatory changes.
What is ALM First Financial Advisors' investment process?
Instead of simply analyzing a particular security that a broker is showing, ALM First Financial Advisors believes the first question should be: Is this instrument even in the asset or sector we should be purchasing? ALM First Financial Advisors’ team of professionals monitor the markets and assesses the relative value opportunities to maximize clients’ risk-adjusted returns in any market environment. ALM First Financial Advisors combines sector allocation, security selection, trade execution, risk management and rebalancing within a disciplined framework to ensure the best portfolio performance. This requires robust analytic systems and the professional expertise to drive those systems.
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All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.
“ALM First” is a brand name for a financial services business conducted by ALM First Group, LLC (“ALM First”) through its wholly owned subsidiaries: ALM First Financial Advisors, LLC (“ALM First Financial Advisors”); ALM First Advisors, LLC (“ALM First Advisors”); and ALM First Analytics, LLC (“ALM First Analytics”). Investment advisory services are offered through ALM First Financial Advisors, an SEC registered investment adviser with a fiduciary duty that requires it to act in the best interests of clients and to place the interests of clients before its own; however, registration as an investment advisor does not imply any level of skill or training. Moreover, ALM First Financial Advisors, LLC (“ALM First Financial Advisors”), an affiliate of ALM First Group, LLC (“ALM First”), is a separate entity and all investment decisions are made independently by the asset managers at ALM First Financial Advisors. Access to ALM First Financial Advisors is only available to clients pursuant to an Investment Advisory Agreement and acceptance of ALM First Financial Advisors’ Brochure. You are encouraged to read these documents carefully. Balance sheet advisory services are offered through ALM First Advisors. Financial reporting services, loan introduction services, and other special project services are offered through ALM First Analytics. Neither ALM First nor any of its subsidiaries provide legal, tax, or accounting advice. This firm is not a CPA Firm.
INVESTMENT PRODUCTS ARE: • NOT FDIC INSURED • NOT INSURED BY ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY • NOT A DEPOSIT OR OTHER OBLIGATION OF, OR GUARANTEED BY, ALM FIRST OR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES • SUBJECT TO INVESTMENT RISKS, INCLUDING POSSIBLE LOSS OF THE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT INVESTED.