At StateTrust we follow a disciplined due diligence process to evaluate, rank and classify external money managers and their respective investment programs. Some of the criteria we use to conduct our evaluation are as follows:
| Selection Criteria | |
|---|---|
| Registration | Money managers must be registered investment advisers (Within the state where business is conducted, and with the SEC). |
| Long-Term Performance | Money managers should show at least five years of information on quarterly performance. |
| Stability | Money managers should show stability of investment personnel. |
| Well-informed | Money managers should be able to discuss investment strategies and philosophy. |
| Free of legal actions | Money managers should assure that they are not subject to or have pending litigation, or censures/regulatory investigations. |
| Fiduciary Status | Money managers should recognize fiduciary status in writing. |
| Ownership | Investment company owners who are the decision makers have a tendency to do better with investments than regular employees. |
| Size of Firm | Smaller companies are characterized by stronger focus on one style of investing. |
| Assets under Management | Companies should be able to invest the money being placed. |
| Trading Capabilities | Investing expenses impact your plan’s performance. Analyzing the company’s trading capability to ensure that costs are well managed is key. |
| Research | How much research is the company doing on its own as opposed to accessing it from Wall Street along with many other firms? |
| Conflicts of interests | Are there any illegal activities by the investment company or activities not compatible with maximimizing returns for their clients? |
Investor Profile