Alternative Investment Awards 2016

www.wealthandfinance-intl.com 41 Global Leader in Diversified Liquid Alternatives Westside Wealth Management is a team operating within the Raymond James diversified holding franchise. Seth Radow talks us through the firm and the investment opportunities it provides. Company: Westside Wealth Management of Raymond James Websites: http://raymondjames.com/los-angeles-complex/ http://www.westsidewealth.com Westside Wealth Management elected to join Raymond James in 2015 due to the firm’s truly independent culture and remarkably supportive infra- structure designed to promote and develop unique and creative intellec- tual capital toward the management of client financial affairs and of their incredible support of advisors and team such as that which we have built. Given our team’s long time experience managing client capital using global multi asset class models utilizing a deep understanding of valuation and correlation analysis and how each of these asset classes help to diversify investment related risks, it should go without question that liquid alternatives should be a reasonable extension within our models. The term “liquid alternatives” deserves a common understand to be fully understood as an investable asset class. For some, liquid alternatives include asset classes such as real estate investment trusts, real estate operating companies, master limited partnerships, general partnerships of limited partnerships, infrastructure and more. We see these investment vehicles more as “real assets”, and we view these real assets as deserving a sustained allocation within all of our models. We, however, we view true liquid alternatives as something else altogether. We see them as investments with the potential to have no correlation, not just low correlation over and throughout time, but with the potential to generate a return per unit of risk taken higher than what may be available using traditional investment vehicles. As such, we view managed futures, long/short funds, absolute return funds, global macro funds and the like as true liquid alternatives to traditional, long only, investment vehicles. At Raymond James, Westside Wealth Man- agement has access to a deep pool of liquid alternative managers along with a dedicated research staff helping our team allocate capital to investment vehicles that make use of these strategies. We could not be more proud of the improvements we have implemented in our manager selection process as a result of our team’s move to Raymond James. With regards to the future, we have found that no one can consistently predict the future with any degree of certainty or accuracy and therefore we work within the confines of that which we do know within our investable universe. We know the following to be true: prudent asset allocation works, prudent risk management works, prudent manager selection works and we believe that the prudent implementation of intellectual capital works. A bit more controversially, we have come to understand that most every index fund trails the underlying index it’s attempting to track. This is often caused by what we refer to as “slippage” that occurs during re- balances, fees and trading commissions. In addition, there are advisor fees for management of the pool of index funds within the model an advisor may be building. By the time one is done with slippage, com- missions and fees, there is no possible way to track any index and the underlying portfolio falls further behind over time. We, however, take a more academically derived approach, as we are classically trained as intrinsic value investors. We view true intellectual capital as worth something and of absolute value. We view it as impera- tive to research and select managers who have track records of substan- tive performance above and beyond their respective benchmarks with a degree of consistency over time and who can do so with an impressive risk reward ratio. Pooling and pairing these managers into a workable and investable model is a bit of art and science. We have found and continue to believe that we can build portfolios of active managers, investing in an array of asset classes, each utilizing differing investment approaches that, over time, can achieve above benchmark performance on an absolute and risk adjusted basis and on an after fee basis. All of this intellectual capital is for naught without a dedicated team of advisors and support staff. Service is designed to be impeccable led by our mantra that our clients and their best interest must always come first. As such, we work slowly and methodically in the acquisition and installation of each client on to our team to ensure the highest level of service can be customized and achieved for each and every client. It is imperative that our advisors and support staff get to know every client personally to achieve our desired level of service. The fact of the matter is that every member of our team simply wants to know, appreciate and truly enjoy the relationship we have with each and every client. Once we get to know and appreciate each and every client as an individual and as a family, we have found that our team grows more invested in delivering the best possible service and support for them. AI16049