What we do, and how it’s different.
We manage individual client portfolios using the same equity research process we used for institutional investors at UBS. Every position we hold is one we've modeled, valued, and developed real conviction about. We can explain why we own it. In detail. On demand. In plain English.
Our investment philosophy.
Simple to state, hard to execute: we buy fantastic companies, at great prices.
Our Wall Street equity research experience helps us do two things most wealth managers can't. First, separate the great companies from the merely good — most of which look identical until you've spent weeks modeling them. Second, use valuation discipline to determine what is, and is not, already priced into the shares.
We don't borrow opinions from sell-side research. We don't follow consensus targets. For every company we consider, we build our own model — revenues, margins, earnings, free cash flow, projected out years — and we develop our own view of what the company is worth, as a whole business.
How we should be judged.
We think clients deserve to know — upfront — how to evaluate whether we're earning our fee. Most advisors avoid this conversation. We lead with it.
Our standard is straightforward: over a full market cycle, net of fees, on a risk-adjusted basis, our client portfolios should outperform an appropriately constructed benchmark. If they don't, you should fire us.
Three things in that sentence matter:
Full market cycle. Investment skill cannot be evaluated over one quarter, or even one year — the variance is too high. Three to five years is the minimum for any honest assessment. We tell every client that upfront.
Risk-adjusted. Higher returns are not necessarily better returns. If we beat the index by taking on dramatically more risk, we haven't created value — we've just used leverage. We track Sharpe ratio, drawdown, and volatility alongside raw returns, the same way institutional investors evaluate the analysts they hire.
Appropriately constructed benchmark. The S&P 500 is not the right benchmark for every portfolio. A 70/30 stock-bond portfolio should be compared to a 70/30 blended benchmark. An income-oriented portfolio should be compared to one. Using the wrong benchmark is the most common way advisors flatter their performance, and we don't do it.
This is the contract. We take it seriously, and we expect our clients to hold us to it.
Different from other wealth managers.
We are a fiduciary. We do not sell any products or earn commissions. Being a steward of your capital is our only mission.
We conduct our own, independent, equity research. When considering an investment, we don’t borrow opinions from others. We model each company’s revenues, margins, and earnings, leveraging our industry expertise to forecast future earnings and cash flows.
Our founder spent 12 years at UBS Investment Bank, where he was a senior member of equity research teams ranked annually by Institutional Investor — the industry's reference survey of sell-side research, voted on by buy-side analysts and portfolio managers globally. He cut his teeth on Wall Street as the financial crisis was beginning, survived every round of layoffs, and rose to lead analyst before founding POMWM.
We establish investment opinions based on what we think companies as a whole are worth… not the price of shares, stock charts, or P/E ratios. We leverage our valuation expertise to find undervalued companies with sustainable competitive advantages, attempt to buy at historically attractive valuation multiples, and only those that fit within our clients’ individual risk profiles and tolerances.
We measure our investment performance not just against the S&P 500’s return, but against the risk profile of our clients’ investments. Measuring risk-adjusted returns is about being honest with our clients. And honesty is about respect. Respect for our relationship, and respect for the years of hard work that you put in to build your assets over time. Higher returns aren’t superior returns if an inordinate amount of risk was required to generate them.
At Peace of Mind, we earn our clients’ trust. Every. Day.
Is this the right fit for you?
Our practice is built for clients who want to engage with the analysis behind their portfolio — not just delegate it.
If you want to read why we own what we own, ask hard questions about our models, and have real conversations about company-specific theses and market dynamics: we should talk.
If you'd prefer a quieter, hands-off advisor who handles things in the background, there are excellent firms for that — and we're happy to point you toward people we respect. That's not us, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.