Frequently Asked Questions

SAM has been successfully managing client accounts for 7 years, since 2016.

The minimum investment amount is $500,000.

Yes, SAM clients can use multiple accounts and account types (IRA, Individual, Trust, etc.) to reach the $500,000 investment minimum – for example, a client could hire us to manage a $300,000 ordinary investment account and a $200,000 IRA account.

In almost all cases it is not necessary for you to sell any existing positions. We aim to make the process of hiring SAM as easy as possible, and that includes handling your existing positions. When you move securities into a SAM managed account, we will immediately conduct a thorough review of the positions. We will hold, resize, or sell those positions based on a number of factors including your chosen strategy, tax implications, and investment preferences.

As a client, you never send cash or securities to SAM. We work with trusted third-party custodians that have Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) coverage, plus additional insurance in excess of SIPC limits. We purposefully selected custodians that weren’t involved in the subprime mortgage scandals that caused other banks to require government bailouts to survive. SAM clients receive monthly statements from their custodian, and have 24/7 online access so you can see all of your investments in real time. For investors with IRA accounts, your custodian will calculate your required minimum distribution (RMD) at the beginning of every year.

SAM is an active manager seeking investment opportunities across a number of categories, not just stocks and bonds. We offer multiple strategies for growth, income and capital preservation. SAM doesn’t use mutual funds, which we find to be tax inefficient and lacking in personalization, among other faults. In addition to our core portfolios, we offer private investment opportunities to provide our clients with greater diversification and alternative ways to generate income.

Yes, our clients may choose to split their assets into multiple portfolio strategies. This enables them to tailor our strategies to meet their unique prioritization of growing their wealth, protecting their wealth, and generating income. We do recommend a minimum of $100,000 invested in any one portfolio so we can fully implement the strategy and properly manage risk. We do have an additional strategy specifically designed for accounts under $100,000 and are able to accommodate those accounts.

To paraphrase Warren Buffett, the first rule of investing is don’t lose money, and the second rule is don’t forget rule number one. SAM takes capital preservation as a paramount priority. We believe stop losses – and more specifically, volatility-adjusted, trailing stop losses – are generally a very useful risk management tool to preserve capital. TradeStops is one of the tools in our risk management arsenal.

SAM believes in constructing simple, relatively concentrated portfolios that generally consist of 30 – 40 positions. We believe that significantly larger portfolios can be unnecessarily complex and dilute the impact of our best ideas. We seek to construct portfolios that will be resilient to different economic and market outcomes.

SAM can assist with Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), bank account transfers (ACH/wires), annuity and insurance evaluations, social security analysis, tax and budget planning, estate planning, among many other things.

SAM is a multi-asset class manager and seeks investment opportunities within and outside of traditional investment categories. Examples include real estate investment trusts (REITs), precious metals royalty companies, and closed-end funds. We also use options to a limited degree, typically as a way to reduce portfolio risk. And we will continue to offer private funds with exposure to alternative asset classes when we find compelling opportunities. Additionally, we invest in traditional markets in non-traditional ways, such as merger arbitrage and other special situations investing.