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ADV
As
an individual interested in information about our investment management or
hourly financial planning service, you may view the ADV form for Cornerstone
Investment Management & Consulting or request one through our website. This form provides details on the independent
financial advice offered by Cornerstone as well as the educational and
professional backgrounds of the principals, which includes the Chartered
Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Because there are many types of firms offering investment advice, we
recommend you view the ADV for each company to make an educated decision before
selecting a financial advisor or investment advisor.
Charitable giving
Cornerstone
provides its clients a vast range of investment and financial advice, from
asset management to insurance and financial planning decisions. After years of smart investing and planning,
many clients are ready to give some of their assets to charity. Cornerstone offers consulting services and
resources to clients to help them give their money to the organizations that
make financially responsible decisions and provide needed services. Many are not aware of the opportunity to
research charitable institutions, and Cornerstone applies the same principals
of due diligence to helping clients select charities that it does to purchasing
stocks.
Chartroom
Cornerstone
Investment Management & Consulting serves its clients as an investment
management firm and offers hourly financial planning service to those who may
not need a full-time investment advisor or financial advisor. Cornerstone is independent and offers our
clients unbiased financial advice as we are not compensated by selling our
clients any products. In similar
fashion, we purchase only data for our research and not the financial advice of
others and assimilate this data using independent proprietary models. Our location in Daphne, Alabama (AL) on the
Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay serves us well, and we have no choice but to think
independently as we are miles from Wall Street.
We have provided some examples of this independent macro-economic research
for you in the Chartroom.
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
information
It is important for a client to distinguish between
the licenses that can be attained by individuals practicing in the financial
services industry to determine which services its holders are qualified to
provide. A Chartered Financial Analyst
(CFA) candidate must pass a rigorous three part examination series covering a
body of knowledge that encompasses many subjects including ethics, economics,
statistics, equity analysis, fixed income analysis, financial statement
analysis, portfolio management and derivative evaluation. The materials covered in the process require
hundreds of hours of preparation for each examination. CFA charter holders are bound to a stringent
code of ethics and standards of practice, which clearly place duty to client
first. The principals of Cornerstone
view the CFA charter as the equivalent to a CPA for accountants, a JD for
attorneys, and an MD for medical practice.
Contact us
Cornerstone
Investment Management & Consulting, located on the Eastern Shore of Mobile
Bay in Daphne, Alabama (AL). Cornerstone
offers financial planning service for a reasonable hourly fee, investment
consulting and fee only investment management.
Our
mailing address is a private mail box:
2200
Highway 98,
Daphne,
Our
location is in Olde Towne Daphne on Scenic Highway 98, across from Manci’s at
Daphne,
Our
phone numbers are:
Scott
Koser, CFA -- 251-379-0296
Mark
Davidson, CFA -- 251-379-0297
Our
fax number is 251-626-6759
Directory of terms
From
“investment management” to “hourly financial advice”, terms associated with the
financial services industry are defined for you. There will also be some thought-provoking
definitions and commentary among the glossary.
Ethics statement
Cornerstone
Investment Management & Consulting is an independent investment management
firm that seeks investment performance through the appropriate selection of
stocks, bonds, mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETF) in its client
accounts. We have a strict code of
ethics regarding confidentiality and the trading of personal accounts with
respect to the trading of client accounts (since we purchase for ourselves the
securities we purchase for our clients).
The principals of Cornerstone are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and,
as such, are bound to the high ethical standards of the CFA Institute.
Financial Planning Service
Cornerstone
Investment Management is a
Getting started
To
get started with Cornerstone Investment Management & Consulting, either as
an investment management client or with our hourly fee only financial advice, please complete our client questionnaire and return
it to us. When we receive it, we will
schedule a time to discuss our services and how we can best work with you.
Hourly financial advice
Our
investment consulting service (which can also be called hourly financial
planning) provides financial advice or a second opinion from professional
investors with the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and years of
experience in the stock market. After
years of investment management for individual and institutional clients, we saw
the need in the market for independent and unbiased financial consulting for all
clients and a service that was not tied to product sales. For a fraction of what some other firms
change you for a financial plan, we take a big picture view of your entire
financial situation. We provide hourly,
as needed financial and investment advice ranging from 401k analysis to
retirement planning, and we are compensated only by the client… not by hidden
fees or commissions. Our financial
planning service offers you an unbiased review of your entire financial
picture, not a sales pitch for life insurance or estate planning. You can trust our financial planning service
because we represent you, and not a line of investment products.
How to find a financial advisor
Cornerstone
operates as an independent advisor to clients who need investment management,
hourly investment advice, hourly fee only financial planning or financial
planning service. When choosing a
financial advisor, it is important to know that person’s qualifications and
professional designations. Many
financial advisors, financial advisers and financial consultants are merely
sales people getting paid by selling you a product rather than truly analyzing
your needs and providing independent financial advice. We at Cornerstone are independent investment
managers, and the principals of the firm are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA),
meaning we can provide independent investment advice on stocks, bonds, mutual
funds and exchange traded funds (ETF) based on analysis and economic research. In addition to the articles we have provided
for your review, we recommend you ask your financial provider the following
questions:
How is my financial advisor compensated for services
and advice?
Is my advisor really analyzing what he/she is recommending or selling?
What are my advisor’s
credentials?
Am I treated differently
when I have less to invest?
Is my advisor
representing a line of products rather than my needs?
How we work
Our
financial planning service is simple and straightforward. We begin by guiding you through a brief
questionnaire followed by a short interview process. From there, we determine the financial
planning service that you need and the scope of the engagement; then, we
provide you with a guaranteed quote of our fee.
Only after you accept the guaranteed quote, do we begin billing you for
our work; everything up to that point is no obligation. And, your risk is limited because we will not
bill you above the amount of our guaranteed quote. We work with you to find solutions to your
individual need, not to sell you an investment product that pays us a
commission or hidden fee. If you need
financial planning services, please consider our investment consulting service,
download our questionnaire, and call us today.
Fee only Investment Management
Investment
management is our fee only service for clients entrusting Cornerstone
Investment Management & Consulting with the day-to-day management of their
investments. We guide you through a
brief questionnaire followed by a short interview process to determine your
risk tolerance, return requirements, and performance expectations. We then formulate an investment policy
statement, which serves as a blue print for the management of your investment
portfolio. Cornerstone provides clients
monthly statements and quarterly appraisals with commentary; as well,
investment management clients receive our financial planning service which offers
an unbiased review of their entire financial picture. Remember we work for you and not a commission
or hidden fee, and we will never sell you any product.
Investment Management
Cornerstone
Investment Management & Consulting offers its clients investment management
services based on client needs and risk tolerance. We provide personal service to clients (meeting
with them quarterly during their first year of management and at least annually
thereafter) and performance driven asset management through a unique
combination of active management of individual securities (such as stocks and
bonds) and active management of passive indexes (primarily exchange traded
funds (ETF)). You can request our growth
composite performance with its disclosures through our website.
Marketweek market commentary blog
Cornerstone
offers its investment management clients and its financial planning service
(independent hourly financial advice) clients the opportunity to review our
thoughts on the stock market with investment commentary and economic analysis
provided on our market blog. Do not look
to this site for financial advice or retirement planning, though, because our
objective is to provide broad market commentary without specific investment
recommendations for stocks, bonds, mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETF).
Mutual fund investing
At
Cornerstone we evaluate the universe of mutual funds on a quarterly basis so we
can make the best recommendations for financial planning clients (our hourly
financial advice) and, occasionally, for investment management accounts. Our objective is to mirror the style that we
apply to our actively managed portfolio—quantitative analysis and relative
value. By quantitatively and
qualitatively determining which funds provide optimal return over the long-term,
we have no need to pursue the “fund of the moment” and can invest in a manner
that is consistent with our overall investment philosophy. The primary factors for consideration are:
the amount of return provided for the risk assumed, factor analysis of returns,
relative pricing momentum of the asset class, and peer comparisons for asset
class.
Privacy policy
The
business of investment management and financial advice is very personal, and
advisors must remember that, above all, there is a duty of confidentiality to
clients both present and past. The Code
of Ethics for Cornerstone Investment Management & Consulting incorporates
this pillar of trust as do the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute (CFA
Institute) Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice.
Resources
Because
our investment management process is research-intensive, we use a number of
resources to help us offer independent unbiased investment advice. A broad list of links to news and other
sources is provided in “Resources.”
Retirement
Cornerstone
can assist with your retirement plan through our investment management service
or our investment consulting service (hourly financial planning) to help get
you prepared for retirement or manage your account during retirement. With each type of financial advice, you can
rest easily knowing that Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) are coordinating the
investment decisions within your account and providing other financial advice
as well. Under investment management,
our fee only service, Cornerstone reviews your income needs and establishes a
portfolio based on these needs and your risk tolerance. We also provide services to clients on a project
consulting (or hourly) basis from retirement planning to investment advice
regarding 401k or 403b plans and IRA rollovers.
Smart insurance decisions
People
need insurance for all sorts of things, from health care to life insurance in
preparation of an un-anticipated event.
But, it seems to us that a lot of insurance agents are trying to become
“financial advisors” or “financial consultants” and extending their sales
experience into the investment management industry. We, as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) do
not try to sell insurance because we are not experts in that field; why, then,
do insurance agents believe they can provide you unbiased investment advice,
especially when they are compensated by the products they sell? In our smart insurance decisions commentary,
we provide thoughts on how to best use your insurance provider for the coverage
you need without being sold expensive policies that you don’t.
Social investing
Whether
you are an investment management client or an hourly financial consulting
client, we respect your wishes and objectives as an investor. Often, clients have specific requests about
the allocation of their capital into stocks, bonds and mutual funds, and
Cornerstone works to incorporate these ideas into the client’s investment
portfolio, whether through inclusion or exclusion. As part of our questionnaire, we ask about
social / religious constraints for the investment of client assets, and we
discuss with clients the most effective ways to socially invest as well as the
potential pitfalls of doing so, especially in regards to cost of investing and
performance.
Special commentary from us
Cornerstone
Investment Management & Consulting, an independent investment management
firm based on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay in Daphne, Alabama (AL)
occasionally provides commentary to its clients and others with non-investment
related advice that we hope is topical and practical.
Style tilt advisors
Cornerstone
Investment Management & Consulting, as part of both its investment
management service and hourly financial planning service, assesses the
macro-economic environment and the stock market to determine the most
appropriate account allocations among sectors.
The Style Tilt is the active management of passive indexes (a “tilting”
towards those investment styles offering favorable intermediate term
performance) and can be done either through index mutual funds or exchange
traded funds (ETF). Cornerstone also
makes this service available to financial advisors or financial advisers
through our capacity as style tilt advisors.
Who
Both
of the founders of Cornerstone Investment Management & Consulting, Mark
Davidson and Scott Koser, are Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) who saw a need
to provide all investors personal service and performance driven results,
whether as investment management clients or hourly financial consulting service
clients.
Why we founded Cornerstone Investment
Management & Consulting
Our objective at Cornerstone Investment Management
& Consulting is to offer clients professional investment management advice
and financial services at reasonable and transparent costs and to serve all
clients fairly. We have created an
independent, unbiased financial services firm to serve not only those who need
full-time investment management but also the growing population of middle
market investors, particularly those managing their own wealth for
retirement. Whether we realize it or
not, many of us are investors in one capacity or another, from personal savings
to retirement plans provided by employers.
The principals at Cornerstone saw an opportunity because many of the
people who needed help the most were not receiving sound advice. At Cornerstone our product is professional
investment advice and analysis. The core
of what we do is analysis—of the economy, of mutual funds, of individual stocks
and bonds and of client portfolios. We
are qualified to provide these services to you based on our industry
experience, our previous responsibilities and the study of the Chartered Financial
Analyst (CFA) body of knowledge.
401(k) advice
Often,
employees are not offered good financial advice with regards to their 401k or
403b plans. That is because the plan
sponsor (their employer) cannot provide investment advice without breaching its
fiduciary duty, and the plan contact is frequently merely a sales
representative for a particular firm’s products. Cornerstone Investment Management &
Consulting provides 401k and 403b plan participants an option with our as
needed, hourly financial consulting service (or, financial planning service);
we review the mutual funds or investment options within the plan and provide
recommendations based on the rigorous analysis of those options by a Chartered
Financial Analyst (CFA). Based upon our
experience researching individual stocks and bonds as well as the economy, we
can provide a recommended allocation among your mutual fund options that will
build upon our investment management experience.
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