Stategist Profiles

WILSHIRE
Strategic Portfolio Strategist

Corporate Overview

Wilshire Associates Incorporated (Wilshire) is an independent investment advisory and services firm owned by key employees. Wilshire provides consulting services, analytics tools and customized investment products to the institutional investment community including plan sponsors, investment managers and financial intermediaries around the globe. Wilshire serves in excess of 600 organizations in more than 20 countries representing assets totaling more than US $12.5 trillion.

Wilshire was started in 1972 when the founder and current Chief Executive Officer applied then-new computing technology to investment concepts and helped revolutionize the industry. Wilshire now has more than 350 employees working in nine offices on four continents.

Wilshire has long been a market leader in asset allocation and investment manager research. The firm was the first to incorporate liabilities into asset allocation models for pension funds in the 1970s, 10 years before actuarial and accounting firms began to adopt this technology. In addition, Wilshire’s proprietary analytics collect data on over 5,000 investment products while the manager research group writes detailed qualitative evaluations on over 1,500 strategies.

Investment Process

Wilshire Associates constructs asset allocation portfolios based on long-term, forward-looking assumptions for asset class risk return and correlation, using extensive capital markets research developed by their internal research group. These portfolios employ a strategic asset allocation approach, implemented on either a global or domestic basis, and are designed to offer the highest possible level of expected return for a given level of risk tolerance.

The firm constructs its asset allocation portfolios using Wilshire multi-manager funds. These style-specific funds were developed to be included as part of an overall asset allocation strategy. Each fund sub-advised by one or more institutional investment managers who are strictly focused on a given investment style, and who have been selected based on Wilshire’s extensive research and statistical analysis. In addition, these funds offer concentrated portfolios and are managed to promote tax efficiency. Many of the funds combine the skills of two or more investment managers with complementary skills to reduce volatility.

Representative Client List:*

California Public Employees
Dallas TX Employees Retirement Fund
Iowa Public Employees Retirement System
Kern County Employees Retirement Association
MA Pensions Reserve Investment Management Board

*Source: 2003 Nelson’s Guide to Investment Consultants.

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AAMA
Dynamic Portfolio Strategist

Advanced Asset Management Advisors (AAMA) is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an Investment Advisor and specializes in portfolio design and asset management. Clients include individuals and families, retirement plans, corporations and charitable organizations. AAMA is privately owned and its offices are located in Columbus, Ohio.

AAMA manages four primary portfolios: international equity, domestic equity, strategic domestic equity, and fixed income portfolios. The portfolios are blended together in differing amount to offer the five model portfolios offered on the Elements Group Platform. Each portfolio offers distinct risk/return objectives.

AAMA’s portfolio management disciplines are grounded in modern portfolio theory, while our proprietary research and insights are designed to provide clients value added investment strategies and results. AAMA’s seasoned group of investment professionals offers over 100 years of combined investment experience spanning many different stock and bond market cycles.

AAMA’s investment professionals include:

Robert D. Baker, President
Philip A. Voelker, Chief Investment Offices
Edward G. Webb, Equity Portfolio Manage

Individual investment experiences started as early as 1963, 1975, and 1981, including continuous management of client portfolios invested in mutual funds since 1975. AAMA was founded in December 1998.

Valued added investment results require discipline, confidence, diligence and patience. A well-founded discipline is essential to navigate the information-laden investment world. Too often, investors are swayed by the headlines of the day, instead of long-term investment valuations. AAMA believes that equity portfolio performance can best be enhanced by emphasizing broad areas of the market that are under-valued and reducing exposure to over-valued areas. AAMA’s investment committee expends significant effort in valuing and weighting broad areas of the market as defined by industries, sectors, and market capitalization. International equity exposures can also be valued by geographical areas.

AAMA believes fixed income portfolio structure requires special attention to credit quality and maturity structure to mitigate the risks inherent with bond holdings – risks that can be similar to those found with equity investing.

Credit Suisse Overview:

Credit Suisse’s Asset Management Business operates an integrated global platform that seeks to deliver Credit Suisse’s best investment ideas to clients around the world. Credit Suisse's asset allocation capabilities are managed by members of the Multi-Asset Class Solutions team.

MACS – Investment Philosophy and Tactical Asset Allocation Process

The MACS investment offering is a tailor-made, actively managed multi asset class portfolio for our clients based on a single, consistent and transparent investment process. We combine a top-down asset allocation-based approach focused on equity, fixed income, commodities, currencies and alternatives with in-house security selection capabilities. We actively focus on the defined set of asset classes and generation of market views likely to produce significant performance impact. Finally, we manage portfolio risk through quantitative optimal risk budgeting.

The performance that the portfolio achieves is generated using a transparent, clearly structured investment process that is based on Credit Suisse’s investment views. The relative confidence in the investment views, rather than a predefined asset allocation band, is used to generate the investment strategy.

At the outset, our strategists formulate their investment views, i.e., the relative attractiveness of the available asset classes in direct comparison over a given period. Next, the portfolio overweights positive-return asset classes offering the greatest prospects while underweighting asset classes that offer the least prospects of outperformance. The asset allocation is reviewed at least once a month to reflect any changes in the investment views.

In addition to aligning the asset allocation with the investment views, the portfolio risk is adjusted based on the group’s confidence in the investment views. The greater the relative confidence the investment committee has in its market forecasts, the higher the portfolio’s risk level and vice versa.

The MACS investment process consists of three distinct steps, which can be summarized as follows:

Step 1 – Generation of investment views
Step 2 – Calculation of an asset allocation combining investment views with client needs
Step 3 – Portfolio Implementation

Key Executives

Guy Stern, Head of MACS, U.S.
Guy Stern is a Director and CIO of Multi Asset Class Solutions (MACS) in the US. In addition, Guy provides the macro economic views for the MACS Investment Group, which determines the investment strategy for all institutional MACS products globally. Guy began his career in finance in 1982 as an analyst and has held several senior investment and client management roles in the US before joining Credit Suisse as Head of Portfolio Management, Frankfurt in January 2002. Since July 1, 2002 Guy has been a Managing Director of the Credit Suisse Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH, moving to London in July 2006 to take full responsibility for MACS clients in the UK and US. Guy is now based in the US. Guy is a CFA Charter holder.

Christine Gaelzer, CFA, Portfolio Manager
Christine N. Gaelzer, CFA, Assistant Vice President, is a Portfolio Manager for Multi Asset Class Solutions (MACS) portfolios. Prior to this role, Ms. Gaelzer served as a specialist for the US and European Equities Model Portfolios, and assisted the Chief of Client Portfolio Management in servicing a select group of accounts. Ms. Gaelzer joined Credit Suisse in 2002. Ms. Gaelzer earned an MBA in Finance and Banking and a BA in Finance and Accounting from University of Zurich, Switzerland. Ms. Gaelzer is a CFA Charterholder.

Breen
Dynamic Portfolio Strategist

An SEC Registered Investment Advisor, Breen Financial Corporation provides consulting and investment advisory services to investment professionals including registered investment advisors, brokerage firms, corporate pension funds, pension consultants and foundations.

Breen Financial Corporation is strongly quantitative in orientation and believes that a quantitative approach codifies judgment and minimizes decisions influenced by current events. Breen processes are subjected to a continuing review, both quantitatively and through the application of the latest thinking in financial economics.

The firm’s principals are early leaders in the discipline of active asset allocation and have been supply quantitative strategies for the investment community for over 30 years. The firm’s chairman, Dr. William Breen, has chaired the Finance Department at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and is a well-know authority as both an academic and as a practitioner.

INVESTMENT PROCESS

Using a disciplined, analytically driven approach based on Nobel Prize-winning principles, Breen Financial builds ETF portfolios to serve clients having a broad range of goals, objectives and risk profiles.

All of our portfolios begin with a base equity selection that mimics the style exposures of the Russell 3000®. Depending on the risk profile of the client, a fixed income component may be included to provide the potential for some stability in returns, and the style exposures may be tilted from the base to favor those that we feel have the potential for above market expected returns. More aggressive portfolios will have a higher tilt toward the overweight styles and a lower fixed income component.