We have been referred to Evanson Management as an investment manager/advisor. They follow Boglehead principles of index/passive investing. Does anyone have any recent experience with them? What were their strengths and weaknesses?
RB
Post by HomeStretch » Fri Sep 01, 2023 7:08 am
No first hand experience with them. Recent thread where Evanson in mentioned in posts:
viewtopic.php?p=7347280#p7347280
Post by sp226 » Fri Sep 01, 2023 7:42 am
I was with EAM for several years 7-8 yrs ago.
Strengths:
- very inexpensive. At the time they were about $500/qr, I believe they've gone up a lot since then but still very cheap.
- access to DFA funds. They believe(d ?) that DFA funds provided more focused asset class exposure.
- passive index investing philosophy.
Weaknesses:
- much too much international emphasis for my taste. Their model was essentially 50% internationals, which lagged US by a lot over the last decade or more, depressing returns.
- at the time, my portfolio was in an accumulation stage, and I was adding ~15% of new assets yearly. My preference was for regular investments, whereas they preferred quarterly buys to simplify their bookkeeping. This didn't work for me, and I moved new buys to a self-managed portfolio.
- even though they were inexpensive, after a while one wonders what they bring to an essentially static portfolio. After a couple of years, I didn't think there was enough value and moved away.
Post by nonnie » Fri Sep 01, 2023 5:06 pm
Back in 2012 because my partner did not want to handle his own investments and I didn't want to do so we signed up with Buckingham Asset Management and were clients for about 8 months. Due to some unfortunate circumstances with our account management, it became necessary for us to negotiate a transfer out.
We had a somewhat typical DFA investment portfolio including a TIPS fund. We transferred to Evanson and they proposed pretty much redoing our entire portfolio despite the fact that our goals hadn't changed. We were almost 70 at the time and they recommended 30-year corporate bonds to replace the TIPS fund, some energy LLPs and a few other things I can't remember now but that did not line up at all with our desired portfolio nor their index/passive investment philosophy.
There were lots of mistakes in the spreadsheet proposal, changes that hadn't been made to the template they used to build portfolios, and it appeared to be done hurriedly. At the time Steven Evanson was the only advisor working from the office and the advisors were contractors from around the US. Our advisor was obviously part-time, also had their own firm and clients plus was a consultant in a different industry. We had a very difficult time arranging phone consultations with our advisor to discuss our portfolio. We finally managed to have a call with Steven, he promised a revised portfolio, 2 days later we received an email firing us.
This was 10 years ago and checking the firm out here: zoomhttps://www.zoominfo.com/pic/evanson-asset-mana . c/36244833
shows a much more professional operation with several partners . Steven is now 76.
We then moved to Cardiff Park Advisors and had a very successful relationship with their firm and principal John Gorlow until the end of 2018 when I could no longer sleep at night and John could not convince us not to sell everything. We then went to 100% cash and are still there today.
OP --If I had it to do all over again I would recommend a three-fund portfolio and BH advice. I agree with what sp226 said " one wonders what they bring to an essentially static portfolio. " Perhaps if you posted a bit more information including why you are looking for an advisor, you would get additional recommendations.