Since many financial advisors today got into the business during the 1980s and 90s in what was the fastest growing stock market in U.S. history, their area of “knowledge” became the stock market, not the bond market. Frankly when they do fixed income, it’s merely an afterthought and most will simply use bond mutual funds. The problem? Bond mutual funds carry risks, fees, and tax implications that can be reduced by investing in a portfolio of individual bonds and bond-like instruments. That’s why we invest client money in individual bonds and bond-like instruments and avoid bond funds.

We learned during the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009 that many of those AAA-rated Mortgage bonds that were about to default had ratings that were far too generous. That’s why we look beyond these ratings and research the actual financials and management of the issuers themselves

Most advisors will purchase bonds and bond-like instruments at current market prices, which means if the market happens to be up, their clients are probably overpaying. That’s why we use limit orders when buying bonds and bond-like instruments on our clients’ behalf. That way if the prices of those securities happen to be up that day, our clients won’t overpay.

When you’re buying stocks and stock mutual funds, the commissions and/or trading fees are required to be 100% transparent. The underlying issue with bonds and bond-like instruments is that the clearing houses don’t have to disclose to the client, broker, or investment advisor how much extra they’re tacking on to the price of the bond or bond-like instrument they own. That’s why we’ve invested in the technology and research to find out who is buying and selling various bonds or bond-like instruments at any given time. This knowledge gives us the ability to go directly to the buyers or sellers, and negotiate the best price, almost on a wholesale basis, for our clients.

The active management of individual bonds and bond-like instrument allows us to continually identify and act upon opportunities to help maximize returns for our clients—seeking to help maximize income first and provide opportunities for growth second. To do this, we use a variety of strategies, including proactively swapping bonds and bond-like instruments to get a higher current yield today, as well as swapping bonds and bond-like instruments to get a higher yield in the future by getting a better purchase price today. Something else we can do is to swap bonds and bond-like instruments defensively to get a more secure bond with a higher rating, or a shorter-term bond.