Mark Petro is an experienced portfolio manager, with more than 17 years of investment management, portfolio building and asset allocation experience. Having managed/navigated client investment accounts through the 201-2003 economic recession and the 2008 stock market crash, Mark approaches investment management for his clients using, what he considers, a more “active” approach to portfolio management. As such, Mark will consider adding overall portfolio risk to client portfolios during more favorable market/economic conditions, and reducing portfolio risk when market turbulence/economic conditions warrant a more cautious investment approach. As a “non-discretionary” advisor, Mark communicates his views and portfolio recommendations directly with his investment clients prior to making portfolio shifts, encouraging client feedback and open discussion of investment objectives.
Fund Selection and Cost Considerations
Mark’s core approach toward investment management is to build diversified investment portfolios using mostly mutual funds, ETF’s (exchange traded funds) and cash equivalents for tax-deferred retirement investment accounts (Traditional/Roth IRA’s, etc.), and more “tax-conscious” ETF’s, bonds/stocks, and cash equivalents for taxable investment accounts. Diversification is targeted across asset types (equities, fixed income, cash, commodities, etc.), stock sectors, world regions (domestic, international, emerging markets, etc.), equity styles (growth/value, large/mid/small caps) and fixed income styles (short/mid/long term bonds, high/mid/low quality bond ratings). Portfolios are constructed and benchmarked for each client individually, based on the client’s investment growth needs, tolerance for investment risk, and time horizon for future access to fund investments. Fund selection involves a multi-faceted process for screening funds giving high consideration to internal portfolio cost structure (fund level expenses), key Modern Portfolio Theory investment performance measures (Sharpe Ratios, Standard Deviations, Alpha, Beta, etc.) including the funds’ Morningstar™ Rating*, and account level custodial transaction costs.
* The Morningstar Rating™ for funds, often called the star rating, is a purely quantitative, backward-looking measure of a fund's past performance, measured from one to five stars. Star ratings are calculated at the end of every month. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Client Access
Lakeland’s custodial/technology platform has been carefully selected to provide for transparency within the advisor/client relationship. Lakeland partners with a leading discount broker to provide clients with access to low-cost discounted brokerage services, including access to thousands of mutual funds/ETF’s, stocks, and fixed income investments, highly committed customer service, and access to independent third-party research, educational resources, and planning tools. Clients have the ability to choose whether to receive their monthly account statements either via direct mail or online through a secure client portal. Additionally, Lakeland has selected and implemented financial planning and portfolio performance technology solutions that allow for direct client access via secure online portals, for clients to view/collaborate with their advisor on financial planning goals and/or investment performance outcomes.
Customized Income Strategies: Portfolios Built for Steady Income
Some investors have need for steady monthly cash flows from their investment portfolios to boost monthly income payments and to meet their month-to-month living expense needs. For those clients Lakeland has the ability to build tax-favorable, dividend producing investment portfolios tailored to an investor’s specific circumstances to provide steady monthly income that can be directly deposited into an investor’s bank account on the same day each month; steady cash flows to help meet your monthly income needs.
Wealth Accumulation/Distribution: Rollovers and Other Advanced Strategies
Investors who have accumulated sizeable retirement investment accounts through employer-sponsored retirement programs often have special considerations: To rollover or not to rollover? What income can I expect from my retirement account(s)? Should I consider an annuity? These are a few of the more frequent questions facing retirement investors. Roth conversions, gifting strategies, annuity strategies and beneficiary considerations are all important factors for retirees and pre-retirees who have accumulated substantial investment portfolios. Lakeland approaches investment management from a holistic, long-term wealth advisory/financial planning consideration, whereby each investor’s long-term investment realities are carefully considered to help determine the need/timing for more advanced strategies in wealth management.
Collaboration with CPA’s, Accountants and Estate Attorneys
Investors often have need for their investment advisor to collaborate with CPA’s, tax accountants, and estate attorneys to provide information necessary to advance the client’s tax and/or estate initiatives. Such collaboration, including utilizing the CPA’s/accountants secure document portals to pass along timely tax related investment documents during tax filing time, and meeting face-to-face with a client family’s estate attorney to review beneficiary designations, wealth accumulation projections, gifting/charitable strategies is always a welcome collaborative effort at Lakeland Investor Services, Inc.
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