Our Mission
Our mission has always been to offer superior investment advice, valuable insights and innovative solutions—all with exceptional client service that generates meaningful results.
Put simply: We take the worry out of your financial life.
By uncovering and defining each client’s goals, we are committed to thoroughly researched, strategically implemented and diligently monitored investment solutions. We maintain complete independence in order to provide the highest fiduciary standard as we identify attractive investment opportunities and leverage them to our clients’ advantage.
Our Client-Centric Model: Meeting objectives with objectivity.
With a sizeable and varied client base—including affluent individuals and families, mid-sized companies, retirement plan sponsors, charitable organizations, multi-employer benefit plans, Native American governments and affiliated entities—we have developed a broad range of experience on which to draw. This depth and breadth of experience provides comprehensive insight into what our clients actually need.
What client-centric means to us:
The Ulrich Difference
As a 100% employee-owned independent fiduciary advisor, investment consulting is the heart of what we do. We are not selling products or ancillary services, but rather prudent management and customized solutions for complex clients that include high net worth families, family offices, and fiduciary trustees.
We are:
INDEPENDENT. We are free from corporate constraints, which allows Ulrich advisors a freedom of approach that you will not find at large Wall Street firms that often place restrictions on offerings, pricing, and the availability of money managers.
TRANSPARENT. This is at the root of our firm’s identity. Ulrich’s fee-only pricing is clearly articulated and presented rather than obscured in an overly complex mixture of fee and commissioned offerings. Our fee-only business model relieves pressure on an advisor to generate short-term income. . . which frees us to put the client’s interests first.
TARGETED. Independence and transparency allow us to present targeted solutions aimed at earning a client’s trust and confidence. We provide innovative, holistic solutions to serve a range of potential needs. For individual clients, this means developing a highly tailored wealth management plan that includes the services described here.
Because Ulrich Investment Consultants utilizes an open architecture platform, we are not limited to any one institution’s offerings. The guidance we offer is totally objective and independent. This allows us to avoid conflicts of interest and act solely on behalf of our clients.
Foundations, endowments, corporations, and Native American organizations have a much wider range of needs; see “Who We Serve” for more detail on our capabilities.
Our Targeted Process for Financial Success
Institutional Capabilities, Fiduciary Responsibilities.
At Ulrich, we pride ourselves on being the financial architect of people’s lives. When dealing with one’s wealth, you don’t want to go it alone, expertise is essential. The guidance we provide to our clients is backed by over 50 years of experience and augmented by a strategic partnership with Callan — one of the leading institutional investment consulting services and research providers in the industry. We ensure the prudent management of fiduciary assets by establishing appropriate standards that help generate results at every stage.
Our three-part approach provides the building blocks for a solid, ongoing and scalable
process based on the Fiduciary Code of Conduct
Planning - We Listen To Our Clients
- We view the planning process as a journey towards understanding our clients’ goals and objectives
- We gather all relevant data to build a comprehensive financial solution that meets our clients’ risk and return requirements
- We coordinate with our clients’ legal and tax advisors on their core areas of expertise
Implementation - We Bring Your Solution To Life
- We design an appropriate asset allocation and seamless transition plan
- We optimize portfolios in regard to asset location and cash flow needs
- We identify appropriate investment strategies and service providers in addition to negotiating fees on behalf of our clients
Monitoring - We Take The Worry Out Of Your Financial Life
- We provide day to day oversight of our clients’ portfolio, so they don’t have to worry
- We provide comprehensive performance reporting and access to your financial data through our robust, online Client Portal
- Our ongoing process is designed to achieve stability and generate results
Our Investment Thesis
Our View on Portfolio Construction.
As your financial architect, we strive to develop a blueprint that provides stability and generates results. In our view, asset allocation is that foundation that is the key driver of portfolio returns. At Ulrich, when it comes to asset classes, we look at the best approach for each individual client. That means identifying individual goals, objectives and risk tolerance.
We do not start with a standard 60/40 (stock/bond) portfolio, but rather define asset classes by their purpose or expected outcome within a portfolio: Growth, Income, Volatility and Liquidity.
Individual investments may provide multiple functions to a portfolio depending on the market cycle, however, our general philosophy comes down to this:
- Growth and long-term capital appreciation requires diversified exposure to geography, style and market capitalization, and when appropriate, private equity.
- Income is generated from more than just traditional bonds, including assets such as infrastructure, real estate, and private credit. Alternative sources of yield are necessary, especially in a low-interest rate environment.
- Volatility is dampened via short-duration bonds, as well as defensive equity managers. Smoothing long-term returns and buffering severe market downturns means protecting on the downside.
- Liquidity is maintained to take advantage of market swings. “Dry powder” can be an important source of portfolio return—if strategically deployed during times of market pain.
While core holdings are essential to proper diversification, we believe a tactical allocation or overlay can provide outsized returns when opportunities present themselves via a market dislocation, discoveries in innovation and technology or changes to the regulatory environment. For instance, artificial intelligence, block chain technology, cybersecurity and 3D printing are rapidly changing the way companies do business, creating attractive new investment opportunities.
In addition, alternative investments, including private equity, private credit and private real estate have historically been a means of securing higher returns; however, investing in these asset classes typically requires sacrifices, including long lock-up periods, higher fees and higher risk.
Through our research, we strive to remove these barriers by building our structures with more flexible, investor-friendly structures, while still providing access to world-class managers.
Our Partners
Adding partners who add value.
At Ulrich, we go the extra mile for our clients by partnering with leading industry experts to achieve global access to the best and the brightest talent and minds. These relationships, which provide specialists and unique resources, also ensure added value, create operational efficiencies, and control costs, resulting in savings to our clients’ bottom line.
Ulrich is one of a select group of independent consulting firms nationwide with full access to the research and resources of Callan, one of the largest investment consulting firms in the country. As an elite member of Callan’s Independent Adviser Group, Ulrich clients benefit from a vast array of resources including:
- A comprehensive investment database, allowing for sophisticated quantitative screening and comparisons of managers against benchmarks and peer groups
- Sophisticated modeling tools and Monte-Carlo analysis
- Ongoing investment manager monitoring, and qualitative factor analysis
- Capital Markets research and Efficient Frontier analysis
- Dedicated research analysts across all asset classes, including alternative investments
- Access to institutional quality managers at lower minimum account sizes and fees
- Strategies for a tax efficient manager overlay to aid in manager transition and tax-loss harvesting
- Detailed performance and risk measurement tools
We have also joined forces with Emigrant Partners, a subsidiary of New York Private Bank & Trust, which allows us to build on our existing service offerings.