Investment Advisory Practice I have been putting more thought into what it would take to launch a successful investment advisory practice. If the firm can differentiate itself by offering individualized portfolio management based on ethical criteria without incurring high costs, I believe that I could market the services effectively to a local clientele. Cost and performance will remain key features that I will need to keep in mind. Solid operations planning is the only way to execute against cost criteria without the benefit of large scale at inception. There is a web of activities that makes up the value chain. Value can be created for the customer by understanding the connections between areas and how they can be organized to support each other rather than operating as silos or even at cross-purposes.



The Chartered Financial Analyst coursework for Level III covered "Client Intake" activity effectively by emphasizing the need for a well documented Investment Policy Statement for each account. Additional information on a customer's ethical preferences and sensibilities will need to be captured for an SRI manager to be able to act on client's behalf. There must be complete clarity around whether the client has strong exclusionary criteria or whether they would be amenable to a "best of breed" approach to maintaining exposure to a sector or industry. Choosing an explicit benchmark, identifying passive versus active style (or shades in between), evaluating risk tolerance, etc... must all be completed before the strict "Portfolio Management" phase can add value.  ¶ 12:00 AM 2 comments links to this post

  Quest for Right Livelihood I plan to use this blog to track progress in looking for fulfilling and worthwhile employment. I am near the 5 year mark - 2/15/2006 - of my employment as a technology project manager or business systems consultant with Wells Fargo's Funds Management Group (the Wells Fargo Mutual Funds).

The position offers many interesting challenges and exposes me to systems and processes of the "back of the house" for a top 20 mutual fund family, however, I don't believe that it is my "life's work". I've been committed to the principles of environmental sustainability, peace and social justice and I believe that big corporations are more often the problem than the solution. It is increasingly difficult for me to reconcile my beliefs with the fact that I work for a Fortune 100 company and pour my daily efforts into something I don't control or approve of 100%. Wells Fargo is among top holdings of many of the socially responsible portfolios and promotes diversity internally. The company is not among the most reprehensible and I don't have acute pangs of conscience for working here. The issue is that I feel there is something out there more closely aligned with my values where I could be able to contribute more of myself.

I have completed the coursework for the CFA program and am seeking a position that focuses on portfolio management or investment research. I started the CFA program while working at Schwab in technical support for online trading and investment research applications. The firm required we get Series 7 and 63 licenses to handle escalated trading calls and be promoted within the team. I scored a 98% versus the 70% required to pass the 7, so I figured that I had a knack for finance / investment related topics and I decided to pursue the CFA. The CFA seemed like a great alternative to going to Graduate School for an MBA because it was 1). self-study 2). inexpensive and 3). wouldn't interfere with working for a living. I had heard praise for the program, the breadth of the curriculum and the fact it was geared towards professionals in the field.

I would like this job search to be more thorough than past efforts. I would like to leverage the fact that I'm not in a hurry and can afford to ask a lot of questions. I want what I learn in the process to serve me and make me more of an expert on socially responsible investments and careers in the field. The main challenge is that it is difficult to seriously look for a new job or career when one already has something that is paying the bills and filling the hours. I hope the blog will help keep me on track and push me to stay on course, if only to avoid the shame of having no progress to report :)  ¶ 12:44 PM 1 comments links to this post