Structural Alpha
Growing your wealth by harnessing persistent opportunities, embedded in the tax code, that you can control. Often larger and easier to achieve than investment alpha.
Our Approach
Investment Alpha
Excess returns earned above a passive benchmark. Very difficult to generate consistently in competitive markets.
About Structural Alpha
Structural alpha often arises from deep planning. It can be enhanced by investment disciplines that align asset allocation, location and portfolio construction with the overall plan to produce distinctive outcomes.
Our proprietary Global Path Simulator (GPS) integrates market outlook, investment strategy, client goals, and tax-smart implementation. It builds upon a wealth allocation framework (Chhabra 2005) to help tailor structural alpha given your specific situation.
Wealth Allocation Framework
The Altar Rock GPS
Altar Rock’s Global Path Simulator (GPS) incorporates almost everything we know about your situation and the choices you face. It also embeds current global macroeconomic and market conditions to generate plausible paths forward to stress test your goals and unlock your full financial potential.
Investment Services
We offer a broad range of financial services through which we seek to secure your wealth goals.
- Wealth Strategy
- Market Outlook
- Asset Allocation and Location
- Investment Vehicle Selection
- Risk-aware Portfolio Construction
- Performance Reporting
Our Investment Philosophy
As life’s circumstances evolve, making the best informed decisions requires constant effort and a framework capable of understanding changing economic and market opportunities.
Initial conditions matter, as does horizon.
Markets are cyclical — so identify where we are and how far out you’re looking.
Alignment is critical.
Investing is not just about markets and returns, but also about supporting your needs, goals, purpose and values.
Rigorously triage opportunities.
Markets are fairly efficient in the short term. Reliably beating public indexes requires rare skill or structural advantage.
Cast a wide net and constantly reassess.
No cookie-cutter models here; instead craft bespoke portfolios from a wide sweep of strategies.
Build a championship team.
It is easy to create an all-star lineup; instead strive to mix and balance unique talents into a cohesive portfolio.
Trust where the research leads us.
Too many investors don't own enough of their best ideas to move the needle. Doing so requires disciplined process and an efficient tech stack.
Investment Selection Process
Our investment committee has over a century of combined market experience. We apply best practices of decision-making and carefully apply risk, liquidity, tax and fee budgets.
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Capability Array (Partial)
There is almost no investment that we won’t consider owning, or at least subjecting to our risk x-ray.
Non-Investment Services
Non-investment services are generally contracted to 3rd parties.
Altar Rock will gladly recommend best of breed providers and help assemble your jigsaw puzzle.
- Art advisory (valuation, auctions, curation, storage)
- Bill payment
- Tax preparation
- Credit (mortgages, loans, margin)
- Data security
- Personal security
- Family education & governance
- Health care advisory & advocacy
- Legal services
- Lifestyle concierge (travel, home maintenance, private aviation, maritime charter)
- Philanthropy (vision, choosing charities, making gifts, non-profit governance)
- Risk management aka insurance (life, term, health, disability, property)
Fiduciary Platform
Altar Rock is a thoroughly client centric firm. To promote your goals and objectives without compromise, we organized as an independent Registered Investment Adviser. Thanks to fintech innovation, monolithic providers are no longer best. Not every advisor is a fiduciary; not all fiduciaries walk the talk. Autonomy allows us to select the fittest investment vehicles, access the best technology, avoid hidden fees, and ensure client assets are safeguarded.
Altar Rock chose to:
- Be independent from any bank, broker-dealer, insurance carrier or custodian.
- Never possess any client assets, securities, or money.
- Measure client performance returns using independent third parties.
- Provide transparency and access on portfolios and investments.
Our approved custodians are Fidelity Institutional and Schwab Institutional. Both are well-capitalized and well-run; both are member firms of the New York Stock Exchange, FINRA and SIPC; both consistently put clients first.
You should matter to your wealth manager — not just as part of a book for them to monetize in a roll-up.