Family Office in Toronto Switches to Asset Strategies of Harvard and Yale Endowments

March 09, 2016 – – ICON Advanced Capital and Estate Planning Inc. out of Toronto has switched its investment management strategies to mimic large endowments like Harvard and Yale. The 15 year annualized returns for the Harvard endowment is 10.2% and for the Yale endowment 12.2%. Currently 76.2% of Yale’s Endowment Fund is allocated to Alternative Asset Classes.

According to historical records, the average annual return for the S&P 500 since its inception in 1928 through 2014 is approximately 10%. However, this return is very misleading because it is difficult to achieve for actual investors.

Being able to match this benchmark is hard enough, but beating the S&P 500 is even harder and over time near impossible. The 10% “average” is just that, an average of the returns of all the years. Your actual returns will depend on exactly when you invest and where the market is at that time. Meanwhile the Harvard and Yale Endowments are able to beat the S&P average return over the long haul as they are insulated from the large draw downs and time to get back to even – the lost time is punishing.

Explains Kevin Smith, Founder of ICON, “Moving clients portfolios to cash before the 2008 crash, created a challenge in that I did not want to be responsible to repeat that call and that was the motivation to find better, more advanced solutions. By studying the strategies of large endowments, we found that using alternative investments like asset backed lending/merchant banking is a much more reliable investment strategy because it doesn’t depend on stock market returns. The Portfolio Managers we use are experts in scrubbing financing deals and the key team members come from very senior positions in the banking industry.

“By knowing the return on the secured financing transactions in advance and staying away from any development related deals, we can generate solid and consistent returns for clients without risking money in the stock market. This simply is a private bank generates returns the same way large banks do but we focus on segments that are too small or for policy reasons, the banks have limited their exposure to that market segment and therein is our opportunity.”

This new strategy has allowed ICON to continue its track record of providing strategic investment advice, tax planning and estate planning to high networth individuals and families.

ICON Advanced Capital and Estate Planning Inc. is a private family office located in Toronto, Canada. ICON is in the business of answering the difficult questions high net worth families struggle with as they progress through the various stages of asset accumulation, management, and distribution. Icon custom-designs and sources leading edge tax, asset, and estate management integrated solutions catering to high net worth families. More information about the company and their services can be found at http://www.iapi.ca

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Contact ICON Advanced Capital & Estate Planning Inc.:

Kevin Smith
416.604.8753
adm@iapi.ca
3008 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON M6P 1Z3
Canada

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