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Stock markets everywhere appear they are adrift; equity prices are volatile.  Rates for deposits are so low that one can only have a laugh.  Economies all over the globe weakened by poor demand are now undermined by the destruction in the United States.  If America manages to pull through, it will report a real output increase of one percent.  The economic crisis is all the more profound because the phenomenon is global, not localized; the spread of risks and uncertainty is insidious, not merely menacing, because nobody has yet seen the bottom. Just a couple of months ago everyone asked me “what is your return on investment?"  The same people today are asking for “capital protected instruments.”  It is like an insurance kind of business being in money management and financial consulting.  Bankers, brokers, and money managers are suddenly asked to act as if they were insurers. However, people forget that protection always has been expensive.

. Lic. Steve Saemmler-Klein (SSK) is considered by many to be the  offshore “guru”. He is the President of the Offshore Association of Central America and the Caribbean (OACC), the Principal of Butterfield, Reimer & Associates, President of CBS Group, and sits on the board of over 25 companies as the Chairman of Grupo CAT.  SSK has become a known resource for international financial structuring and global solutions, and is a frequent speaker and author on these subjects. . Additional Resources Stock Markets of the World  Offshore Investment Resources  Offshore Investment Articles  Contact CBS Group  Contact Steve Saemmler Klein  .

The threat of falling asset values and eroding private investments are not the only concern these days.  One group of investors worries about putting more money into equity markets whereas the other group worries about missing the upside.  I feel it safe to say that the ones looking at the equity side is the one group that will grow.
 

The next question that follows is the “search for value.” While the cycle for recovery will underpin markets, the expectations for above average returns have gone.  In the circumstance, political risk is one of the most significant unknowns, a significant variable, in the assessment of risks today and the making of decisions.

In the mid-‘90s, for instance, when the upside seemed to exist everywhere, investment decisions were reduced to a matter of product selection in bonds, equities, precious metals, real estate, and other securities.  All that still remains important, but investment managers will argue that product selection today, more than in the past, will be predicated on sound, strategic advise, and sound advise assumes that it, in and of itself, is unencumbered by the pressures of satisfying sales in investment products.  It is important that one chooses an advisor where there is no investment bank or brokerage behind him whose recommendations he has to follow and whose product he has to sell.
 

This independence in the approach of the CBS Group is core in the open architecture business that sits always at the heart of its decision makers and advisors. We give independent advice because we are not product driven. The distinction between independent advice and product pedaling is important not only because asset values across numerous classes have been adversely affected, but also because there is a market increase in volatility in the most recent past.  Corresponding high volatility infers are high risk / return profile.  To capture this set of permutation profitably, requires the exacting skills of risk management tools,  discipline and an independent approach to wealth management.

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This discipline and consistency is a rather conservative value - something not popular some years ago.  However, being conservative means one is extremely progressive at the same time. All one has to do is to be willing to tackle a range of asset classes rather than being confined to a portfolio of top grade investment assets - for example double or triple A bonds.  Asset diversity in the portfolio may have no correlation with one another, but it tells of the advisor’s capacity to take risk once given its arrays of tools to protect against any shortfall.  The idea that it is possible to have ambitious long-term growth with protection is a tested proposition.
 

I personally measured the combined performances across eight classes of assets with which I had investments between 1990 and 1999.  In that period, annual return was slightly more than eleven percent, earning more than U.S. dollar global equities, but with the equivalent risk of global U.S. dollar bonds. With such results it is clear that a global market strategy will work.  It is a key issue that this is a strategy and not a product.  The objectives are wealth protection, long-term growth, and reduced risk from short-term volatilities.  Investments are penned out across the globe on both listed and unlisted assets with a strong emphasis on the U.S. market.  The allocation is highly diversified, not only across asset clauses, but also within an asset class.  Equity as an asset class may be volatile for example, but diversification within it reduces its vulnerability to shocks.

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