About Us

What’s in a Name

Greek hero Bellerophon is best known for killing the three-headed Chimaera that terrorized villages in ancient Greece.  The monster is often depicted as a fire breathing lion with a goat’s head on its back and a tail that ends in a snake’s head.  Similarly, our clients and investors generally face three perils that can harm their chances of reaching their long-term investment and retirement goals.  They include the high all-in investment-related fees that directly impact their goal(s), excess diversification or closet-indexing that hinder potential value add, and a failure of discipline that can lead to permanent losses of capital and increase the risk of one outliving one’s wealth.

A Personal Story About Me

My immediate family escaped the “Killing Fields” of Cambodia and arrived in the United States in 1975 as refugees.  And while we arrived safely in America with little more than the shirts on our backs, most of my larger family of cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandparents were not as lucky.  It’s my estimation that more than 80% of our relatives died during the conflict.  Unfortunately, they have become little more than memories passed down from my parents and older siblings.  Having been only two years old at the time meant that all of my personal memories of them are incomplete and vague at best.

Despite my inauspicious beginnings, I was very fortunate for what I did have, loving parents and a strong family structure that allowed me the opportunity to pursue what I could never have had in Cambodia: the American dream.  And while that can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, for me that means being placed in a position to succeed and taking advantage of the tools available to me to ensure a better future for myself, my wife, and my children.  I take nothing for granted and am thankful every day for the opportunity I have been given because life is littered with the reality of others who are less fortunate.

My modest childhood forced me to learn basic economic life lessons early.  If you wanted something of value, you had to work hard to earn the money to buy it.  I learned to sacrifice and save.  This mindset helped me to work full-time during my undergraduate years while attending school full-time (school loans helped as well!).  I was first in my family to graduate from college.  First to receive a graduate degree.  My desire to learn and grow enabled me to complete the studies necessary to receive the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Everything I have accomplished in life is a testament to my parents, my own hard work, and the opportunities (help) I’ve been given to succeed, and I will never stop trying to pay it forward.  This is what drives me in my profession, and this is my passion.  The opportunity to experience the American dream should be available to everyone.  But for many investors and households, it is a daunting goal and many need help.  We all need help sometimes and that help can be as simple as just being placed into a position to succeed.  I help my clients and investors generally get back on track to reach their long-term investment and retirement goals.

I have 28 years of diversified investment experience that includes the research and direct investment management of stocks and bonds for high net worth and small business clients.  Additionally, I have experience in manager research and due diligence, having helped oversee and manage a $10 billion institutional pension fund.  I had direct oversight of the pension fund’s equity and fixed-income investment portfolios that were managed by outside investment managers.  I had specific oversight over the pension fund’s $1.2 billion concentrated managers program that sought to extract value add from some of the country’s best investment managers through a mandate that required high conviction and a limited number of stock positions.

I received my B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland, College Park and my MBA from Loyola College of Maryland. More recently, I also completed coursework in international investing and currency management with the Oxford International Investment Programme at the Said Business School at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. I hold the Chartered Financial Analyst (“CFA”) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (“CAIA”) designations. I am a member of the CFA Institute and the CFA Society Washington, DC. I am also a member of the Washington, DC Chapter of the CAIA Association.