Evidence-based portfolio construction
Investment Management
Your portfolio is the instrument your plan uses. We build it to fund the life the plan describes, and we hold its costs and its tax treatment to the same standard.
Monument Group builds globally diversified portfolios using evidence-based strategies rather than market forecasting. Allocation is set by what your financial plan requires, and managed for tax efficiency through asset location and loss harvesting. We are fee-only, so we receive no compensation from any investment we recommend.
What evidence-based means in practice
We build portfolios from the weight of long-run evidence rather than from a house view of the year ahead. That evidence is consistent on one point: reliably improving on a broadly diversified portfolio through security selection and market timing is difficult to do, and costly in the years it does not work.
So we concentrate our effort where it reliably changes the outcome — on what the portfolio costs to own, on genuine diversification, on the tax treatment of every holding, and on the discipline to hold a sound allocation through the years when holding it is uncomfortable. Those are the levers within our control, and attending to them carefully is where the value of this work is actually created.
How we manage the tax cost of a portfolio
- Asset location
- Placing tax-inefficient holdings in tax-deferred accounts and tax-efficient holdings in taxable ones, so the same allocation costs less to hold.
- Loss harvesting
- Realizing losses opportunistically to offset gains, without drifting from the target allocation.
- Withdrawal sequencing
- Coordinating which accounts fund your spending, so the portfolio and the tax plan are solving the same problem.
- Low turnover
- Fewer transactions mean fewer taxable events. Rebalancing is deliberate rather than reflexive.
Risk, defined usefully
A risk questionnaire records how someone feels on the day they complete it, which is a limited guide to how a portfolio should be built for the next thirty years.
We approach risk from three directions: the risk your plan requires you to take in order to fund the life you have described, the risk your balance sheet can absorb without forcing a decision at a bad moment, and the risk you can hold through a difficult year and still keep to the strategy. Where the three disagree, we revise the plan before we revise the portfolio.
For people who find volatility genuinely difficult, the durable answer is structural: holding enough of the next few years of spending in stable assets that a market decline never obliges a sale. That is a more reliable form of comfort than simply carrying less equity.
Custody and transparency
Your assets are held at independent, well-known custodians — Charles Schwab and Fidelity — not by us. You can see your accounts directly at any time, alongside consolidated performance reporting through our portfolio platform.
Who this is for
Most of the portfolios we take on have accumulated rather than been designed: a retirement account from two employers ago, a brokerage account holding an inherited position, an advisory relationship that suited the household fifteen years ago and has not been revisited since. Bringing those into one coherent structure is usually the first substantial improvement available.
This work suits people who are within sight of retirement or already in it, who hold enough that tax treatment changes the answer, and who would rather understand what they own than be impressed by it.
It is a poor fit for anyone whose main object is to beat the market this year. That is not what we set out to do, and we would rather say so before you engage us than afterward.
The benefit of Master Planning
A portfolio drifts away from its target as markets move, and a maintained one is brought back. After a strong run in equities, rebalancing returns the risk you are carrying to the risk you agreed to, which is what allows the plan to behave in a downturn the way it was modeled to behave. That is unglamorous work, and it is most of what protects a good result.
Tax treatment compounds in the same steady way, and in your favor when it is attended to. Holding each asset in the account type that suits it, realizing gains in the years your bracket can absorb them, and harvesting losses when they are genuinely available all raise the return you keep rather than the return you report. Over a long holding period the difference between those two numbers is substantial.
Because the same team holds your plan, your tax return and your portfolio, these decisions are made together rather than in three separate conversations. That is what Master Planning means in practice on the investment side.
How we hold ourselves to this
We do not forecast markets or build portfolios around a view of the coming twelve months, because we have no durable advantage there and we would rather concentrate on the things we can control.
We sell no products, accept no commissions and hold none of your assets. We also do not trade in order to demonstrate activity: where the right course for a quarter is to leave a sound portfolio alone, that is what we will do and what we will tell you.
What remains is careful maintenance — keeping the allocation where it belongs, holding each asset in the account type that suits it, harvesting losses when they are genuinely available, and otherwise allowing a sound strategy to work. Done consistently over many years, that is what produces the result.
Lee McGowan, “Wisdom is Quiet,” April 2025“Regardless of the environment, we continuously monitor portfolios and follow disciplined, evidence-based investment strategies.”
Investment Management
Questions about investment management
What is Monument Group’s investment philosophy?
Evidence-based and globally diversified, with allocation driven by your financial plan rather than by market forecasts. We hold every holding to a standard of value for what it costs to own, we manage the tax treatment of the portfolio deliberately, and we favor long-term decision-making over short-term speculation. Every portfolio decision is integrated into your broader Master Planning blueprint.Do you try to beat the market?
No. We think that is the wrong objective for most families. The goal is to fund your plan with the least risk and cost necessary. A portfolio that trails a benchmark in a strong year but lets you retire on schedule has done its job.Who holds my money?
Your assets are custodied at Charles Schwab or Fidelity, independent of our firm. We have authority to manage the accounts but never to take custody of your funds. You retain direct access to your accounts at all times.How do you manage risk for people anxious about market volatility?
Through asset allocation matched to your actual cash-flow needs, tax-aware diversification, and proactive communication. For people who find volatility difficult, we hold the next few years of spending in stable assets, so a market decline does not oblige a sale at a bad moment.How often do you rebalance?
We rebalance when allocations drift meaningfully from target or when a tax opportunity makes it sensible, rather than on a fixed calendar. Rebalancing creates taxable events, so each one should earn its cost.Will you work with the accounts I already have?
Usually, yes. Existing holdings are reviewed for what they cost you to keep and what it would cost to change them — an appreciated position is not automatically worth unwinding, and a fund with high fees is not automatically worth selling this year. We tell you which is which rather than liquidating everything to start clean.How often will my portfolio be traded?
Rarely, and by design. Rebalancing happens when the allocation drifts far enough from target to change the risk you are carrying, and when tax-loss harvesting is genuinely available. We do not trade in order to show activity, so a quarter with no changes is a normal and deliberate outcome — and we will say so in the review.
Talk through investment management
Every plan starts with a conversation about what’s actually on your mind.
Schedule a time to discuss whether our approach is the right fit for you.