SIA is pleased to have hosted recently Mr. Wyatt Lee, co-portfolio manager of the T. Rowe Price Retirement Date Funds. Mr. Lee also serves on T. Rowe Price’s Multi-Asset Steering Committee and has been with the company for 18 years.

Wyatt Lee

Mr. Lee shared his responses to questions from SIA’s research team regarding recent strategy changes to the Retirement Date Funds on SIA’s Approved List. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the changes being made to the fixed income portion of their strategy. He discussed the research behind these changes and the timing of implementing the new strategy.

We also discussed broader asset class topics such as real assets and global bonds. Mr. Lee updated our team on the multi-asset team at T. Rowe Price, specifically how quickly they are expanding and now have more than 50 people on the team.

Mr. Lee expressed that his favorite kind of meetings are informal “roundtable” types like ours, because he is able to discuss and exchange ideas with us, rather than flipping formally through presentation slides.

As we have communicated in the past, a key component to SIA’s due diligence process includes in-person meetings with investment professionals from the firms with which we have entrusted client assets.

SIA leverages information gathered from meetings like this to manage our client portfolios most effectively.

The Associates of SIA Wish You a Warm &
Wonderful Holiday Season!

As part of SIA’s due diligence, we conduct offsite visits to the offices of the fund managers that we select for inclusion on our Approved List. Last week Ruth Trautwein visited T. Rowe Price’s home office in Baltimore, MD. She was one of only three advisors who met with the “fund specialists” listed below:

These specialists are tenured members of each fund’s portfolio management team and serve as direct conduits between advisors and portfolio managers.

Ruth was also able to tour their trading floor to learn about their stock and bond trading divisions.

She remained in Baltimore on Thursday and Friday to attend T. Rowe Price’s conference with a broader elite group of advisors from around the country. The sessions that she attended help SIA gain additional information regarding fiduciary responsibility and learn insights from T. Rowe Price’s asset allocation team. Ruth also was able to have direct conversations with T. Rowe Price’s target retirement and stable value managers.

Face to face meetings allow SIA to ask very pointed questions directly to the managers to gain insight regarding their current strategies, as well as their expectations for the future. SIA is “thankful” for this opportunity and honored to be invited to be a part this group.

SIA is featured in in the latest issue of Sacred Heart Academy’s Heartbeat newsletter.  In support of the strong Valkyrie network, we are fortunate to have four alumnae working with our firm.  In addition, each summer SIA proudly offers an internship to an SHA graduate.

Beth Stegner Peabody is honored to join SHA’s Board of Trustees as of June, 2017.

While cybercrime headlines have dominated recent news, we urge clients, friends and associates to remember the perils of common phone scams.

Of most concern is the recent, real-life call to SIA from a panicked client whose grandson was allegedly arrested for drunk driving while returning from a wedding after hitting the car of a pregnant woman.

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Beth has put her heart and soul into SIA since founding it in 1994.  We are proud to have her as our leader and admire her ethical standards and her personal and professional commitment to staff and clients.

We enjoyed discussing interest rates, portfolio positioning, risk management and stock specific knowledge, including T. Rowe Price’s recent meeting with Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com.

A key component to SIA’s investment research process includes in-person meetings with investment professionals from the firms we respect most. SIA leverages information gathered from meetings like these to manage our client portfolios most effectively.