SCLC is pleased to announce that Mr. Kenneth A. Clift has joined the firm as an Investment Advisor, effective Tuesday, August 3. Ken will work directly with clients, primarily in the private client side of the business.

Ken comes to Schultz Collins with 20 years of financial services experience. For the last 17 years, he worked for Charles Schwab & Company in several capacities. His most notable experience was performing research, analysis, and commentary on the fixed income markets and the real estate investment trust market. Ken also represented Schwab’s Fixed Income Department on the firm’s Investment Strategy Council. The objective of the Council was to analyze global equity and fixed income markets and provide strategic and tactical strategies to Schwab Financial Consultants and clients.

Schultz Collins would like to congratulate Huy Lam and Bashir Nakhuda on passing the second of the three exams needed to earn the most respected professional designation in financial services, the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). The second exam is widely considered the most difficult of the three, so both Huy and Bashir may now breathe a little easier.

It is a pleasure to work with both these gentlemen. Their diligence, intelligence, and the quality of their work are all deeply appreciated. If you visit our office, please take the time to congratulate them on this great achievement.

The July 2010 issue of Financial Advisor magazine, an industry trade journal, surveyed Registered Investment Advisors nationwide and ranked them by total assets in client accounts. The survey has SCLC at #53 nationally and #9 in California.

Our Investment Quarterly for the second quarter of 2010 digs into indexes. A common strategy for investing in a fully diversified portfolio is to choose a set of index funds that each provide broad coverage of a whole category of stocks or bonds. The problem is that for many categories of security there exist quite a few indexes to choose from; and any given index may be tracked by numerous funds. The indexes that track a given asset class may be quite different from each other, and the funds that track a given index may likewise differ considerably. What is an investor to do?

The main article of our Investment Quarterly for the first quarter of 2010 looks at the controversy that has for many years raged in the financial services industry, and that with consideration of financial reform has spread to the halls of Congress, over whether stockbrokers should be required by law to adhere to the fiduciary standard of care for their clients that financial planners and investment advisors have long upheld. We explore what the fiduciary standard means for investors, and how a requirement to meet it would be problematic for

Kathleen Pender interviewed SCLC Principal Jon Chambers, head of the firm’s ERISA Consulting practice, for an article that appeared in the Sunday edition of April 11, 2010, on the recently launched BrightScope, a company that will provide independent ratings of 401(k) plans.

This is no April fool’s joke.

On April 1st Patrick Collins addressed a meeting of the Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law Section of Bar Association of San Francisco. The topic is “Changing Economic Conditions and Trust Investment Policy – Implications for Trustees and Beneficiaries.” Both SF Bar members and others are welcome.

The BASF announcement has all the details.

If you could not attend but would like a copy of the handout materials, please email Kelly Woodard

An article in the October 2008 edition of Trusts & Estates Magazine (“The Journal of Wealth Management for Estate Planning Professionals”) includes a ranking of the 100 largest U.S. Registered Investment Advisory firms by Assets under Management. SCLC ranked 47th.

Here’s the article: Asset-gathering Machines (subscription required)

The last two weeks have seen vast changes to the financial industry in this country. These are so much in the news that there is little point in reiterating the lengthening list of investment banks, thrifts, and insurers that have failed, been bought, seized, or bailed out by the Treasury or the Fed. Because so many enormous, and venerable, institutions have been affected, investors may naturally worry, not just about the state of the markets and the economy, but about the safety of their financial assets. Indeed, we have received a few telephone calls from clients concerned about this issue. We therefore thought it would be appropriate to clarify the asset protection offered to our clients by their custodians (SCLC is not itself a custodian, and thus has no client assets to protect).

Recent market volatility, triggered by unexpected events such as the Bank of America takeover of Merrill Lynch, the bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers, and Federal support for insurer AIG, has led to increased press coverage of events on Wall Street. While this increased coverage is natural, much of it is misguided, thus unhelpful, and may exacerbate investor worries. Consider the following dialogue from a TV news program about the market “chaos” of the last few days:

Reporter: Do you see a bottom to this market?
Guru: No, the bottom is not yet in sight.

Reporter: How long will this market turmoil last?