Investment Management
A CFA-led investment team custom-tailors your Investment Policy to achieve your specific objectives while continually working to reduce unnecessary taxes and expenses.
How Your Portfolio Is Managed
Your plan leads; the portfolio follows. We design, transition, and maintain your investments with clear rules, low friction, and steady execution.
Plan-Aligned Blueprint
Once we clarify your goals and spending needs, we determine the return required to fund them. That return target, along with your current holdings, informs your Investment Policy Statement.
Tax-Managed Portfolio
Taxes can quietly erode returns. We manage for after-tax outcomes through loss harvesting when appropriate, careful cash-flow planning, and smart asset location across taxable and tax-advantaged accounts.
Disciplined Management
Process over predictions. Your Investment Policy Statement sets the allocation, rebalancing rules, and the few conditions where changes are warranted, keeping decisions anchored to your plan, not the news.
Ongoing Oversight
We review progress on a set schedule and coordinate with your tax and estate professionals. Adjustments happen when your life changes, not when markets get noisy.
Meet the CIO
With Chris Cannon leading the investment team, every client has a Chartered Financial Analyst governing the research, sourcing, and management framework for all investment decision-making. His approach to each portfolio is tailored to the client’s specific financial objectives and implemented using risk-aware, cost-effective, and tax-efficient investment strategies.
Christopher Cannon, CFA
Mr. Cannon is a CFA charterholder with over 33 years of investment experience spanning institutional trading, arbitrage, derivatives and private client services.
A Rigorous Approach to Investment Risk
Effective investment risk assessment reflects your specific goals, timeline, and financial constraints. Portfolio construction applies Nobel Prize-recognized quantitative frameworks to model expected outcomes across a range of market conditions, aligning each portfolio with your specific goals and risk parameters.
Evidence-Based Done Right
An evidence-based approach requires more than citing research. It means acknowledging the limits of data, testing conclusions against real-world constraints, and prioritizing your specific situation over academic theory.
Correlation Doesn't Mean Causation
We evaluate research in full context, not cherry-picked data points. Academic findings do not always translate directly to real portfolios. We consider sample periods, market conditions, and practical constraints before applying any concept.
Practical Implementation
A strategy is only as good as its execution. We account for taxes, transaction costs, liquidity, and timing when translating and integrating research into your portfolio. Theory that cannot be implemented effectively stays on the shelf.
Sample Size Matters
Evidence informs the process, but your goals, timeline, tax situation, and risk profile drive actual decisions. Research conclusions are applied only when they align with your specific portfolio context.
Honest About Uncertainty
Markets and research evolve. Assumptions are revisited regularly and adjusted when new evidence warrants it. No strategy is set in stone.
CFA® Charterholder-Led Investment Oversight
At FirsTrust, a CFA® charterholder oversees the investment division. The CFA® designation is earned by completing the CFA Program, passing three rigorous exams, and meeting ongoing ethical and professional standards set by CFA Institute, which adds an extra layer of rigor and accountability to every investment decision.
Ready to see if we're the right fit?
If your wealth has grown beyond what simple advice can manage, we should talk.