>> My name is Jeff Coons.
I'm President of Manning and Napier which is an investment firm in Rochester, NY.
I manage about $40 billion in assets.
Hi net worth individuals, varieties and institutions from pension plans,
401(k) plans to endowments in foundations and in all cases we are managing
to try to achieve a goal or objective.
About half of our assets were blending stocks and bonds together to achieve those goals.
In other cases we play a narrow role of either an equity manager or a bond manger.
So the investment process really starts with the client, understanding their needs, their goals,
their liabilities, establishing what would be a most appropriate prioritization
of different types of investment risks and then ultimately trying
to build an investment strategy that is going to achieve those goals
and objectives and cover those liabilities.
So step number 1 is setting objectives.
Step number 2 then is once you have those objectives assessing the current market
environment and what's the best way to achieve those goals,
what's the proper allocation among different types of asset classes.
And then ultimately you're making individual investment decisions.
So you're analyzing individual stocks and bonds,
making sure the risk return tradeoff is appropriate for the client
and also favorable in the overall environment.
And then the tail end of that process, as you build this portfolio security by security is
to monitor that performance and ensure that you're achieving those goals and objectives
and that brings you back to the client that feedback loop to talk to them
about what the results were relative to what they were trying to achieve.