While all advisors have access to stocks, bonds, mutual funds and ETFs, “some people are better at selecting them and we’re very good,” Karp says. “One of our unique attributes is our ability to use non-correlated, non-directional alternative type investments from the private markets.”
Alternatives used by PagnatoKarp involve a high level of due diligence and include farmland leases, triple-net-lease real estate, agriculture and aviation finance and direct and collateralized lending. “These are investments that have high-single-digit and low-double-digit returns with cash flows and without the volatility measures of the traditional liquid markets,” Karp says.
“Where we excel is when a client goes from $1 million to $20 million,” he continues. “We understand their concerns and anticipate their needs. It’s our job to replicate the paycheck you’ve been getting your whole life. We target solutions that allow you to pay your bills, even if the market goes down 40%.”
The firm’s metric of success is determined by asking: Does it do what it says it is going to do—meet the objectives laid out in the client’s investment policy—and is the client happy?
“There’s a lot of trust there that the client has with us,” says Lorrie Zimecki, the firm’s director of concierge services whose team helps plan travel, makes luxury purchases and hires integral household personnel like nurses and physical therapists for clients. Zimecki’s team recently successfully retrieved a substantial amount of money a client had left in his hotel room’s safe while he was traveling with his family.
“We encourage clients to rely on us,” says Zimecki, who spent months experimenting with interactive travel apps to find one that allows the concierge department to create and update extensive client itineraries and reservations instead of spending hours preparing hard copies and PDF files. The app helps to create a luxurious, seamless travel experience that clients can now access on their cell phones.
“We give clients back the luxury of time,” says Zimecki, who believes her firm’s autonomous, bottom-up style empowers every team member to do the right thing for clients in a timely fashion. “This is critical to the success of our clients and our business, especially as we become a bigger firm,” she says.
Assets Under Advisement (AUA) over $3.8B as of 6/30/18. AUA = Assets under advisement refers to assets on which the firm provides advice or consultation but for which the firm either has discretionary authority or does not arrange or effectuate transactions.