Committees

Meet the people putting the power of shared purpose and collective wisdom to work.

Our Investment Policy Committee and our Evidence-Driven Planning™ Committee form the foundation of Buckingham’s overall investment and planning philosophies. The committees are where the power of collective experience and the rigor of research, data and behavioral science come together to shape our policies, support our advisors and guide our clients.

Investment Policy Committee
Building Better Portfolios

The Buckingham Investment Policy Committee (IPC) was established as the primary authority charged with developing and setting investment policies for Buckingham. The IPC determines, approves, reviews and documents all investment policy activities undertaken by Buckingham in an effort to meet both the current and future needs of our clients and deliver a better wealth experience to investors and their advisors. Policy decisions made by the IPC are driven by the findings of academic and practitioner financial markets research not by personal opinions of committee members. We believe three key conclusions can be drawn from this research:

  1. Most individual and professional investors underperform market benchmarks after accounting for the investment costs.
  2. Investors who happen to outperform the market in one period rarely repeat that performance in the next period.
  3. The majority of investor focus should be placed on portfolio allocation design and the implementation of the allocation through low-cost, broadly diversified investment strategies.

Responsibilities:

  • Development of Capital Market Assumptions (CMAs)
  • Creation and monitoring of model portfolio strategies
  • Monitoring and oversight of individual fund managers
  • Design of new strategies in concert with fund managers
  • Oversight of fixed income team and fixed income strategy
  • Leveraging AUM to reduce fund expense ratios
  • Training of wealth advisory teams
  • Monitoring of advisory team practices
  • Reviewing top academic research and industry strategies

Processes

Processes

  • Regular IPC meetings conducted quarterly
  • Policy decisions communicated through IPC meeting minutes
  • CMAs and model portfolio allocations reviewed annually
  • Model portfolio and individual fund results reviewed monthly
  • Manager due diligence conducted quarterly

Investment Policy Committee Members

Evidence-Driven Planning™ Committee
Supporting Your Life Plans

The Buckingham Evidence-Driven Planning™ Committee (EDPC) was established to help advisors support clients’ achievement of life plans through data-driven planning principles. Members are a combination of former and current practicing advisors with considerable experience, education and expertise across all elements of life planning. Members believe that clients’ highest-quality plans incorporate research of financial laws, demographic studies and behavioral sciences. Data gained from research is then used to populate default assumptions within software platforms.

Benefits for clients:

  • Confidence that their future projections are supported by facts, not anecdotes
  • Flexibility for personal preferences and opinions, for clients and advisors alike, can still be modeled into wealth planning projections
  • Consistency will permeate across default perspectives, without diminishing the deeply personalized needs, wants and wishes incorporated into every client’s life plan
  • Clarity will prevail for each client, allowing them to focus on the people and causes most important to them now while working with a firm that helps them prepare for tomorrow

Responsibilities:

  • Establish Buckingham’s default perspectives across essential and conditional elements of wealth planning, relying on data and research to formulate perspectives
  • Provide due diligence on planning software to help ensure clients are supported with best-in-class tools
  • Research and review third-party providers needed to support clients’ spectrum of planning needs
  • Serve as internal resource to help Buckingham enhance and personalize planning support for clients through consistently efficient processes

Processes

Processes

  • Monthly meetings
  • Transparent agendas and recommendations published through meeting minutes
  • Continuous review of laws, regulations and academic research for strategic updates to financial plans
  • Regular collaboration with the Investment Policy Committee to ensure evidence is applied across spectrum of clients’ financial lives
  • Annual completion of continuing education to remain at the forefront of planning knowledge

Evidence-Driven Planning™ Committee Members