Maintaining Financial Consistency Throughout the Inconsistency of Life
The past few years have reminded us all that life ultimately charts its own course with unexpected ups and downs. It also taught us that maintaining control with sound financial planning enables life’s bumps to be less turbulent. Attaining financial security isn’t just about successfully managing day-to-day finances – it impacts the long-term emotional, physical and mental well-being of you and your loved ones. Everyone deserves the ease-of-mind that comes from attaining financial security. Let us be your financial partner and take this journey together to build a consistent financial road map that successfully navigates you through the inconsistency of life.
Parsec's Financial Planning Process
1. Understand you
2. Chart your course
3. Empower your journey through life’s stages
- Pair you with an onboarding concierge to ensure a seamless transition for the administrative aspects of our journey.
- Provide regular team reviews delivering advice, planning and investment strategies from our credentialed professionals.
- Arm you with technology that delivers security and insight to your financial situation so that you’re never in the dark.
- Deliver timely and informative educational content and events to enrich your Parsec experience.
Parsec's Investment Process
1. Choose an allocation that suits your risk/return profile
- Discuss and evaluate your financial goals
- Review your risk tolerance
- Establish an IPS/plan/path
2. Allocate equities among large-, mid and small-cap assets; diversify fixed income
- Set target weights for portfolio components
- International, domestic, growth, value, sectors
3. Complete a bottom-up analysis of individual securities and funds
- Valuation
- Balance sheet strength
- Growth projections
- Fund alpha
- Fund expense ratio
4. Monitor and rebalance
- Rebalance periodically to target allocation
- Sell overvalued or deteriorating securities
- Add new ideas to portfolio
You might wonder how we choose and monitor the investments in our clients’ portfolios. Because we value transparency, we would like to shed some light on how we make these decisions and give you some insight into investment management at Parsec.
When it comes to our investment management philosophy, fundamental analysis is at the forefront of our process. Indicators such as price-to-earnings ratios, dividend yield and payout ratios, and profitability ratios provide vital information that help us make an informed decision. We include a variety of companies from the 11 S&P sectors, which divide the broad market into groupings such as energy, health care, technology, and so forth. Within each sector, we look for companies that are somewhat different from one another in order to increase diversification. Diversification provides a benefit to your portfolio, as it has been shown to enhance return while limiting risk. The reason for this is that the stocks of different companies (and different sectors) don’t move in tandem, so negative movement in one area of the market can be cushioned by positive movement in another area of the market. It is important to maintain exposure to different areas of the market simultaneously in order to mitigate volatility.
We do not rely on any one source of information, but instead gather data from a wide variety of resources in an attempt to gain a well-rounded view of a security. We consider expected and historical industry trends as well as economic projections as part of our holistic investment decision-making process. We consult outside research from a variety of highly reputable providers, including FactSet, CFRA, Credit Suisse, Argus, and Value Line. Once selected, we continue to monitor these securities regularly, yet are very careful about making sudden changes. This is because our investment philosophy embraces a long-term approach, one that avoids the temptation of acting emotionally. The market has shown that sometimes one of the best investment decisions you can make is to do nothing.
Our research committee (which reports to the investment policy committee) meets regularly to review the research and discuss portfolio composition. We carefully consider a multitude of both positive and negative attributes for each security and engage in discussions where numerous points of view are considered. In addition, when we discuss making a change we carefully consider the ramifications. A key focus is placed on portfolio stability as well as composition and diversification. Following the research committee meeting, the entire investment team (including portfolio managers, research analysts and our trader) meets to recap the research and discuss any changes that they may make in clients’ portfolios.
As you can see, we strive to continually craft and refine our investment management approach that will enable you to reach your financial goals. We are your steadfast partner in this endeavor. Thank you for your trust in Parsec.
Parsec's Investment Pillars
Long-term investing
No market timing
Broad Diversification
Hear Us Explain Our Processes:
Read Our Latest Thought Leadership on Investing:

Equity Portfolio Construction
Probably since before you made your first dollar, you were told about the importance of investing in the stock market – about the wonders of compounding returns over time that can transform a lifetime of savings into a car, a house, and a comfortable retirement.

Mindful Investing
Articles about the benefits of meditation are everywhere these days, and for good reason. The past few years have been unusually stressful, and people are looking for non-addictive, healthy ways to manage their stress and anxiety. Thus, I got interested in mindful investing.

Why Your Money Isn’t Available Immediately After Selling Securities
When you need to withdraw cash from your investment account and you’re told the funds aren’t available, it can be a little unsettling, particularly when you know you have more than enough to cover the withdrawal. “What do you mean, the funds aren’t available? I can see them right there!”

Types of Investment Trades
When you see trading activity in your account, it generally falls into three main types of investment trades: raising or investing cash, rebalancing, and block trading.

Cash Management
At Parsec, our investment philosophy does not include a designated allocation to cash.

How Parsec Monitors Investment Securities
Parsec invests in a variety of securities for its clients. These may include mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs), and individual stocks, among others. All of these investments can and do experience significant price pullbacks from time to time. While Parsec’s research committee focuses on investments it can hold for the long-term and performs significant due diligence before adding any new positions, price declines still happen. In this article we will discuss how we monitor investment securities and our process when a stock or fund does not perform as expected.

Know Thyself – Are You a Trader or an Investor?
I heard about a study that found people were more likely to vote if you ask them, “are you a voter?” as opposed to, “do you plan on voting?” The way you view yourself matters. If you identify as a voter, then you are more likely to go to the polls or send in your ballot at election time. It’s the same with fitness – if you identify as a runner, you are more likely to run consistently, because it’s not just something you do, it’s who you are.

Does the Stock Price Fully Reflect the News?
In our investment process, we often have to ask ourselves this question: Something bad has happened to a company or market; does the current price reflect the news?

What Is Direct Indexing?
You may have heard about direct indexing, as it has become a popular topic in financial circles over the last couple of years.
Using Our 43+ Years of Excellence to Help You Thrive
Get in touch with a Parsec Financial representative at an office near you.