Stratford Advisory Group
500 W. Madison, Suite 2960, Chicago, Ill. 60661; phone: (312) 902-1985; fax: (312) 902-1984
Stratford Advisory Group Inc. provides overall development of investment policies/objectives; overall development of appropriate asset allocation; and U.S. investment, global/international, venture capital, LBO, private investments, derivative and GIC manager selections, performance measurement and additional analysis.
The firm also offers real estate, convertibles, high yield, hedge funds and managed futures manager selections, performance measurement and additional analysis.
For 401(k) plans, the firm provides advice on which investment options to offer employees, advice on the hiring of firms offering specific investment options, guidance on the hiring of record keeping service providers, investment education/communications programs for employees and fiduciary due diligence reviews. It has three professionals working solely on the needs of 401(k) plans. The firm or a subsidiary offers mutual funds to 401(k) sponsors.
The firm tracks 10 GIC providers, 4,000 equity mutual funds, 3,500 fixed-income mutual funds and 20 money market mutual funds.
The firm has special expertise in strategic asset allocation, equity style allocation and analysis. Of the 40 tax-exempt clients on retainer, 19 were corporate, one was union and 20 were foundation or endowment funds. The firm also provided services to five non-retainer tax-exempt clients during the past year, of which two were corporate, two were union and nine was a foundation or endowment.
There are nine professional consultants. Fees are payable in both hard and soft dollars.
The firm provides the following investment vehicles: a mutual fund management program and an index fund management program.
Tax-exempt retainer clients include Carnegie Institute, The Art Institute of Chicago, Knight-Ridder Inc. and Illinois Institute of Technology.
Thomas H. Dodd and Michael J. Flynn are client contact.
Summit Strategies Group
7700 Bonhomme Ave., Suite 300, St. Louis, Mo. 63105; phone: (314) 727-7211; fax: (314) 727-6068
Summit Strategies Group, a unit of Summit Strategies Inc., provides overall development of investment policies/objectives; overall development of appropriate asset allocation; U.S. investment, global/international, venture capital, derivative and GIC manager selections, performance measurement and additional analysis.
The firm also offers after-tax asset allocation, performance measurement and taxable manager selection.
For 401(k) plans, the firm provides advice on which investment options to offer employees; advice on the hiring of firms offering specific investment options; guidance on the hiring of record-keeping service providers; and investment education/communications programs for employees.
The firm tracks more than 100 GIC providers, 200 equity mutual funds, 200 fixed-income mutual funds and 200 money market mutual funds.
The firm has special expertise in conflict-free consulting, including strategic planning and policy implementation using effective, cost efficient investment strategies, especially for insurance companies, taxable assets and other institutional plan sponsors.
Of the 30 tax-exempt clients on retainer, 15 are corporate, nine are public, three are union and three are foundation or endowment funds. The firm also provided services to five non-retainer tax-exempt clients during the past year, all of which were corporate funds.
There are eight professional consultants. Fees are payable in hard dollars.
Tax-exempt retainer clients include State of Missouri Employees' Retirement System, Procter & Gamble, AAA Michigan and Centerior Energy.
Stephen P. Holmes is client contact.
Towers Perrin
335 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017; phone: (212) 309-3464; fax: (212) 309-3689
Towers Perrin provides overall development of investment policies/objectives; overall development of appropriate asset allocation; and U.S. investment, global/international, venture capital, LBO, private investments, derivative and GIC manager selections, performance measurement and additional analysis.
For 401(k) plans, the firm provides advice on which investment options to offer employees, advice on the hiring of firms offering specific investment options, record-keeping and administration services, guidance on the hiring of record-keeping service providers and investment education/communications programs for employees. It has one professional working solely on the needs of 401(k) plans.
The firm tracks 40 GIC providers, 4,000 equity mutual funds, 3,600 fixed-income mutual funds and 20 money market mutual funds.
The firm has 40 tax-exempt clients on retainer. The firm also provided services to 100 non-retainer tax-exempt clients during the past year.
There are 25 professional consultants. Fees are payable in both hard and soft dollars.
Catherine Higgins is client contact.
The Townsend Group
1500 W. Third St., Suite 410, Cleveland, Ohio 44113; phone: (216) 781-9090; fax: (216) 781-1407
The Townsend Group provides overall development of investment policies/objectives and U.S. investment and private investments manager selections, performance measurement and additional analysis.
The firm has special expertise in institutional real estate consulting.
There are nine professional consultants. Fees are payable in both hard and soft dollars.
Terrance Ahern is client contact.
