Our Results

Before you have a race you need to establish the ground rules.
Who is the competition? What length is the race?

Our overall competition is the entire U.S. domestic equity market. We compete with the market as a whole and within two sub-divisions. One sub-division is comprised of large-cap stocks. The other sub-division is comprised primarily of small-cap and mid-cap stocks.

Our competitor in the large-cap sub-division is the S&P 500 Large-Cap Index. Our competitor in the small-cap/mid-cap sub-division is the S&P 1000 Small-Cap/Mid-Cap Index. Our competitor for the entire U.S. Equity market is the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index.

In all portfolios we seek to attain long-term returns that are higher than the comparable indexes, with less volatility along the way.

The length of the race is 10 years or more. Plenty can happen in ten years, as we have certainly witnessed first-hand since the creation of our process in 1999. Our portfolios have shown themselves to be competitive over nearly a decade of turbulent conditions. Sometimes they fall behind their more hare-like market competition. Their relative steadiness, however, has endured.

Gross return numbers don’t tell the whole story, however. There are other benefits to our approach that help our clients keep more of what we earn for them. First, our approach does not involve a great deal of active trading, which lowers trading costs. Second, our approach is extremely tax-efficient and taxes are a major issue for the high net worth clients we serve. Finally, the lower volatility we achieve with steady growth stocks makes it easier for our clients to stay the course when emotion is tempting them to bail out at just the wrong time.

All-in-all, it is our belief that Thomas Smith and Associates will grow the wealth of our clients more effectively than any other equity management firm over any given 10-year period.