Private ownership by the B.F. Saul family, with roots in the community that date back more than 100 years.

• No outside shareholders with quarter to quarter profitability concerns; no pressures regarding business model or profit margins.

• No need to scale the business; firm can maintain a service model that is in the best interest of our clients, and can attract and retain talented professionals.

 

More than 100 employees, all (including decision-makers) based in the same location.

• Large enough to offer world class expertise and services, but not so large to require segmentation that leads to disjointed delivery of services.

• Small enough to know and accommodate our clients and their unique needs.

 

We manage all portfolios internally, using individual equity and fixed income securities.
No outside managers, no proprietary funds. Easy for clients to understand what they own.

• Our clients have a personal relationship with their equity and fixed income portfolio managers who are directly accountable to clients for all investment decisions and performance.

• We do not subscribe to the common style box approach (i.e. we do not allocate specific percentages to Large Cap, Small Cap, International, Growth, Value, etc.) that frequently results in over-diversification and index-like returns, usually at a high cost with layered fees.

• We are thematic investors; we look for investable ideas that stem from economic, demographic and technological trends powerful enough to influence corporate performance across multiple industries. We invest in companies of all sizes and located almost anywhere in the world. As examples, current themes include increasing wealth concentration (the clustering of economic activity that has spurred productivity-enhancing hubs, yielding geographic concentrations of both wealth and population) and the advent of molecular medicine (the impact of genetic sequencing on medicine and health care).

• Portfolios of new clients are not automatically liquidated and reinvested into our strategy. We take a careful look at existing holdings and consider tax consequences of any changes. We strive to achieve the best after-tax performance for our clients.

 

Each client relationship includes a planner; ideally, all new relationships begin with
a financial plan.

• Planners work to gather pertinent financial data and help clients assess their short- and long-term objectives.

• Resulting plans inform the investment strategy and asset allocation recommendations.

• The financial plan and investment strategy are not static; financial plans are updated regularly through the years as the client’s unique needs, the economy, markets, and tax laws change.

 

We are a trust company that can serve in a fiduciary role when those services are needed, providing a continuum of investment management, planning and fiduciary oversight for our clients and their families.

• Our staff includes a deep bench of professionals with experience administering trusts and estates, including estate planning lawyers who had 15 to 20 years in private law practice before joining Chevy Chase Trust.

• We are able to hold non-traditional trust assets, such as private company stock, partnership interests and real estate investment assets that some firms are hesitant to, or will not, hold in fiduciary accounts.

• We develop a personal relationship with beneficiaries considering how best to meet their financial objectives within the terms and spirit of the trust.