The CIO
of Johnson Financial Group, Brian Andrew, spoke to the Marquette University AIM
students about risk factors as a tool for portfolio construction and
performance reporting
 |
| Brian Andrew, CIO of Johnson Financial |
The seniors
in Dr. Krause’s AIM Investments class had an opportunity this week to hear from
Brian Andrew, CFA, Chief Investment Officer at Johnson Financial Group.
Mr.
Andrew talked about a rapidly developing topic in investment circles that
involves risk factors. As he explained, traditional portfolio allocation
approaches assume that diversifying across a wide range of asset classes will
lead to a lower risk portfolio; however, instead of constructing portfolios
using only the traditional asset class approach, risk factor portfolio
construction can lead to a better understanding of portfolio risk exposures.
The
presentation was well received by the students especially as Brian explained
what smart beta was and how it was developed using risk factors. Simply stated,
smart beta strategies attempt to deliver a better risk and return trade-off
than conventional market cap weighted indices by using risk factor weighting
schemes based on measures such as volatility, momentum, income, growth and
liquidity.
Brian
also waded into the active vs. passive investment debate – and provided the
students with many important items to consider. He outlined the differences in
the two approaches and made a case for using both passive and active investment
strategies within a portfolio – including some of the smart beta ETFs to mitigate
portfolio risk exposure.
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| Brian Andrew and David Krause in the AIM Room |
Dr.
Krause said, “As always, Brian did an excellent job in taking complex topics
and explaining them in language our students understand – he also provides
real-world example. He is usually ahead of the curve and in the case of risk
factors, he clearly has created some important strategies for Johnson Financial
clients. I also liked that he talked about knowing now to measure and evaluate both
fixed income and equity managers’ performance in the context of risk exposure
using factor analysis.”
Johnson Financial Group provides
non-profit organizations and individuals with the investment strategies and
education that needed to achieve their investment objectives. The firm consists
of Johnson Bank, Johnson
Insurance, and Cleary Gull Advisors.
Brian is a frequent contributor to print and broadcast financial media. This
month (9/26/17) Brian will be a guest speaker at the CFA Society of Milwaukee
luncheon – click
here for details.
Brian
Andrew, CFA, is Johnson Financial Group’s Chief Investment Officer. He leads
Johnson Financial Group’s investment strategy to provide consistent, actionable
investment solutions for clients. With more than 26 years of experience in the
financial services industry, Brian has led several investment management and
advisory organizations, managing wealth and institutional portfolio assets. He
has also managed portfolio assets for individuals and non-profit organizations including
health care, senior living, foundation and university endowments.
In addition, Brian
has led research groups conducting money manager research and due diligence. Brian
is the Chairman of the Board of the National Hemophilia Foundation. He is also
an adjunct professor for IE University’s graduate finance program, teaching
portfolio management. Additionally, Brian, served on the Advisory Board for
both the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, College of Health Sciences, and Marquette
University’s Applied Investment Management program. He was also a director for
a community development authority and school commission member for St. Charles
School. Brian holds a BS in Business and Finance from the University of
Minnesota in addition to the CFA designation.
