Navigating Dividend Reinvestment Decisions

In the ever-evolving landscape of investment strategies, one question frequently surfaces among our clients: Is it better to reinvest dividends and capital gains distributions or take them as cash? This seemingly straightforward decision involves a deeper dive into the operational nuances that can significantly impact your investment strategy. At East Bay, we’ve dissected this complex issue to offer clarity and direction, ensuring you’re equipped to make informed choices that align with your long-term financial goals.

The Dilemma of Dividend Reinvestment

We are often asked whether it is preferable to reinvest dividends and capital gains distributions back into the mutual fund or ETF that pays them. Our opinion on whether or not to reinvest is based more on operational aspects than just a straightforward investment decision.

The Compounding Appeal vs. Operational Reality

To be clear, many articles on the topic simply talk about dividend reinvestment in the compounding sense, in which case you are clearly better off reinvesting rather than spending the distributions. In an advisory account with multiple holdings, though, the decision gets nuanced and comes down to advisor/client preferences.

The Case Against Automatic Reinvestment

We suggest not reinvesting dividends back into the security that paid them because that may not be the security you actually need to buy in the portfolio. Not only can it contribute to overweighting a particular holding (if its value had also been rising), getting you outside your risk tolerance, but it can lead to more transaction activity (having to trim the position more often), potentially incurring additional costs and/or encumbering your ability to “buy low, sell high” during rebalancing. Of course, we must note that many advisors have increased their usage of ETFs, which don’t have transaction fees on the most-used custodians, reducing the importance of the cost consideration.

Managing Withdrawals and Advisory Fees Without Selling

Reinvesting dividends may also mean more selling when withdrawals are needed from the account. While not all accounts need to make withdrawals, most advisory accounts need to pay advisory fees, and, assuming a balanced portfolio, distributions from its holdings are typically sufficient for covering them without the need to sell portfolio assets.

The Importance of Regular Portfolio Rebalancing

On the flip side, if the investor or advisor cannot monitor and rebalance the portfolio somewhat regularly, then cash can indeed build up and create a performance drag. This is fine if the advisory firm has a dedicated team (in-house or outsourced) to perform regular rebalancing. For what it’s worth, the outsourced trading teams we queried on this topic agree that not reinvesting dividends makes it easier to keep portfolios near their asset allocation targets, as long as you have cost controls in place, which they do, reinforcing our preference.

Tax Implications of Dividend Reinvestment

Last but not least, each of those reinvested dividends will likely result in many small purchases, each with its own cost basis, which could present headaches later on when calculating capital gains taxes on sales of each of those small tax lots.

Conclusion: A Tailored Approach to Dividend Reinvestment

Ultimately, trying to answer the question about reinvesting dividends is one without a clear and direct answer for all possible situations; it depends on quite several different factors.

Crafting Your Dividend Strategy with East Bay

Deciding whether to reinvest dividends is a multifaceted dilemma, influenced by various operational, tax, and strategic considerations. Clearly, a one-size-fits-all answer doesn’t exist, emphasizing the need for a tailored approach that aligns with your unique investment objectives and operational capabilities.

At East Bay, we’re committed to guiding you through these intricate decisions, ensuring your portfolio remains optimized for your financial aspirations. Whether you’re leaning towards reinvesting for compounding benefits or prefer maintaining flexibility in asset allocation, our team is here to offer the insights and support you need.

Ready to refine your investment strategy? Connect with us at East Bay. Our experts are on hand to discuss your portfolio’s specific needs and how we can help you navigate the dividend reinvestment conundrum with confidence.

In an era where the financial landscape is increasingly complex, and client expectations for personalized investment strategies are higher than ever, financial advisors face the dual challenge of deepening client relationships while managing an array of intricate investment portfolios. And this is where the profound value of an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) partnership comes into focus, offering a strategic edge and emotional relief by providing advisors with the freedom to focus on what truly matters.

Unlocking Emotional and Professional Expertise

The journey with an OCIO unlocks access to an expansive suite of professional expertise, bridging the gap to a world where in-depth research, asset allocation, and investment management are seamlessly integrated. This collaboration extends beyond mere strategic support; it nurtures the advisor’s capacity to deliver exceptional service, enriched by a depth of understanding and expertise that resonates personally with clients.

The Power of Personalization at Scale

Striking a balance between personalized service and scalable solutions is a significant hurdle in today’s market. OCIO partnerships offer a lifeline, empowering advisors with institutional-grade investment management and bespoke strategies. This alliance not only meets the direct needs of clients but does so with warmth and care that transforms numbers and charts into dreams and goals realized.

Transforming Time into Meaningful Connections

For advisors, time is not just a commodity; it’s the currency of relationships. Research indicates that top-performing advisors, despite working extensive hours, allocate significantly less time to managing portfolios and more to nurturing client relationships. The strategic delegation of investment management functions to an OCIO liberates advisors from the back-office and positions them to invest deeply in the human side of their practice.

Safeguarding Dreams with Diligence and Compliance

In the ever-evolving dance of regulations, advisors shoulder the immense responsibility of protecting their clients’ futures. The OCIO emerges as a vigilant partner in this dance, offering comprehensive due diligence capabilities and support. This partnership goes beyond mitigating risks; it’s about safeguarding the trust and dreams entrusted to advisors by their clients, ensuring peace of mind amidst the storms of market volatility.

Deep Dive into Manager Selection: An OCIO’s Craft

The meticulous process of selecting money managers is both an art and a science, demanding vast amounts of time and specialized knowledge. By entrusting this critical function to an OCIO, advisors can tap into a deep well of expertise and networks. This access broadens the horizon of investment options and weaves a richer tapestry of opportunities for clients, painted with the brushstrokes of thorough diligence and strategic foresight.

Balancing Cost with Invaluable Returns

While there are costs associated with OCIO services, the return on this investment is measured in more than just financial terms. It’s found in the hours reclaimed for client engagement, the stress alleviated from navigating compliance, and the confidence that comes from having a dedicated expert in your corner. According to Kitces, the average independent financial advisor spends only about 9 hours a week on business development. An OCIO partnership can significantly increase this time, offering a direct pathway to growth and success.

Crafting Unforgettable Client Experiences

At the heart of the advisory role is the commitment to creating unforgettable client experiences. OCIO services are a cornerstone in this endeavor, enabling advisors to dedicate themselves fully to their clients. This partnership does more than optimize portfolio management; it enriches the advisor-client relationship with deeper understanding, empathy, and shared success.

As we look to the future, an OCIO partnership’s emotional and strategic benefits are unmistakable. It’s a relationship that transcends the transactional, touching the core of what it means to be a financial advisor.

Journey with East Bay

Embark on a journey with East Bay and discover how our OCIO partnership can transform not only your advisory practice but also the lives of your clients. Reach out today, and let’s explore together how we can bring more hours of meaningful engagement, deeper client connections, and enhanced peace of mind into your practice.

An Outsourced Chief Investment Officer delivers advisory firms the best of both worlds — access to best-in-class investment strategies developed by experienced industry veterans without the commitment of hiring full-time team members.

But what many firms don’t realize is that OCIOs offer a wide range of services, which can be adjusted to meet your team’s needs. Let’s take a look at what an OCIO does and the different capacities in which they help advisory firms better serve their clients while maintaining their bottom line.

How Involved is an OCIO?

That’s up to the advisory firm and the OCIO. Each relationship is customized to help fill the gaps or offer support in specific areas of need. Some OCIOs step in seamlessly to serve the same critical functions as an internal CIO. Other times, they provide more supplemental support or address especially complex concerns.

At East Bay, we’ve served firms in a number of different ways. For example, we’ve offered guidance during tough transitions, helped support overloaded internal teams during periods of growth, and enabled advisors to regain their time by taking full control of investment-related responsibilities.

But each OCIO firm operates differently, so their capabilities and involvement in your firm will depend on their size, pricing structure, resources, and industry experience.

4 Common OCIO Services

An OCIO can help you with your portfolio construction and management responsibilities from top to bottom. From reassessing your investment philosophy and approach to adapting and implementing those changes into model portfolio construction, an OCIO provides full-service support.

Some OCIO firms, like East Bay, offer additional services beyond investment-specific responsibilities. For example, we provide advisory firms with business consultation services and access to robust industry resources that our clients can use to support their growth and business goals.

The most common OCIO services fall into one of four broad categories:

1. Investment  management

An OCIO can take on the full spectrum of investment management-related tasks, or offer assistance on more specific services like:

• Portfolio construction
• Assist with best practices on topics like rebalancing parameters, cash management, etc.
• Due diligence
• Mitigating portfolio risks (primarily through diversification and asset allocation)

2. Client support

OCIOs can often help advisors address the needs of a firm’s clients on an individual basis through answering client questions or, reviewing client specific needs, as examples.

3. Firm support

OCIO firms can be a resource for the overall firm too.  Working with many different  clients, we can provide insight into topics  like  various technologies, staffing needs, or other operational issues.

4. Advanced insights

An OCIO is more than just another team member, they often serve as the connection between your advisory firm and state-of-the-art investment resources or networks. Many OCIOs offer firms and their clients access to market commentary or analysis, as well as stay on top of changing market conditions and trends.

How Are OCIO Services Priced?

At East Bay Investment Solutions, we price our services rather uniquely. We provide a flat-fee pricing model for advisory firms.

As you start researching and comparing OCIO firms that may fit your outsourced investment needs, we encourage you to reach out and schedule time to talk with our team. We’d be more than happy to walk through our offerings, pricing, and investment philosophy in more detail.

The financial services landscape has evolved greatly in recent years, thanks in large part to the widespread adoption of technology platforms and AI-enhanced tools. Today, investors have more access to financial advice and investment resources, such as roboadvisors and online courses. With greater accessibility to financial services and education, it’s no surprise that investors and clients want more from their advisors. Gone are the days when portfolio management was the sole focus for clients. Now, numerous surveys and studies indicate that clients want a financial partner who helps them achieve their financial goals and enjoy a higher quality of life.

In fact, a recent survey by the American College of Financial Services found that more clients valued their advisor’s ability to help them meet their financial goals (52.5%) than provide investment evaluations (47.5%).

Portfolio management and investment research are a big part of what your firm does — and it takes up a big chunk of your time. Yet, studies show that clients value qualitative, personalized services more.

This begs the question, how can advisory firms continue providing portfolio and investment management services while still prioritizing their clients’ primary concerns? By leveraging the expertise and guidance of other professionals, like an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO).

What Does an OCIO Do?

In terms of investment management, the better question may be what can’t an OCIO do? An OCIO has the robust resources and capabilities to address all of the same investment-related responsibilities as an internal CIO (or possibly even more).

Many OCIOs have decades of investment experience and will leverage it to help you address your clients’ investment needs no matter the complexity. They can also help your firm run smoothly during periods of turmoil or transition, say when an owner passes the torch to the next generation or a key leader leaves the firm. An OCIO can also help facilitate discussions between leaders, especially if there are varying perspectives on investment philosophy or other investment-related decisions.

One big advantage an OCIO offers is the ability to educate advisors on things they may not have much experience with — or bring to the advisor’s attention potential concerns they weren’t aware of before.

Most OCIOs can operate in either a client-facing capacity or stay entirely behind the scenes, depending on your preferences. If you’d rather save time and streamline the client experience, you may encourage clients to reach out directly to the OCIO for questions regarding their portfolios. Or, perhaps you like to host educational client events (like webinars) and invite your OCIO to assist in answering investment-related questions live.

Hiring an OCIO vs. Growing Your Team Internally

When you find that the firm’s investment-related workload exceeds your current team’s capabilities, you have two options in front of you: grow your team internally or hire an OCIO.

The first factor to consider is the hiring process (and the possibility that you’ll need to do it all over again in the not-so-distant future). Hiring is an arduous process, and it always results in a gamble. Will the person you select live up to the standards you’ve set before them? Are they going to be a good culture fit? Will they stay with the firm long-term, or leave for other opportunities elsewhere? If so, are you prepared to start the hiring process from scratch?

The hiring process aside, expanding your team of portfolio managers is expensive when you consider base salary, benefits, bonuses, yearly raises, insurance, etc. It’s also inflexible — meaning if your current growth trajectory stalls out or changes course, you may find yourself with too many internal hires to support the work coming in. This can impact your bottom line, or force you to make tough decisions, like laying off excess employees.

Because an OCIO is not an internal hire, there’s a greater level of flexibility. They’re able to fill in the cracks when your team feels overloaded, without straining resources at times when demand lessens.

Plus, an OCIO tends to have greater access to resources and tools that an individual may not. As an unbiased, third-party professional, their opinions, guidance, and strategies are based on extensive, proven experience.

Of course, there will be times when you find it more prudent to hire internally. But it’s certainly worth considering the benefits of bringing on a more flexible outside hire to address your firm’s needs.

How to Find the Right OCIO Partner for Your Firm

The vetting process for finding an OCIO for your firm is incredibly important, especially if the purpose of hiring one is to offload investment-related tasks so you can focus your time on delivering more value to your clients. You need someone you trust implicitly, and who you feel comfortable enough to put in front of your team and (in some cases) your clients. As you start researching options, be sure to ask OCIO firms about their investment philosophy, experience, and pricing.

To learn more about East Bay Investment Solutions and our OCIO services for RIAs, contact us today.