Bryce Winkel • Portland, OR
Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc.
Read full biography below

Investment technologies that once were only available to the elite are now a portfolio cornerstone for many of Bryce Winkel’s clients.

Proactive Advisor Magazine: Bryce, what has shaped your approach to working with clients?

I have a strong formal educational background and hands-on experience as a teacher. That has definitely been a great influence for how I approach things with clients. Having worked in a religious education setting, as well as a corporate consultant for time-management planning, the broad lesson coming out of both is that people need a little guidance in working effectively to reach the big life goals that are important to them.

This really goes hand-in-hand with the process of working with individuals or couples planning for retirement. What are their dreams and aspirations, and what is truly going to be most meaningful to them going forward? While I cannot lay claim to making everything come true, professional financial advice can certainly play a huge role in helping people progress toward their goals.

Another important part of my client philosophy is an objective that is part of our organization’s overall mission statement. We want to bring sophisticated financial and investment tools and strategies to the average American. The financial environment of the 21st century is very different, and far riskier, than previous eras. People from all walks of life deserve to have access to the kind of knowledge and expertise that previously was only available to those having a high net worth.

What is that knowledge and expertise?

I went for my Series 65 license in 2007, which opened up an entirely new approach to me for managing client investments. My broker-dealer facilitated access at that time to third-party active managers, and, after doing my own due diligence and study, I decided this was a really excellent program for clients. They have been very receptive to this approach. And I have since moved a considerable amount of assets under management to these managers.

What are the benefits of active management?

I think we learned in 2000-2002 about the effect of having some very steep market losses. This was something most people had forgotten in the 1990s. And then of course these types of dramatic losses were repeated even more broadly in 2008-2009.

With so many baby boomers moving toward retirement, buy-and-hold strategies are really not a viable option anymore. I mean that both from a psychological and emotional basis and from the actuality of the impact such events could have on a client’s portfolio.

The idea that one can have third-party managers who do nothing but evaluate portfolio strategies and follow market conditions is very attractive to clients. I explain that these managers have the disciplined training, the staff, and the computer models dedicated to this task. They are reassured by the fact that, essentially, someone is watching over their portfolio at all times, and they realize that that is not really feasible for an individual advisor to do on a full-time basis.

“We have third-party managers who do nothing but evaluate portfolio strategies and follow market conditions.”

How do you handle a discussion of fees for outside managers?

I am very straightforward and transparent about it. It comes down to paying for what something is worth. Providing the assistance of very knowledgeable and proficient managers obviously comes with some sort of price.

Clients can understand the concept of paying something for professionals that are working full-time on their behalf. And though I cannot make hard-and-fast promises, clients should not be concerned with reasonable fees within the larger framework of knowing they have a higher degree of risk management applied to their portfolios.

What is your process for selecting third-party managers?

I feel I can add real value in this area for my clients, in the sense of matching appropriate managers to clients. While virtually all of our managers are good at what they do, they all have different approaches, styles, and philosophies. Some are a better fit for more conservative clients and others have the capacity to better handle more aggressively oriented clients. Still others offer a wide range of portfolio management options that can fit a variety of risk profiles. I spend a fair amount of time meeting with and investigating each of the managers we work with and then ascertaining the right client fit. That can sometimes mean exclusively employing one manager for a client or mixing and matching different elements from various managers.

Are there other reasons active management makes sense for clients?

When clients are in their 50s, 60s, or 70s, they really cannot tolerate the thought of losing 30%-40% of their assets. They are also cognizant, after working through the planning process with me, that deriving income for retirement will require competitive returns on their money. I used to make heavier use of annuities with a guaranteed feature, and still do for many clients. This has become more challenging with today’s interest rates.

In reality, when one selects the upper echelon of third-party managers, a lot of the rationale for using those guaranteed annuities disappears. Third-party managers can provide the type of risk management that is intended to mitigate large portfolio losses, which was the reason clients were attracted to a guaranteed feature in the first place. An active management approach may not always deliver the highest returns, but that is not really the point. The point is to develop a well-diversified and risk-managed portfolio strategy using all of the options available, with the goal of creating a smoother ride over the long term.

It really all comes back to a specific client or couple and what their specific financial, risk, and advisory profiles look like. I take great pleasure and satisfaction in working through those issues with clients, and that has proven to be very successful for my practice.