Couture Financial’s primary investment tools are mutual funds or subaccounts within variable annuity and variable life programs.  We utilize these types of investments because they provide greater asset diversification, a stronger ability to control market volatility risk and the potential for substantial outperformance. Read the current Couture Financial Market Perspective.


Three factors influence the performance of a mutual fund

The first is the manager.  Are the fund’s management and research team good at identifying investments with the potential to excel?
The second is the fund’s directive.  There are times when a fund, regardless of the skill of the manager, will lag other investment sectors as a result of the business cycle, the mood of the market towards its area of investment or other reasons.
The third factor is the overall direction of the market. In a severe market downturn, few if any investments are safe from loss.


Couture Financial’s investment approach addresses those factors by:

1. Using fundamental and technical analysis to identify no-load or load-waived mutual funds with managers who have strong track records as superior individual investment pickers.

2. Allocating client assets among fund classes with investment objectives that our indicators identify to exhibit the best potential for gain given current market circumstances. To do so, we monitor the performance of a targeted universe of funds on an ongoing basis to assure that selected managers continue to excel and that new fund opportunities are waiting on the sidelines should a manager or sector begin to lag expectations.

3. Determining, through daily monitoring of proprietary market indicators and independent market analysis, when market conditions appear to support rising values and invest accordingly. If the market conditions appear to be deteriorating, client assets are moved incrementally to the protection of a money market fund or alternative investment categories.


By investing client assets in mutual funds with managers who appear to have superior investment selection skills, Couture Financial’s goal is to outperform market indices and index funds designed to mirror those indices.

But even the best fund managers have been unable to avoid losses when the market or the industry sector in which the fund is focused encounters a major decline.  There are times, maintains Phil Couture, when cash is the best investment.  This is where Couture Financial’s technical market analysis comes into play. Client positions are trimmed back when market conditions appear to be unfavorable for gains and may reach up to 100% cash in severe downturns.


DISCLOSURE: All investments have the potential for loss as well as profit. No current or prospective investor should assume that future performance results will be profitable or equal the past performance. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that any specific investment or investment approach will be profitable. The information provided here is intended to be general in nature and should not be construed as investment advice or as a recommendation of any specific fund, security, or investment approach. Investors should consult with a financial advisor before investing.