Jeffrey Bertsch

Designs, manufactures and sells upholstered furniture for residential, commercial, and recreational vehicle seating use

American Trust & Savings Bank (ATB) employs a sound, consistent, long-term investment approach. The firm believes that short-term speculation and market timing strategies do not produce consistent investment results. They manage equity and fixed-income investments for their clients. Though not limited by sector, ATB tends to invest in the stocks of US large-cap companies in the finance, electronic technology, consumer durables, consumer non-durables, energy and healthcare technology sectors. The firm maintains a low turnover rate. ATB's investment programs are customized to meet each client's unique needs. The firm's investment process involves 4 steps. First, an investment profile is developed for each client that establishes the client's goals and objectives, taking into consideration investment time frame, risk tolerance, income needs and other specific circumstances. Long-term strategic objectives are then set. Next, ATB determines asset allocation parameters by establishing long-term asset class targets based on the return/risk profile of each client. Asset allocation ranges strategies are used to establish guidelines around the long-term targets and to add incremental return and control risk. The firm develops and actively manages portfolios that are diversified across and within each asset class to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns. They manage portfolios on a continual basis, striving to maintain the quality standards and market diversification necessary to achieve the client's goals. The firm's risk management efforts emphasize portfolio diversification, quality and patience. ATB has access to a variety of resources that are used to implement their investment strategies. In addition to the firm's proprietary modeling tools, they maintain strategic alliances with major third-party research houses, giving them access to over 30 analysts and economists who provide objective analysis. ATB offers the following investment strategies: equity, fixed-income, balanced, proprietary common and pooled funds and style-based asset allocation. The firm's equity investment approach is based on a consistent stock selection and portfolio construction process. Their process begins with the American Trust proprietary 6-factor scoring model to identify companies with growth and value characteristics that are superior to the broad market. ATB then applies traditional fundamental analysis to these companies to determine market positioning and overall valuation prior to investing. The firm constructs portfolios efficiently with representation across 10 broad economic sectors. This strategy, combined with ATB's core bias in stock selection, allows them to develop diversified portfolios that minimize overall volatility and investment style risk. ATB's fixed-income portfolios seek to accomplish 3 main objectives: (1) generate a high level of current income (2) provide overall diversification and (3) control risk and volatility. The firm actively manages bond portfolios with emphasis on high-quality securities and duration control based on each client's goals, risk tolerance, time horizon and tax situation. The firm employs a structured investment process to manage proprietary common and pooled funds. All of the American Trust funds are professionally managed by the firm's internal investment team. The firm manages balanced portfolios for a variety of investors seeking a balance between stocks and bonds. These portfolios exploit the same criteria and philosophies as ATB's equity and fixed-income bond investment approaches. ATB's style-based asset allocation portfolios are developed utilizing a style-based, multi-manager approach that is based on the client's objectives. The firm first develops an overall asset allocation and then diversifies investments between and within each asset class to construct a portfolio of money managers, each of which manages assets using a different investment style such as value, growth, small-cap or international. Through this multi-style approach, combined with their active fund allocation strategy, ATB seeks to provide clients with a proactive, efficient and cost effective investment process.