John Hailer championed a strategic shift in investment portfolio construction. He maintained his commitment and faith in the strategy and believed that a long-term vision for investments would help investors create resilient portfolios.
Having a long-term vision for investments is essential. Still, Hailer believed that building investment portfolios with particular attention to risk and volatility factors can help protect investors even in a downturn and aid them in achieving maximum returns. This belief shaped his long career in the financial services industry.
When he joined a storied Boston-based investment firm, John Hailer was inspired by the “Prudent Man” rule, which placed risk before returns in the investment process. However, the investment industry has moved away from such strategies. Consequently, many investors experienced huge drops in their portfolio values and savings during the market downturn following 2008.
Hailer stated that if investors had portfolios with appropriate diversification, such losses could have been avoided. His ideas were implemented at Natixis, where he served as Chairman shortly after the 2008 financial crisis. Natixis invested heavily in research and launched the Durable Portfolio Construction research center, creating a global organization that provided asset management services at no cost, irrespective of the firm’s or its competitors’ products.
John Hailer believes that the asset management industry should prioritize putting the investors first. The fund classification systems often link a portfolio manager’s success to the return and fail to account for the interactions between the funds within the portfolio. He suggested creating portfolios with unique characteristics, considering each fund based on how it interacts with the holdings within the portfolio.
Hailer’s strategies were tested during his eight-year stint at New England Funds, where the emphasis on analytics-driven risk-focused portfolios paid off during the technology market crash of the early 2000s.
His consultative approach was highly praised because it focuses on helping financial advisors make better investment decisions and become better fiduciaries for their clients. This resulted in Natixis experiencing significant growth, increasing its assets under management from $130 billion to $900 billion in 15 years.
John Hailer incorporated his vision of putting the investor first, aiding them in making better decisions and learning to be better fiduciaries. By doing this, he promoted a long-term, risk-focused approach to creating investment portfolios, thus championing a widespread shift in the asset management industry.