Breakwater Investment Management

Breakwater Investment Management is a registered investment adviser managing about $302.7 million in discretionary assets for roughly 152 clients and is supported by two advisors. It serves a core base of individual and high‑net‑worth clients and also works with a range of institutional clients — including qualified retirement plans, trusts, non‑profits and, unusually for a firm of this size, relationships with banking or thrift institutions, insurance companies, state or municipal entities, sovereign wealth clients and other investment advisers — while offering portfolio management, financial planning, 401(k) plan advisory, and corporate trustee services.

The firm’s investment approach emphasizes broadly diversified, primarily ETF‑based portfolios grounded in modern portfolio theory, with meaningful global and emerging‑market exposure and regular rebalancing. Breakwater implements model portfolios for different risk tolerances and uses a sub‑advisory arrangement with Ethic (with SSGA managing the underlying model) for some strategies, and employs discretionary trading authority and automated rebalancing and tax‑loss harvesting tools.

Notable operational features include the firm’s use of an AI‑enabled third‑party platform (Jump) for administrative and compliance support, an absorption program for certain legacy clients’ transaction costs, and the availability of corporate trustee services and standing transfer authorizations. Custody is typically maintained through a major broker‑dealer custodian, the firm does not vote client proxies, and it discloses the supervision and oversight practices it uses to manage potential conflicts arising from its sub‑adviser and vendor relationships.