Santa Fe Advisors LLC

The firm provides financial planning and discretionary and non-discretionary investment management to high-net-worth individuals, families, trusts, institutions and charitable organizations, using multi-asset class portfolios composed of active and passive vehicles such as mutual funds, ETFs, hedge funds and, for certain clients, separately managed accounts. It serves a relatively small client base with two advisors and reports approximately $116.1 million in assets under management while also offering standalone financial planning engagements.

SFA’s investment approach is focused on risk management and active portfolio allocation rather than strict benchmarking, implementing tactical, high-conviction changes when opportunities or risk mitigation justify them; each client relationship is governed by an investment policy statement and ongoing manager due diligence. The firm generally uses passive index products for efficient asset classes but supplements those with selected active managers, unregistered private funds and separately managed accounts where it believes the manager research and size of the client’s portfolio warrant such allocations.

Noteworthy for a firm of its size, SFA may permit borrowing in separately managed accounts — a practice that is uncommon among peers — and reports that its principals personally invest in the same portfolios advised to clients, creating explicit alignment of interest. The firm also discloses a sizable amount of assets under advisement in addition to assets under management, indicating it provides advisory services in situations where it does not directly manage custody of client assets.