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Investing, redefined for your future

We cut through the noise to help you invest with confidence. Our team puts your interests first—no commissions, no gimmicks, just honest guidance and disciplined management. Let’s build your future, together.

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Investing, redefined for your future

We cut through the noise to help you invest with confidence. Our team puts your interests first—no commissions, no gimmicks, just honest guidance and disciplined management. Let’s build your future, together.

Explore services
Get in touch

The Role of Key Principles in the Ideal - Core
Investing Strategy

At the heart of Sift’s Ideal – Core investing strategy lies a disciplined application of five key investment principles: Investing, Diversification, Price, Value, and Business. These principles guide every decision we make in building portfolios that are both resilient and positioned for long-term success. We define Investing as buying into great companies under favorable terms to share in their future growth. This requires deep understanding—not just of markets, but of the businesses themselves. Diversification is achieved not by owning everything, but by selecting low-correlated investments that reduce risk without diluting returns. Price matters because even great companies can be poor investments if bought too high. We seek quality at a fair cost. Value is the intrinsic worth of an asset, and we only invest when we believe the price is below that value. Finally, we evaluate the Business—its leadership, culture, and strategy—because these factors ultimately determine whether a company can execute and thrive. Together, these principles form the foundation of our Ideal – Core investing strategy: a focused, thoughtful approach to investing that filters out the noise and aims to deliver better outcomes for our clients.
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Key Investment Principles

Our investment strategy is built on understanding the business, price, and value of each opportunity. By focusing on true diversification, disciplined pricing, and strong company fundamentals, we aim to grow long-term wealth with purpose and clarity.

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Ideal Core Investing

This strategy builds disciplined, diversified portfolios of standout companies across all major industries. It emphasizes quality, low correlation, and long-term potential.

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Investment Management Options

Equities & Fixed Income

Portfolio management is about balancing risk and return. The starting point is the broad investment categories of equities and fixed income. For this purpose, think of equities as growth investments — with higher risk and higher return potential — and fixed income as principal-focused investments — with lower risk and lower, but consistent, return potential. Every portfolio should be designed with a specific purpose in mind. What are the needs? How much does the portfolio need to return? What are the wants? How much volatility are we comfortable experiencing? Answering these questions assists in identirying what each individual client's overall allocation between equities and fixed income should be.

Think of your portfolio as two sub-accounts, or sleeves: an equity sleeve and a fixed income sleeve. Because equities are fundamentally different from fixed income, each sleeve should be managed differently.

Sift offers customized options for how much to allocate to each sleeve, as well as the underlying investment strategy within each.

Equity Options
Fixed Income Options

Equity Options

1 .Customized Investing - Gets back to the heart of what it means to be an investor: to buy great companies at attractive prices to get a cut of future growth. Our customized equity portfolios utilize the Ideal-Core strategy to build portfolios of individual companies, cutting out redundant middleman fees, sales commissions, and generic one-size-fits-all index investing.

2. Traditional Investing -  When you don't have options — or are just dead set against owning individual companies — our Traditional Investing services build and manage portfolios comprised of mutual funds and ETFs.


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Did you know

Mutual funds and ETFs are simply portfolios of individual companies (or other securities) with a fancy title.

Did you know

Diversification is measured by correlation coefficients — a fancy term for how two investments react simultaneously during a market event. Most equity portfolios made up of mutual funds and ETFs have high correlation, meaning most of the funds go up or down in unison.

Did you know

Over diversification is when you own too many different investments, resulting in returns that equal the average of everything. Average means there are good and there are bad. When else in life do you consciously and gleefully purchase things that are broken? Yet this is what we do when we buy an index fund that owns “everything.”

Did you know

A single mutual fund is less diversified than 2 individual stock positions. Although a mutual fund may own many different positions, the performance the investor receives is just the average of how all the positions perform. Example: Mutual fund performs –5%. Stock “a” performs –7% and stock “b” performs +10%. Mutual fund investor gets –5% return. Stock investor gets a net return of +1.5%.

Did you know

The performance you receive from your mutual fund can be materially impacted by what other investors are doing. Mutual funds are shared portfolios, meaning you own a share of the overall portfolio. When other people who own shares add or remove money from the portfolio, the mutual fund is forced to buy or sell investments. Imagine someone forcing you to sell your house for less than it’s worth and then overpay for a new house.

Did you know

Billionaires don’t get rich by owning mutual funds and ETFs. They get rich by owning individual businesses.

Did you know

You can lose more money investing in individual stocks than in mutual funds and ETFs. Don’t buy things you don’t understand, and if you don’t have expertise in investing, mutual funds and ETFs are a better alternative.

Fixed Income Options


  1. Bond Investing: A customizable, actively managed portfolio of individual fixed-income instruments — such as Treasuries, corporate bonds, CDs, money markets, and municipal bonds — designed to help accounts over $500,000 take advantage of the dynamic nature of interest rate cycles, offering greater flexibility and control for cash flow needs.
  2. Laddered Bond Investing: A streamlined version of our Bond Investing program, designed for accounts under $500,000.
  3. Traditional Bond Investing: When you don't have options — or are simply set against owning individual bonds — our Traditional Bond Investing services build and manage portfolios comprised of mutual funds and ETFs.
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Did you know

Think of bonds as loans. Each bond is a promise to repay an investor in the future. In return for using the investor's money, the bond issuer pays interest. When buying or selling bonds on the open market, investors are bidding on the rights to that principal and interest originally agreed upon between the bond issuer and the first investor. If an investor pays more than the principal amount, they're paying a "premium." If they pay less, they're getting a "discount."

Did you know

When buying a bond, you need to consider both the interest you'll receive and what you're paying for it.
Example: You buy a $1,000 bond for $1,050 that matures in 3 years. It pays $50 in interest per year, totaling $150. However, when the bond matures, you'll only be repaid the original $1,000. That means you paid a $50 premium to earn $150 in interest, leaving you with a total return of $100 over three years.
$150 interest - $50 premium = $100 total return
Even though the bond pays 5% annually, your actual average return is about 3.33%.

Did you know

Bonds can become liquidity traps because their prices are heavily influenced by credit risk and interest rates. The longer the bond's term, the more volatile its resale price can be.
Example: You own a $1,000 bond that matures in 20 years and pays 5% annually. If you hold it to maturity, you'll receive $1,000 plus $20 per year in interest. But if interest rates rise, the resale value of your bond may drop — in this case, to $920. While you still receive $50 annually, selling now would mean taking an $80 loss. Unless you're willing to accept that loss, you may be stuck holding the bond until it matures.

Did you know

Mutual funds that invest in bonds are sensitive to both interest rates and credit quality. Since these funds are simply portfolios of bonds, the actions of other shareholders can impact your returns. For example, if another investor buys into or exits the fund at a time when bond prices are unfavorable, the fund may be forced to buy bonds at a prtemium or sell them at a discount — potentially hurting your investment, even if you don't make any changed yourself.

Employee Retirement Plan Options

Defined Contribution - ERISA covered 401k/403b


  • 3(21) Nondiscretionary ERISA Fiduciary: Provides investment advice, but the Plan Fiduciary (i.e., the business decision maker) makes the final decisions and is ultimately responsible for them.
  • 3(38) Discretionary ERISA Fiduciary: Manages the investment program on behalf of the Plan, while the Plan Fiduciary monitors their work. The Plan Fiduciary is responsible for ensuring the 3(38) follows prudent standards and handles all aspects of investment management, including selection, performance monitoring, fee analysis, replacements, and compliance.
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Did you know

A 3(21) fiduciary can assist with many of the same tasks as a 3(38), but the final decision always remains with the Plan Fiduciary. In both cases, the Plan Fiduciary maintains ongoing oversight and decision-making responsibilities and must follow a prudent fiduciary process. Neither arrangement fully protects the Plan Fiduciary from liability.

Did you know

Hiring a 3(38) is not a guaranteed degense against fiduciary claims, nor does it nevessariyly make the Plan Fiduciary's responsibilities easier. Each fiduciary type carries a distince role and set of obligations.

Did you know

To benefit from the liability protections offered by a 3(38) arrangement, Plan Fiduciaries must have the competence to audit the 3(38)'s performance.

Did you know

An Investment Policy Statement (IPS) that isn't written in favor of the Plan Fiduciary can shift liability back onto them — even under a 3(21) or 3(38) arrangement.
Example: If a 3(38) is allowed to use propriety funds, the Plan Fiduciary has essentially authorized self-dealing, potentially increasing their own liability.

Did you know

Even with a 3(38) in place, the Plan Fiduciary may still be liable for breaches in investment management. In practice, 3(38)s are rarely held responsible. Instead, liability often falls on the Plan Fiduciary for failing in their oversight responsibilities.
Example: If the Plan Fiduciary does not review the 3(38)'s processes — such as fee justification — and a claim is made for excessive fees, the Plan Fiduciary may be held responsible. While they could attempt to sue the 3(38) for breach of duty, that would require a separate legal action. Moreover, many 3(38) agreements contain provisions that limit their liability or restrict counterclaims.

Frequently asked questions

Investing clarity, without the noise

Get straightforward answers to your investment questions. We’re here to help you make informed, confident decisions—no jargon, no sales pitches.

What makes the Ideal–Core strategy different from the usual Wall Street stuff?
What’s the deal with equities and fixed income—why does it matter?
How does the Your Values program actually work?
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