Drystone began operations on 7/1/2008. Christopher H. Jackson is founder and currently sole
LLC Member (principal owner) and Manager.
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Drystone is an independent investment counsel, defined as an investment advisory firm
offering continuous supervision and management of client investment portfolios and not
affiliated with any other firm. Drystone reviews client portfolios on a continuous basis, i.e.,
throughout the year and on any given day, to reaffirm the appropriateness of each securities
position owned and of each overall portfolio profile (asset allocation or mix of asset categories,
percentage sizes of different positions, etc.) in the context of each client's written Statement
of Investment Objectives (SIO) Snapshot and to reflect Drystone’s most current investment
opinions and analysis.
Drystone prepares a customized Statement of Investment Objectives (SIO) Snapshot for each
client and tailors its management of each client's portfolio to that client's SIO. A client may
impose restrictions on investing in certain securities or types of securities by instructing
Drystone to include those restrictions in the SIO.
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Drystone does not participate in any "wrap fee" programs.
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Additional information on Drystone’s continuous supervision and management of client
investment portfolios and information on Drystone’s use of the terms “Portfolio Counseling”
and “Concentrated Investments” follows:
Drystone LLC delineates - in its discussions with clients, its client Investment Management
Agreement (a.k.a. contract), its written reports, & fees - between two aspects of investment
supervisory services: Portfolio Counseling & Concentrated Investments.
Portfolio Counseling encompasses all activities related to investment supervision of client
portfolios including the following processes:
1) a comprehensive question/answer discussion between Drystone and client about client's
financial circumstances and needs for the portfolio and Drystone's projections of securities
markets' behavior;
2) a written Statement of Investment Objectives ("SIO") Snapshot for each client portfolio
referencing info in Drystone’s files as to client’s financial circumstances, Drystone’s return
expectations, risk definition/tolerance, time horizon, spending/liquidity needs, pertinent
tax/trust/estate planning context, pertinent client legal or regulatory responsibilities (if any),
any unique client considerations (e.g., charitable/personal gifting, client constraints on
purchasing specific securities, etc.), and the target asset allocation (% stocks v. % bonds et al.)
ranges for that portfolio;
3) continuous screening and analysis of a wide array of securities - including common stocks,
exchange-traded funds (ETF's), bonds, etc. - on a number of criteria - including the earnings,
cashflow, dividend/interest yields, corporate management quality, industry dynamics,
sensitivity to the general business cycle, valuation metrics such as price-earnings ratios or
cashflow yields, discounted cashflow (DCF) estimates of intrinsic value, volatility, correlation
with other assets, etc. - to assess investment potential and suitability for client portfolios;
4) all purchases, monitoring and sales of securities suitable to/in accordance with each client's
SIO and in percentage allocations which balance both the investment attractiveness of each
security and its suitability per the client's SIO;
5) periodic reporting of all positions held, transactions made, and total return performance
achieved in each client portfolio;
6) updating the SIO Snapshot and portfolio to reflect any changes in client's financial
circumstances or portfolio needs or to reflect whether Drystone has met the benchmarks and
client expectations articulated in the original SIO.
Concentrated Investments is one sub-set or activity within the overall investment supervision
of client portfolios. During the screening and analysis of a
wide array of securities (see step 3
previous paragraph), Drystone categorizes certain potential investments as either Diversified
Investments or Concentrated Investments and then labels them accordingly in its reports:
Diversified Investments draw from asset classes and market sectors which Drystone deems as
attractive and appropriate to complete a client's overall portfolio, but where the opportunity
for individual security/investment selection to outperform or add significant value above the
attractive and appropriate risk-return profile of a low-cost benchmark index vehicle is either
too minimal or too uncertain in Drystone's opinion. In these cases, Drystone applies the
appropriately thorough level of screening and analysis cited above to identify and then
purchase and monitor broad index or diversified buy-and-hold investments in client portfolios.
Some examples of Diversified Investments: investment-grade regular and inflation-protected
bonds; broadly-diversified index exchange-traded funds (ETF's).
Concentrated Investments arise when Drystone perceives a potential opportunity to add a
superior risk-return profile or significant value above a benchmark index through further in-
depth and intensive analysis and then purchase and monitor for client portfolios of certain
specific securities. The additional analysis devoted to Concentrated Investments selection
(above and beyond the screening and analysis conducted for Diversified Investments) includes
critical reading of corporate 10-K annual reports/SEC filings and proxies, review of competitors
and customers, discounted cashflow (DCF) spreadsheet calculations to substantiate valuations,
corporate shareholder/analyst conference calls, etc. The term "Concentrated" refers to the
additional analysis and selection criteria and the use of a less-diversified allocation to individual
securities positions and does not necessarily indicate a more rapid level of portfolio turnover
(trading), a shorter time horizon, nor a fundamentally more aggressive or risk-seeking
investment philosophy/process than that employed for Diversified Investments.
Types of portfolio assets which Drystone may designate as Concentrated Investments include,
but may not be limited to: common stocks, American Depositary Receipts/Shares (ADR/ADS),
and other individual equity securities. Drystone retains sole discretion to designate the portion
of portfolio assets to be described as Concentrated Investments and to apply or remove such
designation at any time, but a client and/or Drystone may include targets or guidelines for that
portion as a percentage of total portfolio assets in the SIO or other client documentation;
Drystone will label the Concentrated Investments portion of portfolio assets as such on the
portfolio reports which Drystone prepares and provides to client; and Drystone will
communicate to client verbally and/or in writing Drystone’s rationale for designating as
Concentrated Investments any types of securities, investment vehicles or portfolio assets other
than types specified in this paragraph.
The percentages of each portfolio allocated to Diversified Investments and Concentrated
Investments will vary over time depending in part on general market conditions and the
individual opportunities Drystone perceives as available in the securities markets. Also, for risk
management purposes, Drystone and each client explicitly pre-establish a suitable target
percentage allocation range for Concentrated Investments in each SIO, i.e., the SIO limits what
portion of each portfolio Drystone can direct to securities designated as Concentrated
Investments. This helps to address any Drystone conflict of interest and preclude an unsuitable
overweighting of Concentrated Investments beyond the level deemed appropriate and
prudent per a client's circumstances.
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*Regarding the periodic non-discretionary consultation services mentioned in Form ADV Part