Ron Ahluwalia, Mili Rosen and Will Girton of Brinker Capital - It’s All About Due Diligence

Feb 20, 2024

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In this episode, Rusty Vanneman and Robyn Murray are joined by Ron Ahluwalia, Mili Rosen and Will Girton from Brinker Capital’s award winning due diligence team. Ron Ahluwalia is a Vice President, Senior Portfolio Manager at Brinker Capital, an Orion Company. In this role, he is responsible for the portfolio management, strategy planning, and communication of multi-asset class portfolios for high net worth clients and institutions. Ron has over 18 years of industry experience. Mili Rosen works on the Investment Due Diligence team as a Senior Investment Analyst covering a variety of managers on the firm's OPS/Brinker Capital platforms. Asset class coverage includes domestic and international equities, fixed income, real assets, alternatives, and private equity across various vehicles (i.e., SMAs, ETFs, Mutual Funds, LPs). Will Girton is an Investment Analyst on Brinker’s award winning Due Diligence team.

Key Takeaways

[07:12] - How many managers, strategies and research reports does the entire Brinker due diligence team take on each year?
[08:16] - Why is money manager due diligence so important to building out investment portfolios?
[09:40] - How often do they uncover “a snake in the attic,” so to speak, while doing due diligence?
[10:48] - How do the due diligence requirements differ when you are building out a “supermarket of strategies?”
[12:52] - How do they go about finding new managers? Are there certain characteristics they screen for?
[16:51] - How does Brinker Capital’s due diligence approach differ from other firms?
[23:27] - In the current environment, where is advisor demand and what are the strategies that people want?
[25:42] - Favorite money managers they’ve encountered over the years and why did they like them so much?
[31:15] - Advice for those wanting to enter the investment management profession?
[33:31] - Three characteristics that Ron looks for when hiring a due diligence analyst.
[35:55] - What investment ideas are looking particularly attractive to the team right now?

Quotes

[18:05] - "We really treat due diligence as an endogenous cycle. It never really stops, it’s not a ‘set it and forget it’ mentality, so [while] performance is very important…just focusing on performance is a very quick way to fail.’” ~ Mili Rosen

[35:03] - "I think communication skills are something that are very important. The ability to relate to people, particularly when you are serving clients on the outside [is so important]. Just the ability to find common ground and have a true, meaningful conversation that isn’t totally buttoned up…[and] having that ability to…have people lower their guard with you, I think that is a critical aspect as well.” ~ Ron Ahluwalia

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Disclosure(s) ~ Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC, an Orion Company, is a registered investment advisor.

Wealth Management services are offered by Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC d/b/a Brinker Capital Investments a registered investment advisor. Brinker Capital Investments and Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC are both wholly owned subsidiaries of Orion Advisor Solutions, Inc. (“Orion”).

Compliance Code: 0414-OPS-2/23/2024