A Tale of the Tape for 2022
By Richard Todd | Principal, CEO, & Co-founder
With over 35 years of investment consulting under my belt, 2022 was, in my view, the worst year for investors. Stocks were down -18.04%, the 2nd worst calendar year in history. * Bonds, historically complementary to stocks, suffered the worst calendar year decline in history, losing -17.34%, almost three times further in the red than the previous largest decline. Inflation ravaged the economy, prompting the Federal Reserve to push rates up at a record pace, which caused bonds to get crushed.
Consequently, an investor with a 70% global stock/30% bond portfolio lost -16.59% in 2022. While few investors were left unscathed, our approach to diversified portfolios allocated to alternatives – hedge funds, real assets, private debt, and equity, among others – into most portfolios, created a much better experience than a typical stock and bond investor.
2022 held some positives despite the markets taking more than they gave. Thanks to incredible client trust and loyalty and robust new business growth, Innovest experienced a record year. The promise we make to our clients is that they will benefit from our growth. 2022 resulted in several new professionals joining our firm, plus improvements in portfolio accounting, performance reporting, and technology. In addition, we moved across the street to a new office, artfully designed by President and Co-founder Wendy Dominguez. Both beautiful and functional, it has significantly improved the work environment for our team of 56 employees. Keeping our professionals long-term and creating a quality culture is key to our success and ultimately leads to a great experience for our incredible clientele!
For the seventh time in eight years, Innovest was awarded a “Best Places to Work in Money Management” by Pensions and Investments. Each year, our professionals provide P&I with very detailed survey responses on our culture and practices. We are compared to hundreds of other firms, with just a select few chosen as “Best Places to Work.” We are humbled by the recognition and are always seeking ways we can improve. We are proud of the way Innovest stacks up in the industry.
We are also very proud of our team. Many were progressed to new positions throughout the year. Abigail Thomas, Claire DeLine, Brett Minnick, Sydney Aeschimann, Marleen Zakovich, Cos Braswell, Peter Girard, Joe Lemming, Christine Hudek, Kathy Lalone, and Frank Cornett all made advancements within the company.
Annual awards are given to top team members as well. Cos Braswell received our 212 Degree Award, Stephanie Dufano was recognized with the Service to Others Award, Joanne Cinalli was the recipient of the Bill Fender Mentorship Award, and our top yearly honor, the Founders Award, was given to Joe Lemming. We are privileged to work with such outstanding professionals.
We continually strive to be thought leaders in our industry. In 2022, we gave 26 speeches at a variety of conferences for business leaders, investors, and fiduciaries, and our thoughts were published 22 times in journals, magazines, and blogs.
Our stewardship culture is thriving. Collectively, we gave more than 3500 service hours to the community. According to Colorado Gives Day, Innovest ranked 4th in Colorado in dollars donated to charities over that week in December. We are much, much smaller than the three firms ranked ahead of us. Innovest supports monthly volunteer events, and our team continues to be a corporate work study partner with Arrupe Jesuit High School. We employ four Arrupe interns, with their pay offsetting part of their tuition cost. The success of students at Arrupe, all on the margin, is unprecedented.
We have a great business development team. It has become easy for them to sell our advice and services on the strength of a reputation that has been steadily enhanced over the years.
Succession planning is an exciting topic for us as we add to our partners, who have all made a big commitment to Innovest. Pam Cruz, Paul Nacario, Troy Jensen, and Steven Fraley were all made partners this year! Innovest is committed to remain independent as a fee-only fiduciary in a year where many of our competitors sold out to the Wall Street firms and industry aggregators looking to monetize the very clients they purport to serve. We are convinced that our fiduciary model is better, as Wall Street conflicts have never been so egregious as they are currently.
As 2022 closes and the new year begins, we owe tremendous gratitude to our clients! For the last quarter century, the primary source of growth has been client referrals. Thank you! Our young partners have made a sizeable investment in our firm, and we are committed to make the investment a great one!
I wish you all a wonderful 2023!
*MSCI All Country World Index All Cap
**Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index