Benefits | Paragon Investing

hidden

  • The Benefits of

    Institutional Advice

    For Affluent Families

    Build Your Wealth Through Private Market Investments

Paragon Helps Generate Smooth Portfolio Returns

Paragon's Chief Investment Officer (CIO) has a long track record of designing portfolios for ultra-wealthy clients that aim to meet or exceed the annual returns of the equivalent public benchmark with statistically less volatility and risk.

How is Paragon different?

Paragon and its partners spend hundreds of hours researching and performing due diligence on restricted funds to establish high conviction in select private debt funds, like the one shown above. Private debt has historically outperformed public debt by +4.8% annually over the last 15 years (Cliffwater CLDI 2004-2019), and we strive to improve upon that with our manager selection.

This Paragon preferred fund is targeting returns of 7-10% annually, and has returned 30% in its first 3 years since inception, for an annualized return of 9.2%. In addition to attractive returns, it doesn't draw down like a typical high-yield fund. In March 2020, when public high-yield funds were down 22% (BBG HY), our preferred fund was only down 1.8%. That's an additional 20% of your money.

Some of our preferred private debt funds are restricted to ultra-wealthy clients, and would normally require a $1.0M minimum investment, putting it out of reach for many individual investors.

At Paragon, we have partnered with key funds to provide access and minimum investments are waived because we pool your capital with our other clients to meet fund minimums. So you can responsibly invest $100k-$500k in our private debt funds and enjoy 7-10% expected returns with reduced volatility (relative to public credit).

Compare the performance of an investment portfolio, with and without private investments:

Compare Performance

Our value-add is transparent.

  1. Enhanced Returns: Private debt has historically outperformed public debt by +4.8% annually2 over the last 16 years. Private debt is expected to outperform public debt by +4.1% annually for the next 10 years, and we strive to improve upon that with our manager selection.
  2. Lower Tax Bills: Using a strategy called tax-loss harvesting and direct indexing, we opportunistically capture investment losses in your taxable investment accounts, while re-buying a comparable investment. This books losses which you can use to offset gains and income each year, lowering your annual tax bill and leaving more of your money to invest, with minimal impact on your investment strategy. Optimal tax loss harvesting has been shown to increase portfolio returns up to 1.0% per year in taxable accounts3 (i.e. brokerage).
  3. Lower Fees: Paragon offers institutional share classes and direct indexing to reduce or eliminate fund fees. We also charge lower advisor fees, starting at 0.45%, compared to the 1.0% industry's average fee for a retail investment advisor4.
  4. Reduced Volatility: In March 2020, during COVID, when some high-yield investments and stocks were down 20-30% or more, our two highest conviction private debt funds were down less than 4%1, fully recovered in less than 3 months, and had one year returns ranging from 6.3-7.1% as of 9/30/20201. By complementing your stocks/equities with private debt funds, we aim to lower your portfolio volatility while still matching long-term equity returns. Speak with us on how this complementing nature enables portfolio rebalancing and minimizes the volatility return drag on your portfolio.

Reduced Taxes

0.75%

Lower Fees

0.25%



*As of 09/30/2020.
** +1% Portfolio return assumes a 4.1% outperformance within a 25% portfolio allocation to private debt, instead of public debt (+4.1% * 25% = +1.025% at portfolio level).
***0.25% lower mutual fund fees (expense ratios) on actively managed mutual funds (institutional share class vs retail share class).

1. Return Assumptions & Disclosures for Paragon Investing.

2. Private Debt Illiquidity Yield Premium: Disclosures & Assumptions.

3. From 1926 to 2018, the tax-loss-harvesting strategy delivered an average annual alpha of 1.08% over and above a passive buy-and-hold portfolio.

4. Paragon's lowest published advisor fee of 0.45% is 55% lower than the industry-average retail advisor fee of 1.00% (as of 2018):
    PriceMetrix by McKinsey: State of Retail Wealth Management, 8th Annual Report, 2018


All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of money you invest, and past performance does not guarantee future performance. Historical returns, expected returns, and probability projections are provided for informational and illustrative purposes, and may not reflect actual future performance. Please see our Full Disclosure for important details.