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Success Story: Heximer
Heximer builds a next-generation wealth management practice
heximer logoheximer logo
team
“Before Nebo, we customized client portfolios around five proprietary model allocations. Now, Nebo can deliver over 100 unique, personalized client model portfolios, truly elevating our clients’ experience, without taking any more of our team’s time or resources
Brandon Kremer, CFA, CAIA, Portfolio Manager
John Ohsner, CFA, EA, CFP, Portfolio Manager & President
Opportunity
John Ohsner and Brandon Kremer, having just completed a successful succession plan, sought to build a next-generation wealth management firm. Key elements of their vision:
  • Strategic asset allocation process where their objectives are target return and minimize expected shortfall
  • Systematize their investment process while preserving valuation-sensitive philosophy
  • Streamline trading and rebalancing for personalized portfolios
Solution
As innovative, technology-savvy early adopters John and Brandon have influenced what Nebo is today.
Nebo’s proprietary multi-period shortfall optimization – built on a decade of deep research and user led development with RIAs like Heximer – generates hyper-personalized portfolios that seek to minimize the risk that their clients do not have what they need, when they need it.
Result
Nebo has helped them realize their vision:
  • Nebo’s Client Profile forms the core of Heximer’s Investment Policy Statement
  • Improved robustness of their optimization
  • Heximer delivers hyper-personalized portfolios at scale with no more work than it takes to rebalance a model portfolio
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This picture illustrates the breadth and depth of our collaboration. John laser engraved three coasters made of a tree from his family's farm with our iconic "gear graphic."
John Ohsner, CFA, EA, CFP
Portfolio Manager & President
Background
When we first met John and Brandon, they had built their own innovative portfolio optimizer. Their interest in Nebo was driven by:
  • The prospect of a more efficient workflow, & to help shape Nebo’s feature set
  • Access to GMO’s institutional-caliber investment data, research and analysis
  • Combining financial planning with their strategic asset allocation
brandon kremer
martin tarlie
Details
Strategic Asset Allocation Process Where Their Objectives Are Target Return and Minimize Expected Shortfall
The Client Profile generated in Nebo forms the core of Heximer’s Investment Policy Statement. It consists of:
  1. a reasonable target long-term average return that, if achieved, would accomplish the client’s goals (Return Profile)
  2. a set of constraints that account for short-term loss aversion (Risk Profile)
When engaging with clients, John focuses on the client's required return – what Nebo calls the Target Compound Return (TCR) –  to tie everything together, from spending, savings, and goals, all the way to the portfolio. As John aptly said, the "TCR is the bridge."
Nebo integrates Heximer's financial planning workflow into the portfolio construction process so that each client gets a personalized portfolio aligned with their financial plan that seeks to minimize the risk that they do not have the financial resources they need when they need them.
Heximer builds personalized glidepaths based on each client's unique needs and circumstances and actively adjusts to changing client and market conditions. These glidepaths are used to assess the viability of the Battle Plan and help John offer clients meaningful choices based on tradeoffs between the long-term and short-term. Nebo's next-generation Monte Carlo simulations also correct for flaws in the standard random walk model found in most financial planning tools.
Systematize a valuation-sensitive investment process while preserving Heximer's framework and philosophy
While preserving Heximer’s investment framework and philosophy, Nebo simplified and clarified their portfolio structure to improve the robustness of their optimization. Three of these new building blocks tactically adjust internal allocations based on valuation. The global equity strategy weights regions (US, EAFE, and EM) and styles within a region (Value, Quality, Small, etc.), the Global Credit strategy adjusts weights between US High Yield and EM Debt, with US BB Bonds as ballast, and a Real Asset strategy that adjusts allocations to Real Estate, Resource and Infrastructure Equities, TIPs, and Commodities.
As the Portfolio Manager, Brandon expresses his capital market assumptions in Nebo for each portfolio building block. He uses the "GMO View" as a reference point but blends it with other perspectives to generate his take on the market. These views flow through to the Monte Carlo simulations and the portfolio construction that drives the current portfolio.
Streamline Trading & Rebalancing for Personalized Portfolios
With critical support and insight from John and Brandon, we integrated with Orion's rebalancer (Eclipse), resulting in streamlined trading and rebalancing so that, with a click of a button, each client gets a dynamic, personalized portfolio constructed in real time. Furthermore, Nebo's architecture allows Heximer to rebalance portfolio building blocks across all clients efficiently. This allows high-level allocations to stocks and bonds to change at a different rate than the allocations to, say, US Value, Intl Value, etc., allowing for alpha opportunities at various levels in the portfolio.
Meet The Heximer Team
Heximer Investment Management Inc. is a Registered Investment Advisory Firm. Additional information, including management fees and expenses, is provided on Heximer Form ADV Part 2, available upon request, or at the SEC’s Investment Advisor Public Disclosure site
Brandon Kremer
Brandon Kremer, CFA, CAIA
Brandon Kremer joined Heximer Investment Management, Inc. full time in 2016 after completing an internship with the firm. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst. Brandon completed the Master of Financial Economics program at Ohio University where he also attained his undergraduate degree in Economics.

As a Portfolio Manager Brandon is a voting member on the firm investment committee with responsibilities ranging from portfolio construction and trading to client education and investment research. In his leisure time he enjoys traveling with his wife, playing video games and fantasy football.
John Oshner
John Ohsner, CFA, EA, CFP
John is a professional Portfolio Manager and Financial Planner. He offers clients thoughtful design and implementation of their investment programs and financial plans. John focuses his work across a full array of services in portfolio management and financial planning, emphasizing the income and estate planning potential unique to each circumstance.

John coordinates his work with other tax and legal professionals to administer different programs for brokerage, retirement, estate and trust accounts. John is a subject matter expert about Safe Havens and he contributes to the Project Dream Chaser research platform. John is a fee only fiduciary with leading tools for clients like Heximer Mobile.

John promotes continuing education and offers internship opportunities with different schools.
Jack Rondy
Jack Rondy, EA
Jack joined Heximer Investment Management Inc. in September of 2021 after completing an internship with the firm in the Spring of 2021. He currently attends The Ohio State University studying Economics and Actuarial Science and is planning to work full-time with the firm once he graduates in May of 2023.

Jack supports a variety of our investment and financial planning functions. To support our financial planning, he constructs our financial models that we use to answer tough planning questions. As an investment analyst he attends investment committee meetings, participates in idea generation, and monitors our portfolios for rebalancing. He is a CFA Level 1 candidate and will sit for the exam in May of 2023. He is a student member of CFA Society Columbus, as well as a member of the Actuarial Science Club and Sports Analytics Association at The Ohio State University.

Jack is originally from Hilliard, Ohio and has lived in the Columbus area his whole life. He enjoys football, basketball, fantasy football and being around his friends and family.

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