Fall 2024
Celebrating 25 Years
We reflect on the past 25 years with immense gratitude. We founded Capital Counsel on the belief that in-depth fundamental valuation-based analysis can produce superior long-term investment results. Over the past two and a half decades we have rigorously adhered to this belief. We learned how companies operated and what contributed to their financial returns. We toured factory floors, inspected labs, visited field operations and met with management teams in search of unexamined assumptions and risks. We avoided speculating on industry sectors or macroeconomic trends and instead invested in companies managed by people who achieved persistent earnings growth financed from free cash flow, not debt. We were less concerned about short-term price fluctuations than we were about identifying companies that would increase in value over time. Since our inception on October 31, 1999, we have delivered a compound annual return exceeding that of the S&P 500. For clients with us since the beginning, a $1 million investment with Capital Counsel is now worth $9 million. The same investment would be worth $6.7 million if invested in the S&P 500. We are proud of this record and eager to build on it over the next 25 years.
We believe outstanding performance is the result of meticulous preparation and disciplined execution.
Trust Communication Growth
Investors must always navigate uncertainty. We help clients weather volatile markets by ensuring they understand what they own and why they own it. We strive to invest in great companies, make sound decisions, provide support and offer strategic advice. Regardless of market conditions, we will proceed as we always have with our clients’ best interests at the forefront.
Beyond portfolio management
Donor Advised Funds managed by Capital Counsel
Did you know that Capital Counsel manages Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) and offers perspectives and assistance on your philanthropic goals? Our clients can simplify their charitable giving while efficiently managing their personal tax liabilities with a Donor Advised Fund managed by Capital Counsel. Our team can provide investment management for your DAF and administer grant recommendations on your behalf. Annual gifting from taxable accounts directly to charities can become time consuming as your philanthropic endeavors grow, particularly as more family members direct charitable gifts. A DAF allows your family to manage charitable giving from one account that may grow tax-free under Capital Counsel’s investment discretion. Clients who have moved their DAF to Capital Counsel receive personalized service that is typically not available when working directly with a DAF administrator. Build a philanthropic legacy and simplify your charitable giving with a Donor Advised Fund managed by Capital Counsel.
Capital Counsel Updates
We would like to remind you the annual gift tax exclusion is $18,000 for 2024 and will increase to $19,000 for 2025.
Please call us to review your end of year plan for charitable gifts.
Matthew Friedman, Partner and Head of Client Service, completed the New York City marathon in November, his first.
About Capital Counsel
Founded in 1999 by F Randall Smith, Terence Greene, James Magid, and Lauren Blum, Capital Counsel is an independent investment management firm based in New York City. We manage concentrated portfolios of large-cap and mid-cap companies based in the U.S., or those with large U.S. operations. We choose these stocks from ideas generated through the investment team’s in-depth, bottom-up research efforts. Our disciplined investment process requires us to focus on how management teams run their company. Our clients include high-net-worth individuals and their families, foundations and endowments. The source of wealth for many of our clients is ownership in successful businesses. Some are former executives of companies held in our clients’ portfolios, who have become clients because they understand and respect our investment process.
Capital Counsel’s investment strategy combines disciplined fundamental analysis with patient execution. Stock selection is at the core of our investment strategy. We seek to invest in profitable well-managed companies that generate recurring free cash flow. These companies possess strong balance sheets and earn attractive rates of return on shareholders’ capital. We know the companies and their proven, execution focused management teams well. They deal with problems openly and effectively, and have incentives aligned with shareholders. We evaluate the company, as an informed private buyer might, to determine the value of the business based upon its ability to generate free cash flow. We manage concentrated portfolios which have provided our clients with good long-term results. Since our inception we have cumulatively outperformed the S&P 500 with reduced risk.
Contact Us
Capital Counsel LLC
527 Madison Avenue, 19th Floor
New York, NY 10022
212-350-9333
info@capcounsel.com
www.capitalcounsel.com
Disclosures
Past performance is not indicative of future results. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk. All information provided herein is for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as an offer or provision of investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell specific securities, or a substitute for personalized advice from Capital Counsel. Capital Counsel does not offer tax or legal advice; readers should not consider the contents of this newsletter as legal or tax advice and should consult their own legal and tax professionals. The information contained herein represents the views of Capital Counsel at a specific point in time, which are subject to change as market conditions, legal requirements, and information available to us evolves. Where market and
index data are presented, they have been obtained from FactSet Research Systems, unless otherwise noted. Capital Counsel assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of this data. A full discussion of Capital Counsel’s advisery services and fees is available in our Form ADV Part 2 brochure, which is available upon request, or on our website here capitalcounsel.com/Form-ADV.
Capital Counsel and other investment advisers who manage assets above $110 million must register with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to comply with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Registered investment advisers (RIAs) provide advice about purchasing and selling securities to their clients and have a fiduciary duty to their clients to always act in their best interest.
Broker-Dealers (BDs) must register with the SEC and are regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). BDs buy and sell securities for their clients or their own account. BDs can earn commissions for each transaction where Registered Investment Advisors usually charge a fee on the assets managed. BDs are required to make suitable recommendations based on their clients’ risk tolerance and investment experience. Unlike Capital Counsel, they often hold client assets in brokerage accounts which are not necessarily segregated from the BDs’ other assets. Capital Counsel’s client assets are held by independent custody banks.
Yes. Capital Counsel is a registered investment adviser and is regulated by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.
Capital Counsel, founded in 1999, is an independent investment management firm based in New York City. Terence Greene and Lauren Blum are investment managers who have worked together at Capital Counsel since the inception of the firm in 1999. Justin Berrie joined the team in 2009 and became an owner in the firm in 2015. In 2020, Samuel Magid and Matthew Friedman also became owners in the firm. This continuity in leadership has strengthened our intellectual rigor and investment discipline, greatly benefiting our clients.
We are dedicated to helping our clients achieve their personal and financial goals by investing in consistently great companies and providing thoughtful, long-term guidance.
Yes. We invest our assets, including the firm’s profit sharing plan, alongside those of our clients.
No, Capital Counsel is a fee‐only Registered Investment Adviser. Our interests and incentives are aligned with our clients and we receive fees based on the market value of the assets we manage for our clients.
