Cambiar Investors provides high-net-worth individuals with access to a variety of professionally managed equity portfolios. The firm is located in Denver, Colorado.
Cambiar Investors Background
Cambiar Investors kicked off operations in 1973, when founder Michael Barish also launched its large-cap value portfolio. The firm was sold to Old Mutual Asset Mangement in 1990, and bought itself back in 2001, just a year before Barish retired. Today, his son Brian M. Barish serves as president and chief investment officer, leading a team that includes a dozen chartered financial analysts (CFAs). With more than 30 years of industry experience behind him, the younger Barish has served as director of emerging markets research at Lazard Freres & Co and as a securities analyst with Bear, Stearns & Co.
Technically, Cambiar Investors is owned by Cambiar Holdings, which in turn is owned by 34 partners, who are all employees.
Cambiar Investors Client Types and Minimum Account Sizes
Cambiar Investors works with individuals, mutual funds, pension plans, endowments, foundations, collective investment trusts, state and municipal government entities and Taft-Hartley plans.
The firm generally requires a minimum investment of $5 million for separate account programs. It also provides services to wrap-fee programs for which the minimum investment would depend on the third-party sponsor. According to Cambiar’s brochure, this minimum typically ranges from $50,000 to $250,000.
Services Offered by Cambiar Investors
Cambiar Investors provides high-net-worth individuals with access to eight different equity-driven investment portfolios or separate accounts. These investment options are:
International Equity ADR - invests in 40 to 50 American depository receipts (ADR) of large-cap companies or those with market caps of more than $50 billion. This portfolio is designed to overweight developed markets and underweight emerging markets.
Cambiar International Equity - invests primarily in 40 to 50 stocks of large-cap companies outside the United States. It tends to overweight toward developed countries.
International Small Cap - invests in 40 to 50 stocks of small-cap companies based outside the U.S. These firms have market caps between $500 million and $5 billion. It’s designed to overweight to developed markets.
Europe Select ADR - invests mainly in stocks of firms based in Europe. The market capitalization of these companies starts at $5 billion.
Global Equity - invests in 45 to 55 stocks already in existing domestic and international portfolios by Cambiar. It offers global exposure. The firm states it would take a broadly neutral weight relative to the U.S. and international exposure found in the benchmark.
Large Cap Value - invests in 35 to 45 stocks of large-cap companies domiciled in the U.S.
SMID Value - invests in 35 to 45 stocks of companies domiciled in the U.S. that have market capitalization levels of $2 to $12 billion.
Small Cap Value - invests in companies domiciled in the U.S. with market caps between $500 million to $5 billion.
Cambiar Investors Investment Philosophy
Each investment team or analyst conducts extensive market research to find investment opportunities within their assigned sectors or industries. The firm generally uses the following criteria when evaluating stocks:
Quality and positive trajectory - Cambiar Investors seeks competitive companies with defensible characteristics such as intellectual capital, established infrastructure or switching costs. The firm also aims for companies with strong financials as determined by low debt/equity levels and demonstrable free cash flow over a full market cycle.
Valuation - Cambiar Investors tries to identify stocks trading at the lower end of their long-term valuation range.
Catalyst or inflection point - Cambiar Investors aims to identify developments that can alter the market’s current perception of the company. These instances can come in the form of product introductions, managerial changes and other events.
Upside criteria or hurdle rate - Cambiar Investors looks for upside potential and a stock's ability to generate major return in a one- to two-year time horizon. This may result from price sensitivity at the point of purchase and non-consensus assessment of the true economic value of the company over Cambiar’s time horizon.
Fees Under Cambiar Investors
Clients can choose to have Cambiar deduct fees directly from client accounts or to be invoiced for fees incurred.
For separate account management services, Cambiar Investors generally charges an asset-based advisory fee that ranges from 0.35% to 1.00%. These fees are negotiable based on several factors such as the size of the account and the perceived potential for increase in assets. The majority of Separate Account clients are billed quarterly in advance based on Cambiar's assets under management.
In addition to the fees Cambiar Investors charges for advisory services, investors should expect to pay transaction-based expenses such as brokerage commissions, fees associated with the execution of foreign currency and those related to the holding of depositary receipts. These fees vary by service and possibly by investment type.
What to Watch Out for
Cambiar Investors generally offers equity-based investment opportunities, which tend to be best suited for risk tolerances on the high end. So the firm’s investment strategies may not be a good fit for all investors.
Also, the firm solely provides investment management services. It does not offer financial planning. So for help with such things as estate planning or tax planning, you'll need to find another advisor (use our advisor matching tool to find one near you).
Within the past 10 years, neither Cambiar Investors nor its representatives have been the subjects of any disciplinary events that could affect a client or potential client’s evaluation of the firm’s business practices.
Tips for Finding the Right Financial Advisor
- Have less than $5 million to invest? SmartAsset's free tool matches you with up to three financial advisors who serve your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
- Ask prospective advisors who would be able to move money out of your account. If they are managing your assets on a discretionary basis, the advisor will be able to do transactions on your account. But all transfers out of the account should have to be authorized by you.
All information was accurate as of the writing of this article.
