Michael G. Willis is president and lead portfolio manager of The Willis Group, Inc., Investment Advisor to Giant 5 Funds-an SEC registered 1940 Act Mutual Fund. Mr. Willis is the author and creator of Consumption-basedFundamental Asset Allocation, a new generation of asset allocation methodologies built around investor fundamentals. Mr. Willis believes that people save and invest money for one primary purpose-the capability to meet their future spending needs and desired quality of life. Therefore, he believes that investment portfolios should be based on spending-not style boxes-to be relevant to Investor's lives.
Mr. Willis has a born ability to see through clutter to the heart of the matter. This clear vision gives him the ability to capture opportunities and provide direction to the people he leads. He uses his ability to innovate logical and simple solutions to complex problems. Michael's passion for truth and freedom drives him to create systems that have the potential to simplify and transform lives.
While finishing graduate school in 1989, Mr. Willis became convinced that he could unlock Wall Street's secrets and design an investment system that was clear and logical while striving to provide investors with confidence and performance. Driven by this objective, Mr. Willis began his industry research holding positions at some of Wall Street's largest firms:
First Vice President - Investments, Smith Barney 1994 to 1999
Senior Vice President - Investments, Paine Webber from 1999-2003
Senior Vice President - Investments, UBS Financial Services, Inc. from 2003 to 2004
President, THE WILLIS GROUP 2004-Current
President, Giant 5 Funds 2005-Current
Lead Portfolio Manager, Giant 5 Funds 2006-Current
During his career, Mr. Willis saw fortunes made and lost to the powerful emotions of fear and greed. It became clear to him that many of the trading strategies used by investors were simply sophisticated forms of gambling. Mr. Willis studied the world's top long-term investment managers to determine what made them better than the rest. Instead of rocket science, he found the distinguishing factors to be logical and simple. Foundational investment principles like diversification and asset allocation played decisive roles in overall performance.
In 2004, Mr. Willis left the large financial institutions of Wall Street to create THE WILLIS GROUP, Inc.-a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC. Headquartered at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and far away from the clutter of Wall Street, The Willis Group's primary objective is to show Investors how to recognize and respond to rapid transformation so they stay relevant and thrive in the new global economy.
Mr. Willis believes this new global economy has ushered in a new set of rules and values that has changed the fundamentals of investing and asset management. It is our opinion that traditional asset management strategies do not provide Investors with financial confidence because these strategies are no longer relevant to the primary reason they invest. Consumption-based Fundamental Asset Allocation uses fundamental attributes of the Investor, not the investment, as the primary determinant for all asset allocation decisions. This methodology is built for and around the Investor and this is why we believe that it offers clear advantages over antiquated mainstream strategies.
* Asset allocation and diversification do not assure or guarantee better performance and cannot eliminate the risk of investment losses.
