About Us
About Us
A private independent money management firm established in 1998, DeCamilla Capital customizes and manages enterprise-driven investment portfolios.
We operate as investment fiduciaries on behalf of our customers—sharing our knowledge, building trust and confidence, and serving in a dutiful manner—in managing the assets of our clients for their exclusive benefit.
We do this work because we believe investment advisers should not be salespeople but should provide ethical investment guidance and expertise.
Our lean yet robust nature enables us to put more focus on individual customers and their investment needs and goals using our 30 plus years of investment experience.
We service clients nationwide from our main office in Sacramento, California.
For more information, visit www.decamillacapital.com, or
contact us directly.
Welcome
Welcome to DeCamilla Capital!
We invite you to explore our web pages to learn more about our fiduciary-based investment management firm .
You will see New Yorker cartoons throughout our website. Just remember: Don’t let the cartoons fool you. We have fun doing serious work.
You depend on sound information to make investment decisions. We have created this website to make it easy for you to find and share resources and tools about DeCamilla Capital and yourself as an investor.
Investing should be straightforward. You should be able to build a customized investment portfolio without any of the hassles of buying third-party products and services or worrying about conflicts of interest. Remember: When you visit our website and when you do business with DeCamilla Capital you are in a No Sales Zone.
Reflecting our long-standing commitment to learning and continuous improvement, we welcome your feedback.
Read about who we are, what we do, how we do it.
And, talk to us.
Our Team
While technology is great, it can’t replace the human touch. At DeCamilla Capital we are committed to providing the best possible customer service. Whether you are an existing or prospective client we want to give you the opportunity to get to know us a little better.
David D. DeCamilla
President, Chief Investment Officer
Dave DeCamilla is co-founder and President and Chief Investment Officer of DeCamilla Capital Management. Prior to DeCamilla Capital, he was an account executive with Dean Witter (merged with Morgan Stanley) and a vice president of investments at Kidder Peabody (acquired by UBS). In addition to his 30 plus years of investment management experience, Dave serves as Chairman, Sacramento Employee Pension Fund and is a member of the Capital Public Radio Endowment Board. For more than a decade he hosted a local daily financial commentary/report show on public radio station KXJZ in Sacramento. A distinguished football player, Dave was inducted into the University of South Carolina Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Arts in Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University. He registered with the State of California as an Investment Adviser Representative (IAR). Dave’s Form ADV Part 2B
Ronald J. Petroff
Senior Financial Investment Officer
Ron Petroff is a Senior Financial Investment Officer for DeCamilla Capital Management. Prior to DeCamilla Capital, he was an investment consultant with Golden 1 Credit Union, one of California’s largest credit unions, where he managed retirement accounts and was a top wealth management producer. Ron served as Vice President of Investments for financial services firm Morgan Stanley in Northern California for nearly 20 years with financial responsibility for managing $65 million in investment capital. Ron’s more than 30-year financial services career also includes executive investment management and consulting roles with the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade and the Commonwealth Financial Network. Ron has extensive knowledge of the investment process, and provides investment counsel to individuals and corporate clients. He is a resistered Investment Adviser Representative (IAR) and licensed in insurance with the State of California. Ron holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Tigh M. Rickman
Vice President, CCO, CFO
Tigh Rickman is Vice President, CCO and CFO for DeCamilla Capital Management. He works with individual accounts, family trusts, non-profit endowments and specializes in individual and employer-sponsored retirement plans, utilizing extensive research to help each of these clients reach their individual goals. He is a member of the Board of Directors and serves as Treasurer for 916 Ink, a Sacramento based non-profit dedicated to empowering youth through literacy and creative writing. Prior to joining DeCamilla Capital in 2017, Tigh held various business development roles with The Boston Beer Company over a seventeen-year career. He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from The University of Southern Maine and a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from Bradford College in Massachusetts. Tigh is an Investment Adviser Representative (IAR) registered with the State of California. Tigh’s Form ADV Part 2B
Jared Mikacich
Senior Vice President Institutional Accounts
Jared Mikacich is the Senior Vice President Institutional Accounts for DeCamilla Capital Management. Jared works with pensions, endowments, foundations, insurance companies, private and public enterprises, institutions and individual clients. Prior to DeCamilla Capital, Jared was a business owner and served as VP/Director working with some of the world’s largest commercial and recreational marine businesses. In these roles he honed his ability to manage risk and protect his clients’ best interest. Jared’s tenure as a Licensed Captain, U.S. Merchant Marine-Coast Guard further exemplifies the value he brings to the DCM investment process and management team–a steady hand on the tiller. He holds a Bachelor of Arts: Art History, Design and Graphics / Minor in Psychology from Saint Mary’s College of California. “Your Navigational Beacon for Investment Solutions”.
Our Story
Creating a Company
A Sell Directive
In 1997, a wild year for U. S. stocks amidst the collapse of global financial markets, Dave DeCamilla was a broker for a national investment house. The firm’s securities analyst, who covered the telecommunications sector including General Telephone and Electric (GTE), was leaving the brokerage. The branch manager directed Dave to liquidate his entire GTE position, about 60,000 shares in his client accounts.
Dave had spent several years amassing the GTE position based upon his own judgment and understanding of what his clients needed and wanted. Not long after his branch manager’s sell directive Dave realized something he had always suspected – that what was in the best interest of the firm was not necessarily in the best interest of the clients. He soon initiated the process to start his own registered investment advisory company.
Independent Investment Business
Based upon his brokerage experience, Dave had no interest in any transaction-driven financial services operation, but was enthusiastic about a building an independent firm. It was about this time that retired real estate attorney Steve Balfrey, a peer and client of Dave’s, was seeking to remain active in business. Steve was the linchpin to launching their new company.
While Dave pursued the brokerage business, Steve went to work setting up the entire infrastructure including all of the administrative legwork to license and operationalize the business. DeCamilla Capital Management, Inc. opened its doors in June, 1998 as a registered investment advisor.
What’s Right for the Client
There was another driving force behind Dave’s wanting to start his own investment enterprise. “We do what’s correct for the client. Large Wall Street firms are all about selling and increasing revenue,” he says. Naturally prone to using metaphors he cites how the egregious overreaching of some of these businesses hurt people: “You don’t know who is swimming naked next to you until the tide goes out.”
Today DeCamilla Capital advises clients nationwide and manages their portfolios as investment fiduciaries. It initiates all its own advice and trading and receives no incentive from third parties to recommend products or services. The creation of DeCamilla Capital is a simple story: provide sound investment advice, and people will listen.
Postscript
Oh, and Dave never sold that GTE position back when he was a broker. But GTE now known as Verizon, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world is a core holding at DeCamilla Capital.
Our Investment Philosophy
Weathering the Storm
Weathering a storm means toughing out predicaments. The storm eventually passes with patience and persistence typically rewarded. Not on Wall Street. In an era of high frequency trading and derivatives patience and forbearance are no longer virtues.
Rebalancing Acts
All kinds of storms (e.g., economic troubles, anticipated market pullbacks, Federal Reserve meetings, consumer sentiments) cause point-and-click investors to dump their investments to move into something “safe.” Rebalancing investments creates an illusion that a person taking immediate action is averting or avoiding an expected market storm. Since there is nothing profitable (e. g., no commissions) associated with holding firm and in place, the basic rule in the financial services industry is that if you own it you should sell it, and that if you don’t own it you should buy it.
Scare Tactics
Instead of enduring financial squalls with a well-crafted portfolio of money-making companies, individual investors become subject to scare tactics – perish the thought that you may have “headline risk” (i.e., you actually own shares of individual companies). The indictment that your portfolio is too concentrated and you need to “diversify” is usually to segue into purchasing “safer” indexes, annuities, ETFs, and mutual funds or opaque products.
Mogul Contradictions
Owning several profitable businesses via a stock portfolio is nowadays passé. John C. Bogle, retired founder of the second-largest mutual fund company in the world, advocates that everyone forget about specific stock portfolios and just invest in indexes. Warren Edward Buffett, the most successful investor of the 20th century, agrees. However, neither Bogle nor Buffett did that. Bogle started and owned a substantial interest in a specific enterprise, Vanguard Mutual Funds, a real business. Buffett holds major interests in hundreds of companies and is one of the largest shareholders in Coca-Cola, Kraft Foods, Proctor & Gamble, and Nike. Although he touts index funds Buffett doesn’t own any as best anyone can tell, and never has.
Long View
Seasoned long-term investors know there’s no way to avoid financial storms and systemic risk. The way to weather roiling financial markets is to expect turbulence and then to construct an investment portfolio that will survive and grow under all types of conditions. At DeCamilla Capital we believe letting market volatility dictate long-term investment behavior and policy is a mistake – and that patience remains a virtue.
The Way We Work
Our Typical Client
DeCamilla Capital provides portfolio management services to high net worth individuals, pension and profit sharing plans, charitable organizations, trusts, corporations, and other businesses.
Our typical client is a professional person either currently working or retired who is interested in both preserving their net worth, income, and growing their investment capital. In most cases, individuals who seek out DeCamilla Capital are U. S. citizens who do not have the knowledge, training, time, or temperament to invest money for themselves. These individuals are uncomfortable with the frenetic nature of contemporary, transaction-driven investment advice. They seek out DeCamilla Capital’s fiduciary-based investment management expertise.
Our long-term clients indicate they appreciate the value of a professional fiduciary making investment decisions based upon what is in the client’s best interest. As fiduciary advisors we help those clients who are concerned about making sound decisions regarding their investment capital and are not comfortable doing so alone. For example, prospective clients may include:
- Anyone responsible for managing other people’s financial assets and equity capital (stocks)
- Individuals confronting their own retirement and who have a need to sustain a realistic cash flow from their IRA rollover
- Pension/deferred compensation (i.e., 401 (k)) trustees or guardians of pooled trust funds who need a safe harbor and a fiduciary relationship with respect to their fund
- Entrepreneurs who have sold their business and are seeking to preserve capital and maintain their lifestyle
- Individuals who have received inheritance or settlements and who need unbiased, independent portfolio management
- Young professionals seeking to build their net worth
Regardless of their age, gender, or station in life DeCamilla Capital clients are optimistic. They look forward to the future and are willing to commit their money and time to achieve long-term investment success.
Unlike most of Wall Street, DeCamilla Capital is not interested in finding answers to financial problems that don’t exist. We believe most of the investment products manufactured by various financial services companies are merely sales masquerading as solutions to non-existent problems. If you are comfortable with your current investment program it’s unlikely you will need our assistance. If you are interested in having a well-crafted investment portfolio customized for you, talk to us.
DeCamilla Capital Firm Brochure
Performance Reporting and Fees
Fee-Based Compensation
DeCamilla Capital charges a fee of 1.5% on the assets it manages. Our fee structure is characterized by:
- Total compensation of DeCamilla Capital – No other payments received from third parties (e. g., research firms, banks, brokerages, insurance companies, initial public offerings) to promote their products or services.
- Client success dictates DeCamilla Capital revenues – When the client’s investment portfolio value increases we receive greater compensation, and when the portfolio loses value we receive less.
- Fulfilling client needs for competitive investment returns in a way that manages fundamental and systemic risk – Investment approach and format stresses a willingness to endure short-term volatility for the longer-term benefit of capital appreciation and dividend growth. We seek to assure the alignment between our client’s best long-term interest and the management of their capital.
- All trades incur low brokerage fees charged by the custodian – DeCamilla Capital does not participate in any remuneration from these trades. Performance calculations reflect all commissions.
Our management fee entitles clients to contact DeCamilla Capital at any time to consult on contemporary macro- or micro-economic issues, strategic investment planning, or portfolio execution. As discretionary money managers, security selection, asset allocation, investment process management, and performance reporting are included in our fee.
Performance Reporting
DeCamilla Capital calculates and reports portfolio performance on a net rather than gross basis. All fees, costs, and expenses are included in our transparent performance reports. This is not the normal standard in either the brokerage business or many aspects of the financial services industry.
Net reporting, which reflects all investment costs, is a more accurate and realistic portrayal of portfolio results. This means clients:
- Do not have to extrapolate DeCamilla Capital fees from investment performance results
- Receive investment performance reports net of management expenses and trading costs in a clear and itemized format
- Receive the advantage of more precise planning and measurement for retirement plan withdrawals, growth projections, and market index comparisons
- Benefit from minimal portfolio turnover and trading
DeCamilla Capital fees and reports reflect the fair and realistic cost of direct and unbiased one-to-one asset management. In fulfilling our role and duty as traditional money managers we strive to assure our clients receive our best efforts and the services of a true fiduciary-client relationship.
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