About

SINCE 1990, BRIAN R. CARRUTHERS & ASSOCIATES HAS OFFERED PROFESSIONAL INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT DESIGNED TO ACHIEVE RETURN OBJECTIVES WITH THE LEAST AMOUNT OF RISK

Brian Carruthers has been a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) since 1988 and a Chartered Market Technician (CMT®) since 1992. He joined the Market Technicians Association in 1986 and was one of the founders of the MTA’s Southern California chapter.

When I was a kid in Connecticut, I had a friend who worked on a farm driving an Allis-Chalmers tractor. He was so fond of it he bought stock in the company. That’s the first time I realized someone could make money by investing. In 1974, I took the plunge and invested $500 in Polaroid, nearly doubling my money. I was hooked.

My strength has always been numbers. I completed a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Florida before going to work in the financial industry. The crash of ’87, changed everything. People were afraid of equities. My answer was a pure bond portfolio. That was the start of my oldest portfolio strategy – Managed Income.

What many people don’t realize is that the U.S. bond market is 50% larger than the U.S. equities market. On a global basis, bond capitalization is double that of the global equity markets. When you take a tactical approach to allocating among the bond sectors there are opportunities to create annualized rates of return comparable with the equity market at less risk.

In 1994, after the memory of the ’87 market had faded, I introduced equity exposure to client portfolios through my Income & Growth strategy, which offers more opportunity for appreciation through an active allocation of up to 40% equities, with the ability to move as much as 100% of the portfolio to bonds when market conditions warrant. The Momentum portfolio, which followed, is a true dynamic asset allocation approach that looks for positive momentum across equity sectors, selecting the best funds based on relative strength, chart patterns and Sharpe ratios.

My investment approach is a blend of technical analysis based on proprietary, trend-following models, and individual investment selection, focusing on top performing no load mutual funds. I believe successfully managing money is an art – balancing risk and return through the combination of technical analysis to understand the market’s trend and market experience. You need the experience of investing through multiple bull and bear cycles to have confidence in your investment approach and to be able to objectively evaluate current market conditions. Today, my firm manages more than $70 million for clients and is a third-party adviser to Registered Investment Advisers throughout the U.S. The Paladin Registry of Advisors, an independent and objective rating service of independent advisors, has given Brian Carruthers & Associates a 5-star rating, a standard achieved by fewer than 10% of Paladin-rated advisors.

My focus is on hitting singles and doubles. I am not trying to hit returns out of the ball park. There’s too much risk in that approach. Does it work? I have clients who have been with me since day 1. That’s best measure I know as to whether I have been successful in helping them build wealth and achieve financial security.

Brian Carruthers CFP®, CMT®

About Thomas Carruthers

Thomas grew up in a Connecticut suburb of New York City. He graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2016 with a B.S. in Economics with Financial Applications. Following his graduation, Thomas worked for Edward Jones Investments where he obtained his Investment Advisor Representative licensing (Series 7 & 66). Despite the wealth of knowledge and quality training Thomas received from working at the large financial advising firm, he decided that working at an RIA would best suit his career goals. He moved to California and has worked at BCA with Brian, his uncle, since October 2017. Thomas plans on becoming a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and has already begun the process to do so. In his spare time, Thomas enjoys skiing, golfing, and playing basketball. He is a sports-lover and a big fan of the New York Yankees and the New York Giants.