DCM – Disciplined Capital Management

Disciplined.
Proven.
Responsible.

Applying the disciplined, proven academic principles of capital management to the portfolios of institutions, foundations, endowments, and not-for-profits.

Through our predecessor firm RJR Associates, our team has applied a consistent philosophy and process since 1991.

Disciplined Capital Management is an independent registered investment advisor with nearly $500 million in assets under management. We exclusively serve the unique needs of institutions, foundations, endowments, and not-for-profits by applying a disciplined, proven, and responsible investment philosophy.

The firm's investment philosophy is based on the well-researched principles that:

  • Capital markets provide returns for risks that cannot be diversified away

  • Security selection consists of constructing portfolios with specific risk/return characteristics at the lowest cost

  • A portfolio's risk is defined by how it is allocated among independent asset classes

  • Carefully measuring and monitoring results is necessary for long-term success

We are committed to investment ideas that are grounded in academic research. The essence of our investment philosophy is that capital markets work in the long run; a portfolio's risk is defined by its allocation among asset classes; and that security selection is a matter of constructing portfolios with specific expected return/risk characteristics at the lowest cost.

Our Team

DCM values the extensive and diverse experience of its team members

Our team brings together an extensive and diverse set of experiences from corporate, financial, academic, and not-for-profit circles.

Robert J. Ryan, Ph.D.

Bob is focused on the design and development of the investment ideas of Disciplined Capital Management and their applicability to the financial portfolios. He completed his Ph.D. in finance at Syracuse University in 1989 and was awarded an MBA with distinction from Cornell Johnson Graduate School of Management in 1971. Bob’s professional experience includes over twenty years with NYSE and Fortune 500 companies in all facets of corporate finance. He has been a director of several corporate boards, including food processing, international trade, insurance and banking concerns. Bob has also served on the faculty of Syracuse University where he taught graduate and undergraduate courses in securities markets and corporate finance. Bob and his wife, Linda, enjoy spending time at their family retreat on Lake Champlain in Vermont with their two children and five grandchildren. He marvels at the insights on the human condition provided by John Prine and Henry David Thoreau.

Craig Buckhout

In the early 1990s it became clear that ordinary people were going to need help managing their substantial savings, as 401(k) plan assets began to replace pensions as a source of retirement income. After spending the first decade of his career in the world of corporate finance, Craig was excited to work with clients and apply institutional investment principles to help them achieve their goals. He enjoys showing clients how to apply institutional investment strategies to any client portfolio. When it comes to managing risk and diversification, controlling costs, and achieving market returns, the same principles apply to a small IRA or a large endowment fund. Craig earned his BS and MBA from Cornell University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Adam C. Gagas

Adam has more than 15 years experience in fundamental investment research and asset management. As an institutional investor who worked for multi-billion dollar mutual funds, he has developed expertise analyzing the financial statements and strategies of companies in nearly every major market sector and industry. Adam has used these skills in markets around the world. In addition to a domestic focus during many years in New York City, he has also worked in Moscow where he analyzed investments in emerging markets around the former Soviet Union.

Adam is a graduate of Hobart College with a BA in Economics and Russian Studies. He is an alumnus of the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business, where he earned an MBA with a concentration in Finance. Currently, he is a Visiting Adjunct Instructor of Finance at the SUNY Oswego School of Business.

Adam serves on the boards of the Oswego Health Foundation and Pathfinder Bank.

Ted Scallon

Ted oversees the development of new client relationships. He has more than 50 years of banking experience in New York City and throughout the Central New York region. Ted, along with Bob Ryan, Craig Buckhout and Adam Gagas helps boards and investment committees of foundations and institutions manage financial assets by developing reasonable expectations for return while better understanding risk and how it is measured. Ted holds a BS in business management and an MBA in finance from Long Island University. He and his wife, Sally, live in Fayetteville where they raised their three children T.J., Mark and Gemma. Ted has long been involved with the not-for-profit community and just completed 30 years of board service to Elmcrest Children’s Center, and 30 years as a member of the Board of Regents of LeMoyne College.

Sharon Craig

Sharon directs client relations and compliance functions. She brings over thirty years of banking experience at a local financial institution in Central New York where her responsibilities included commercial real estate financing, various executive level administrative functions and interaction with not-for-profit entities. She is a graduate of Onondaga Community College with an AAS in Business Administration. In her spare time, Sharon enjoys spending time with friends, the sounds of a great music playlist, enjoying Golden Doodles Shasta & Daisy and seeking adventure in the great outdoors.

Our Mission & Goal

Disciplined Capital Management is a Central New York-based investment-driven firm committed to the principles of scientific investing, long-term partnership with our clients, and delivering value through multiple channels.

Our Mission

To partner with client organizations in the responsible stewardship of their financial resources. We accomplish this through the disciplined application of proven academic principles of capital management.

Our Goal

To strengthen the financial resources of our partner organizations by garnering market-based returns, avoiding uncompensated risk, and keeping expenses low.

We apply time-tested academic principles of capital management to investment portfolios on behalf of institutions, foundations, endowments, and not-for-profits. These principles are a disciplined, proven, and responsible approach for boards to exercise their fiduciary responsibility over their assets.

Our Philosophy

Our investment philosophy is guided by the fact that over the long run capital markets work,

which is the basis for portfolio construction and management. In well-functioning markets, the buyer has the same information as the seller, new information comes randomly, and prices quickly reflect this new information.

As a result of this competitive market, investors can expect that:

  1. No identifiable trends or biases in price patterns will appear
  2. Investment returns come only from bearing risks that can't be diversified away
  3. Superior results follow from realizing market returns at minimum cost
  4. Most performance is explained by asset allocation

Your board membership means that you are committed to your organization and our community. You have voluntarily taken on this responsibility to help it succeed, ensure its future, and make a positive impact on the life of our community. A sound investment strategy is a critical component toward achieving that goal.

We are intimately familiar with the challenges boards face; we serve on boards ourselves. And, we know very well that the success of organizations like yours defines the quality of life in our communities. Like you, we believe in our community and its potential. That means our job is to translate your passion into a disciplined, proven, and responsible investment strategy for the benefit of your organization, our community, and our common future.

Understand the Client. For us, it's a credo. We've been providing investment services to foundations, endowments and institutions through our predecessor firms since 1991. What's more, as board members ourselves, we know the challenges of finding resources to fulfill a mission. We understand that organizations like yours utilize every dollar available to provide programs that make our community better.

Our other credo is Expenses Matter. The math shows that even seemingly insignificant differences in annual fees can compound into punishing erosion of growth and ultimately a limitation in the organization's ability to fund future programs.

Our below-average fees are the simultaneous expression of these credos. Given what your organization can accomplish with your funds and your passion, we strongly believe that success in your mission is a significant component of our total compensation.

How We Compare

Percent Charged on Client Assets - Disciplined Capital Management vs. Industry

Industry

Disciplined Capital Management

Monitoring results

Carefully measuring and monitoring investment results is important to long-term success and integral to managing financial asset portfolios.

Results must be measured against appropriate benchmarks in a clear, concise and understandable way. While these periodic reports are crucial, they must not be more frequent than quarterly; looking at results more frequently is apt to result in the serious long-term investor getting caught up in short-term results, which can lead to making inappropriate changes at just the wrong time.

We communicate performance, progress, and portfolio characteristics through monthly data, comprehensive quarterly reports, and frequent meetings with the board, committees, and management of our partner organizations.

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Differentiators

As an independent registered investment adviser with nearly $500 million in assets under management, our institutions, foundations, and endowments look to us to apply well-developed financial principles to real world portfolios.

Focus

We are focused exclusively on serving the unique needs of institutions, foundations, endowments and not-for-profits.

Philosophy & Process

Our rigorous method is the disciplined application of proven academic principles of capital management.

Investment-driven

We are not shy about explaining our mission and goals, but we are not a sales-driven culture rather, our passion is investing and the life-long learning necessary to do it well.

Consistency

Consistent application of philosophy across all client relationships at all times.

Peace of Mind

We provide a clear and transparent investment philosophy that allows the highest fulfillment of a board's fiduciary responsibility by:

Minimizing negative surprises.

Minimizing the intense, skilled, and continual oversight a board has to exercise over traditional managers.

Providing intelligent exposure to market returns by exposure only to areas of compensated risk.

Partnership with Client Organizations

As fiduciaries, we have an obligation to act in the best interest of clients at all times. What's more, we make a commitment to act as an extension of the board itself. Our aim is to develop long-term, beneficial relationships with client organizations.

Local, Accessible, Communicative, and Responsive

We provide best-in-class service to clients. As a local investment firm, contact is always with the primary decision-makers on portfolios not with sales people miles away from the actual investment decisions.

Experienced

Our investment professionals have advanced degrees and have taught the academic principles of our investment philosophy at the university level. Moreover, as community leaders, our staff has decades of experience as board members of local institutions, foundations, and not-for-profits.

Low Cost

Our scale efficiencies mean that we can deliver additional value to clients by keeping fees well below our competitors.

As an independent registered investment adviser with nearly $500 million in assets under management, our institutions, foundations, and endowments look to us to apply well-developed financial principles to real world portfolios.

Focus

We are focused exclusively on serving the unique needs of institutions, foundations, and endowments.

Philosophy & Process

Our rigorous method is the disciplined application of proven academic principles of capital management.

Investment-driven

We are not shy about explaining our mission and goals, but we are not a sales-driven culture rather, our passion is investing and the life-long learning necessary to do it well.

Consistency

Consistent application of philosophy across all client relationships at all times.

Peace of Mind

We provide a clear and transparent investment philosophy that allows the highest fulfillment of a board's fiduciary responsibility by:

Minimizing negative surprises.

Minimizing the intense, skilled, and continual oversight a board has to exercise over traditional managers.

Providing intelligent exposure to market returns by exposure only to areas of compensated risk.

Partnership with Client Organizations

As fiduciaries, we have an obligation to act in the best interest of clients at all times. What's more, we make a commitment to act as an extension of the board itself. Our aim is to develop long-term, beneficial relationships with client organizations.

Local, Accessible, Communicative, and Responsive

We provide best-in-class service to clients. As a local investment firm, contact is always with the primary decision-makers on portfolios not with sales people miles away from the actual investment decisions.

Experienced

Our investment professionals have advanced degrees and have taught the academic principles of our investment philosophy at the university level. Moreover, as community leaders, our staff has decades of experience as board members of local institutions, foundations, and not-for-profits.

Low Cost

Our scale efficiencies mean that we can deliver additional value to clients by keeping fees well below our competitors.

Our institutional clients include:

Christian Brothers Academy

Jefferson Rehabilitation Center

Elmcrest Children’s Center

Oswego Health

Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse

Syracuse Home Association Foundation

Contact us

Contact us to learn more about our services and to schedule an introductory meeting.

Disciplined Capital Management, LLC

220 South Warren Street

Syracuse, NY 13202

(315) 476-8200 Get directions