Most people with $5 million or more in investable assets open their statements and see the same thing:
- 60–80% in broad-market ETFs or mutual funds (e.g., VTI, VXUS, SCHD, QQQM, maybe some AVUV or AVDV for “factor tilt”)
- 10–30% in bonds or fixed income ladders
- 5–15% in “alternatives” — private equity, private credit, hedge funds, or a non-traded REIT sleeve (usually expensive and illiquid)
- Annual rebalancing · Tax-loss harvesting via direct indexing if they’re feeling fancy
That’s the orthodoxy on r/CFP, r/financialplanning, r/Bogleheads, and r/fatFIRE in 2025.
It’s safe. It’s defensible. It’s just about what most advisors with a Series 65 show every client with seven figures+.
It’s also exactly why our clients fire their old advisors.
Because when you built your wealth through a business you started, real estate you developed, royalties you earned, or stock options you bled for — being told “now go buy the global market-cap index” feels like someone telling a chef to live on frozen dinners for the rest of his life.
At Northern Pacific, we don’t do that.
We build the liquid portion of your wealth the same way you built the illiquid portion: concentrated ownership of exceptional assets, bought at sensible prices, held permanently.
The Sustainable Advantage® portfolio begins with a risk-parity foundation across all major asset classes and is structured around four pillars that work as one unified strategy.
1. Long-Term Liquid Equity Core (iCore™) – The Real Compounding Machine
A concentrated portfolio of extraordinary public companies — each with a wide economic moat, fortress balance sheet, owner-oriented management, and decades of runway. Bought only when trading at reasonable prices. Held permanently or for decades. Individual stocks only. Turnover near zero. Tax efficiency structural.
This is permanent ownership, not “stock picking.”
2. Risk-Managed Global Macro Dynamic Factor Overlay™ (DFO) – The Adaptive Shield
A live, rules-driven overlay that continuously adjusts exposures across equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, and precious metals using proven factors (Quality, Value, Momentum, Low-Volatility, Dividend Growth, Trend, Carry). Starts equal weight, then tilts in real time — growth factors in expansions, defensives in slowdowns, real assets when inflation spikes. All via low-cost Smart-Beta ETFs and fully liquid systematic alts. No black-box, volatility laundering, or illiquid nonsense.
3. Cash / Treasury / Physical Bullion Reserve – The True Fortress
FDIC-insured cash, short-term Treasuries, and fully allocated, vaulted physical gold & silver. Not “dry powder” in name only — this is actual capital ready to buy world-class businesses when they go on sale, and genuine purchasing-power protection when central banks get creative.
4. Income Generating Mechanism – Cash Flow That Never Kills the Golden Goose
Reliable, tax-efficient quarterly distributions from qualified dividends, interest, and the occasional disciplined trim — scaled to your spending or legacy needs without ever forcing sales at the wrong time.
Everything lives in one unified fiduciary account at BNY Mellon | Pershing. The equity core almost never trades. The overlay and reserves move in real time. You get quarterly commentary and an annual deep-dive — but the strategy is always on.
“My last guy showed me a 19-page pie chart with 14 sleeves and called it customized.
You showed me 12 world-class businesses I’d be proud to own forever, physical gold in a vault, and a plan that finally matches how I actually think about money.”
If you’re tired of paying someone 0.80–1.20% to give you the same portfolio every other seven-figure+ investor has…
If you’re done pretending broad diversification feels like sophistication when it’s really just expensive mediocrity…
If you want the liquid side of your wealth managed with the same conviction you used to build the illiquid side…
Then your portfolio probably shouldn’t look like everyone else’s.
And it doesn’t have to.
— Joshua Graeff
Chief Investment Officer
Northern Pacific Asset Management
Houston ∙ Seattle ∙ Pacific Northwest ∙ Nationwide
Private Wealth Management for America’s Legacy Builders
northernpacific.us | (832) 559-3771
