John Hailer & Natixis Engineer Broad Shift in Portfolio Construction Throughout the Industry

Formerly of Natixis, John Hailer is the Chairman of Diffractive Managers Group. Diffractive Managers Group is a funding arm based out of Boston, working directly with the 1251 Capital Group. With decades of industry experience in the financial sector, Hailer helped to spearhead several initiatives that have led to even broader changes within the investing field.

Taking time out of his day, Hailer connected with CEOWorld Magazine to discuss the techniques and strategies that have helped him propel change in the industry since he first began helping investors build their portfolios.

Let’s take a closer look at how Hailer is guiding clients while appreciating the changes he helped to foster in the industry a decade ago.

Changing the Focus For Investors

It is the easiest thing in the world for a financial manager to tell their clients that they should focus on fostering growth in the long term, but life isn’t that simple. Hailer said, “As an industry, we need to get better at building the types of investment portfolios that help investors to get there.”

Diversification is much more than just a buzzword within the financial sector, it is a rule to live by and an idea to adhere to. John Hailer stated of his clients on risk and diversification, “If properly diversified, portfolios would’ve been more resilient.”

Hailer is addressing the 2008 financial collapse when he talks of resilient portfolios, and that is something that still weighs heavily on him to this day. Hailer stated in an interview, “This never should’ve happened. If portfolios were properly diversified, we would’ve seen much more resilience.”

As it turns out, too many investors had sold too many investment strategies, despite their individual excellence, and this would cause many problems that the market would face.

Implementing Change Through the DPCRC

To help spearhead change at Natixis, John Hailer would invest heavily in the Durable Portfolio Construction Research Center. Establishing the DPCRC, Hailer, and Natixis would offer an industry-changing product-agnostic strategy: they would offer free portfolio services and investment strategies.

Despite the initial grief that he had faced, Hailer’s choice would soon pay massive dividends. The center would explode in popularity and within 15 years, the program would serve as the vanguard for massive growth in asset management. By the time Hailer had stepped aside from Natixis, he would oversee total assets as they grew from $130 billion to more than $900 billion.

Hailer said, “At the time, I took some grief over it because companies need to run on financials.”

Pointing to the 2008 market crash, John Hailer admitted that they were granted an opportunity to reset how they approach their business model. Hailer said, “By helping financial advisors better understand the interactions within their portfolios, we were able to help them make better investment decisions.”