Midwest Advisors LLC

Midwest Advisors provides discretionary and non-discretionary portfolio management to a small, selective client base that includes high-net-worth individuals, charitable organizations, institutional clients and other investment advisers. The firm focuses on separate account strategies that invest principally in equity securities of companies engaged in the U.S. real estate industry and may employ options as part of its strategies.

The firm’s investment approach is primarily fundamental with a value bias, supported by industry contacts, on-site research and attendance at real estate conferences to form a bottom-up view of issuers and local markets. Strategies include a real estate long-short program and a long-only value program, and the firm may use hedging, leverage and concentrated positions, which can increase volatility and turnover.

What is atypical about Midwest Advisors is its mix of client types and compensation arrangements: it manages assets for other investment advisers, institutional and charitable clients and also uses performance-based fees for qualifying accounts, all of which are relatively uncommon among peers. The firm manages a modest amount of regulatory assets with a very small number of accounts, uses soft-dollar arrangements for research (including FactSet), and maintains policies intended to allocate opportunities equitably when accounts are managed side-by-side.