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Meet your financial specialists.

David Copeland

Principal & Co-Founder

David has been helping clients with their financial affairs since 1981. He founded Strategic Wealth Partners in 2008 after serving as Senior Managing Director with Mesirow Financial for 21 years. He has also held investment positions with Merrill Lynch and commercial banking positions with Harris Bank.

David has applied his many years of investment experience to the development of the firm’s investment philosophy. He is committed to imparting and managing a consistent philosophy among the SWP team and ensuring that all client recommendations reflect this philosophy. David realizes that, by nature, calling short-term market moves can be treacherous. It is more important to focus on what types of risks can be expected.

David will go the extra mile to build custom solutions for clients that are best suited to their individual situations. His approach includes a focus on alternative investment strategies, and for more than 25 years, he has helped clients utilize alternative strategies, when appropriate, to support their investment objectives. Rather than focusing on the pure return portion of a manager’s track record, he believes clients will benefit most from strategies based on consistency. Those strategies are only discovered through due diligence and investment experience.

David is passionate about helping others succeed by continually deepening his knowledge base. He actively exchanges opinions and insights with other industry professionals. Currently, he serves on the Advisory Board for CAIS, a leading alternative investment platform for independent RIAs. He is an active participant, and has been a presenter, at the annual Focus Financial CIO meetings. He has also served on the PIMCO Advisory Board and J.P. Morgan Advisory Council. In addition to advising clients, he is President and Chairman of the Rebecca A. Copeland Fund for Social Justice.

David enjoys spending time with his wife, children, and grandchildren. In his free time, he likes to work on his golf game and travel.

Education

MBA, Northwestern University’s JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management
BBA in Finance, University of Michigan

Leadership & Community

President and Chairman, Rebecca A. Copeland Fund for Social Justice
Founding Member, CAIS Advisory Board

Office Location

Deerfield, IL

Related

Investments
Opportunities in Alternative Credit
As I mentioned in my article last summer, there are many types of alternative investments. Within this discussion, we created two categories, alternative asset classes and alternative strategies. A subset of alternative strategies is alternative (‘alt’) credit. From where we sit, there are great opportunities presently in the alt credit area. In this piece, I’ll discuss why we like this area of the capital markets. Background on Investing in Traditional Bonds When building a portfolio of bonds, investors often seek securities where interest payments are fixed, like a traditional bond, and when there is a specific date that the bond matures. A bond makes the same payment every six months, with the principal being paid at maturity. Investors often take comfort with the defined nature of bonds and especially like them when the credit quality is from an institution like the US federal government or large credit-worthy corporations.
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Investments
Our View on Alternative Investments
You have likely heard of a “60/40 portfolio” — a portfolio that is composed of 60% stocks and 40% bonds. One rationale for the 60/40 portfolio has long been that stocks and bonds are negatively correlated. In simple language, the belief has been that when stocks lose their value, bonds should hold their ground or even appreciate in value, helping stabilize the portfolio during periods of market unrest. This year has been another proof point that this assumption is flawed.
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