The Portfolio Manager
Mark Burkhardt's Professional Career Highlights
In 1989, Mark Burkhardt joined the Washington D.C. office of J W Grant & Associates where he studied for and earned his Series 7 "General Securities Representative" license. A year later, he was offered and accepted a position with the local brokerage firm, Washington Investment Corporation. Over the course of the next seven years he worked closely with his clients in constructing and managing diversified, individually goal oriented portfolios. His approach to portfolio construction was unique in that he employed a sector rotation model that he had developed. This process allowed him to identify which areas of the market were undervalued or overvalued when compared with previous historical valuations, earnings and interest rate environments.
When Washington Investment Corporation was acquired by the regional firm Capitol Securities Management in 1998, Mark became one of the firm's equity portfolio managers. In 1999, he received his Series 65 "Registered Investment Advisor" license which allowed him to establish a fee-based portfolio management business. Having this discretionary trading authority allowed Mark to offer his clients a higher level of service and accountability as he now took on a fiduciary responsibility to protect, monitor and oversee his client's assets.
From 1996 through 2003, Mark co-hosted "Money Talk", a live one hour weekly radio program that eventually grew to an audience of over 60,000 listeners. While discussing current market conditions, he and his partner focused on giving their listeners advice on how to add focus, safety and diversification to their portfolios. In 1998, Mark and his co-host launched a second weekly program named "The Tactical Trader" which focused exclusively on the benefits and uncertainties of short term trading strategies.
Additionally in 1999, Mark helped create and co-author a monthly investment newsletter distributed and edited by Phillips Publishing, reaching a subscriber base of over 22,000 in its first year of introduction. He and his partner were featured speakers at a number of national investor conferences where they explained the risks and rewards of investing in the growing technology and Internet sectors.
In 2009 Westminister Financial Companies, headquartered in Dayton Ohio, brought Mark onboard to be the Portfolio Manager for their Investment Advisory firm. His responsibilities included working with their Investment Policy Committee in advising the firm’s brokers and Investment Advisory clients on how to successfully navigate the financial crisis and its aftermath. By 2013, with 24 years of experience, Mark decided to establish his own registered investment advisory firm, Stonebrook Investment LLC, which retains Charles Schwab & Company as the sole custodian for all client assets. Paramount in the decision to use Charles Schwab was the firm’s sterling reputation of safety, superior financial strength and outstanding customer service.