The largest asset you own is the one you never insured.

We manage portfolios for families who have already made their money and now need it to last.

You Insure Your Home. Your Car. Your Medical Expenses.

You do it because one bad event shouldn't undo years of hard work.

Then most people leave the largest asset they own completely uncovered.

For most of the families we work with, the portfolio is worth more than the house. It's the thing that has to pay for the upcoming decades. It is also, for most people, the only major asset they carry with no protection of any kind.

Why the usual answer isn't good enough

Nobody minds risk on the ride up. It's only on the descent that people find out how much they'd been taking.

Ask most people how much risk is in their portfolio and you get an adjective. Moderate. Balanced. Growth with income. Maybe a score from a questionnaire filled out years ago, or a statistic that means nothing at a kitchen table.

None of it answers the only question that actually matters: if this goes badly, how far does it fall?

Most people learn their real answer in real time. Watching the number drop, doing the math on what's left, deciding under pressure whether to sell. That is the worst possible moment to discover your actual tolerance for risk, and it's how most portfolios end up getting tested.

We'd rather you know the number first.

So instead of estimating how much risk you can tolerate, we define how much you'll take. You choose the level you aren't willing to go past. The portfolio gets built around that decision, rather than around a description of your temperament.

The market will still do what it does. What changes is that you already know what it means for you.

What We Actually Do

We build a core portfolio of stocks and exchange-traded funds. Then we overlay listed options on top of the positions you already own, to shape the range of outcomes.

The simplest way to think about it is insurance.

You pick a deductible. We choose a level below today's value that you aren't willing to go past, and we build the position so that level holds.

You pay a premium. Coverage costs something, and it has an expiration date. So it gets renewed, repriced, and adjusted as markets and your circumstances change. This isn't set once and forgotten.

Here's where the comparison stops. We usually don't pay that premium in cash. We pay it by agreeing to give up gains above a certain point. You are trading part of the best case for a defined worst case.

That's the whole idea. Not a prediction about the market. A decision about which outcomes you're willing to live with.

What This Is Not

It isn't day trading. Positions are held and managed over months, not minutes.

It isn't a signal service or a proprietary model. There's no black box.

It isn't market timing. We're not trying to guess the top. We're deciding in advance what happens if we're wrong.

It isn't free. You give up some upside. In a year when the market runs hard, a protected portfolio will trail an unprotected one. That is the cost of the downside protection, and you should expect it.

Who This Is For

This approach fits people who:

Have already accumulated most of what they'll ever accumulate
Are within about ten years of retirement, or already there
Would rather give up some of a great year than live through another 2008
Want to have some sort of defined risk

It doesn't fit everyone. If you can sleep through a 40% decline and you want every point of the upside, we are not the right firm for you, and we'll tell you that in the first conversation.

How We Start

Every portfolio we manage starts with a plan, not a product.

First, the destination. Where are you actually trying to go, and what does it cost?

Then, the requirement. What return does that destination actually require? Very often it's lower than people assume.

Then, the least risk that gets you there. Why take more risk than your own goals require?

The option overlay is how we close the gap between the return you need and the risk you're willing to carry.

Schedule a Call

About the firm

Fairway Asset Management is an independent, fee-based registered investment adviser founded in 2007. Tim Smith has spent nearly thirty years helping families navigate risk, spending, and the many different chapters of life.

Client assets are held at Charles Schwab.

We work with a limited number of families so that every portfolio gets real attention.