John Hailer as the Chairman of Diffractive Managers Group. Before his work with the Boston-based 1251 Capital Group, Hailer operated at Natixis, where he was charged with spearheading several important initiatives that would lead to wider investment portfolio adoption and better success for those within the arena.

With decades of industry experience as well as a couple of successful premises established in his past, Hailer knew that he had insights to share and was keen to do so.

Let’s explore the world and works of John Hailer, current Chairman of Diffractive Managers Group.

Investing For Success

John Hailer began his work in the investing field in the mid-80s, and through the first couple of decades of his professional life, he had to watch the dot com bubble burst as well as the ’08 housing crisis in real-time. Both of these major economic pitfalls would harm investors as they watched their portfolios crumble.

Hailer said of this period of time, “It’s easy to tell investors that they should focus on the long-term. As an industry, we need to get better at building the types of investment portfolios that help investors get there.”

What this meant on the practical level for Hailer was that some new systems needed to be introduced to machinate this change among investors. Hailer said, “It’s pretty clear that the biggest risk most investors face is themselves. It is our job as an industry to help them make the right decisions today to make sure they and their families have the security that they need later in life.”

Creating Properly Diversified Portfolios

There are a variety of approaches to building a portfolio, and John Hailer has worked with clients on a majority of them. However, Hailer believes that the best approach to portfolio construction is through diversification while adhering to the Prudent Man rule. The Prudent Man rule relies on individuals never touching the principle of their investment, focusing instead on good and solid returns.

Hailer pointed to life beyond the 08 financial crisis when Natixis helped to integrate its Durable Portfolio Construction Research Center. This center was introduced by John Hailer as a product-agnostic and non-sales-oriented way for potential clients to get free consultations. In doing so, Hailer was able to engineer a huge change within the industry, leading other financial firms to offer their free consultation systems.

While Hailer was attacked for his decision to create a free resource center, his efforts would eventually prove positive for the company as a whole. Natixis would watch happily as their managed assets grew from $130 billion to more than $900 billion in under 15 total years. In doing so, Hailer and the team at Natixis operated as vanguards for a change that has since swept the entire industry.