Overview
Punch & Associates is an independent boutique investment adviser located in Edina, Minnesota,
founded in February 2002. Punch & Associates is 100% employee owned; its principal owners
are Howard D. Punch, Jr. (majority owner), Andrew J. Matysik, John C. Carraux, Jessica Johnson
and Paul Dwyer. As of December 31, 2023, we had discretionary assets under management of
$1,855,474,674.
We offer two primary services to clients: Investment Management and Wealth Advisory.
Investment Management
We provide discretionary portfolio management services to private and institutional clients, based
on the specific needs and objectives of each client. In addition, we serve as investment adviser
and managing member to two private funds focused on micro cap investment opportunities (the
“Micro Cap Fund”) and nano cap investment opportunities (the “Nano Cap Fund”, each a “Private
Fund” and collectively the “Private Funds”).
In managing portfolios, we incorporate an investment philosophy that, at its core, seeks to preserve
and grow our clients’ assets. We are a multi-cap manager offering the following core strategies:
1. Income
2. Large Cap Equity
3. Small Cap Equity
4. Micro Cap and Nano Cap Equity (Private Funds)
5. All Cap Equity
Our institutional clients generally hire us for a specific strategy or a subset of one of our existing
strategies. Our private clients generally hire us to manage a substantial portion of their personal
portfolio, where we believe one of the most important decisions involves the allocation of assets
among different asset classes, supplemented by rigorous fundamental analysis which, in our
experience, provides the key to successful security selection. We believe it is possible to achieve
consistent investment returns over full market cycles by using a disciplined and opportunistic style
of investing.
When managing client portfolios, we will consider client-imposed restrictions on investing in
securities or specific types of securities, as directed by clients and agreed to by us in writing.
Clients may request us to manage assets within a donor advised fund. Under these arrangements,
the client selects the donor advised fund to which he or she makes
a charitable contribution. At
the donor advised fund’s sole discretion and subject to its policies and restrictions, the donor
advised fund may permit an individual to select an investment advisor to manage those assets. In
these cases, the donor advised fund becomes the client, as the donor advised fund owns the assets
donated by the individual. The selection of a donor advised fund and the decision to make a
charitable donation from the client’s investment portfolio rests solely with the client. Punch &
Associates maintains relationships with a select number of donor advised funds, but does not have
a formal referral arrangement in place with any donor advised fund and does not receive
compensation for referrals to any donor advised fund. See Items 7 and 10 for a discussion of
relationships we maintain with other entities.
Punch & Associates has entered into an agreement in which we serve as a non-discretionary sub-
adviser of an open-end, management investment company registered under the Investment
Company Act of 1940, as amended. Pursuant to this agreement, we provide an unaffiliated third-
party Adviser (the “Manager”) with a Model Portfolio of small cap equity securities on a regular
basis. The Manager has discretion to implement the Model Portfolio and is fully responsible for
managing client transactions.
Wealth Advisory
In connection with our Wealth Advisory service, our Wealth Strategies Group oversees clients’
overall financial situations on an ongoing basis, striving to assist clients in addressing their
important financial issues. Our process begins with a “Discovery Meeting” where we assess the
individual’s or family’s financial situation, both qualitatively and quantitatively. We examine the
client’s current situation, future goals, investment objectives and risk tolerance along with their
time horizon and income needs. Then, we develop a plan and a timeline, after which we begin
implementing and monitoring the plan through frequent and detailed communication in an effort
to ensure we are aware of events and changes that will require adjustments.
Our Wealth Advisory service is customized to each client’s specific needs and circumstances.