What Makes Muhlenkamp Different
I periodically get this question from people interested in our firm. (I never get this question from existing clients—they already know.) And it’s a hard question to answer because it begs a return question: “Different from whom?”
We’re not very different from the active value firms with good long-term track records and a consistent investment discipline. I can name half a dozen of them, and the only difference tends to be in how we determine “value.”
We’re not very different from client-focused advisors. We are fiduciaries and have adopted “Know Your Client” policies to ensure a good client/manager fit. We make sure we are the right manager for our clients according to their needs, not ours.
But I think the combination is uncommon and fairly unique. Most money managers don’t interact with their clients directly, and most advisors are not stock pickers. We talk to clients as often as they like, helping them sleep at night and figuring out what else is going on in their financial life. And we actually manage client money, day in and day out, doing research, analysis, and stock picking.
Nearly 50 Years of Family Commitment
What really sets us apart is something that can’t be easily replicated: time and trust built over generations. For almost five decades, we’ve been managing money for families—not just individual clients, but entire family trees. We’ve helped grandparents plan for retirement, parents navigate career changes and college funding, and now we’re working with their children as they start families of their own.
Think about that for a moment. We’ve been through multiple market cycles, recessions, booms, and everything in between—always with the same fundamental approach. We don’t chase trends or reinvent ourselves every few years. We stick to what works: buying good companies at reasonable prices and holding them for the long term.
More Than Money Management
Our conversations with clients rarely start with “How are your investments doing?” They start with “How are you doing?” We know about graduations, weddings, new babies, job changes, and retirement dreams because those life events shape financial decisions. When a client calls worried about market volatility, we don’t just explain our investment philosophy—we talk about their specific situation and what it means for their family’s future.
We take exceptional care of the families who trust us with their financial futures, just as we have for nearly 50 years.
When people ask what makes us different, here’s the honest answer: We’re investment managers who actually know our clients, and we’re advisors who actually manage the money. We’ve been doing both for the same families across multiple generations. In a world where financial services firms get bigger, more automated, and more distant from their clients, we’ve stayed deliberately personal.
That’s not different for the sake of being different. That’s different because it works—for our clients and for us. And after nearly five decades of doing business this way, we’re not about to change now.
The opinions expressed are those of Tony Muhlenkamp and are not intended to forecast future events, guarantee future results, or offer investment advice.
Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.
