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ARTIFEX MODEL FOLIOS A M O R E E F F E C T I V E WAY T O I N V E S T DOUG KINSEY CFP AIFA CDFA PARTNER AND CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER 2 3 0 5 F a r H i l l s Av e n u e S u i t e 2 0 6 D a y t o n O H 4 5 4 1 9 t e l e p h o n e 9 3 7 6 6 0 8 3 11 w w w a r t i f e x f i n a n c i a l c o m

About the Author I am a founding partner of Artifex Financial Group a fee only nancial planning and investment management rm based in Dayton Ohio Artifex Financial Group was established in 2004 and helps middle class and af uent clients establish sound nancial plans and manage their money in a manner consistent with their goals and dreams When my business partner Darren Harp and I started to plan for this business I had spent 15 years in the nancial services eld Darren had 8 years of experience and we were both fed up with the current state of the industry We had both seen our share of duciary con icts investment mismanagement and just poor advice coming from some of the most respected rms in the business We pledged then and there to provide the following service to our clients Our rm would be established to primarily care for the middle class Since Dayton Ohio is where we started we gured the entire city is basically middle class and we believe that the middle class typically gets overlooked and receives the worst advice We would no longer hold licenses to sell any products and would adopt the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors pledge to be Fee Only and duciaries for our clients This has proven to be the right strategy for us and one I wish I had adopted 10 years ago Not only do we sleep better at night knowing that we do not have any con icts of interest and that our decisions are always in the client s best interest but I believe that independence and objectivity result in better results for our clients We would have a skeptical view of any product provider service provider nancial salesperson Wall Street rm mutual fund family insurance provider etc who want access to our clients money We are gatekeepers for our clients We know the dark corners and dirty secrets of the profession and will use our knowledge to our clients advantage As much as we love the business we will treat it as a business as we need to perpetuate our advice for generations to come Furthermore our advice and experience has real value for people and we should never be afraid to be paid appropriately for it We are pleased with the results thus far We ve grown to serve 180 clients over 300 accounts over 80 000 000 in assets managed 4 of ce locations and now employ 6 individuals who share the same vision we have Why am I writing this As much as we knew when we began we ve learned more since starting our rm and actually doing business the right way From an observer s and a practitioner s standpoint I feel that the things I will share with you in this white paper are essential to know I ve seen these concepts work and we preach them every day here at Artifex Financial Group Additionally I wanted to have something to provide to current and prospective clients to give them a little feel for our perspective and why we re different Artifex Financial Group 2

Conventional Wisdom Over the last 30 years the investment and nancial planning professions have encouraged the public to believe certain things that may be detrimental to your ongoing nancial well being In my opinion many of these concepts can be traced back to a desire to manipulate people into buying the products of expensive con icted and very biased rms who at their core are only selling snake oil Let s look at a few of these ideas 1 Mutual funds are the way to invest for the long run Mutual funds are one way to invest however when you spend a little time evaluating and deconstructing the typical mutual fund you ll quickly realize that there is very little here that represents true investing discipline Very few funds have repeated dependable performance with continuous managerial expertise lasting more than a few years Many have an overwhelming amount of churn in their portfolios resulting in few of the investments staying in the fund for more than a few months What you end up with as an investor is a vehicle that compensates the fund family for being great marketers and product creators Studies have shown that few investors experience performance remotely similar to that advertised Too many funds are sold as products what you are really investing in is a service and expertise And those two things are incredibly dif cult to analyze even for professionals As a rm invest over 5 000 per year in tools that help us analyze mutual funds for clients 2 Indexing is the low cost ef cient way to invest Kudos to John Bogle for creating a reason for his Vanguard Funds to exist He s become very wealthy promoting this concept And there is rationale for it Conceptually if you remove the variables mentioned above management expertise high costs asset turnover you take away much of the margin for error in investing The problem is that you are replacing the uncertainties with a bigger source of risk and variability blind exposure to an entire market In other words you have now become merely an asset allocator at a general level By pursuing this approach you are embracing statistics as a predictor of future events and returns This is NOT a set it and forget it strategy You or a quali ed advisor are going to have to monitor this allocation and make adjustments as necessary Which leads me to the next item The Gospel According to Modern Portfolio Theory 3 Modern Portfolio Theory Mean Variance Optimization is the tried and true method for investment success I ve been around long enough to watch the advent of software in the investment industry that purports to solve all of the ills of improperly diversifying or not having a strategy at all I was once an advocate of this approach I was trained during a period the late 90 s and early 2000 s where these tools created beautiful convincing reports that provided a high degree of con dence in the advisor and the client about the investment recommendations These tools are still used today and the recommendations tend to be the result of the client taking some sort of risk tolerance questionnaire rst This is pure snake oil Statistical information is interesting and can provide some basis for constructing an ef cient and diversi ed portfolios but CAVEAT EMPTOR Do NOT place too much con dence in the projections or the effectiveness of the report The variables on the input side CHANGE every day Think about the international markets in the last 5 10 years Many of the MPT presentation programs show how a typical investor should have 10 20 in international or emerging market holdings Why Because traditionally those types of assets did not move in lockstep with our domestic market I believe that the global markets have become so intertwined that investing internationally for diversi cation or performance improvement is an exercise in futility and may actually damage your portfolio Artifex Financial Group 3

In our rm we ll buy an international stock or targeted ETF if we think it makes sense on its merits NOT because some statistical program told us to do it One other thing the beautiful reports created by these types of programs can make an inexperienced advisor look like a real pro Again buyer beware 4 A talented advisor or investor knows how to time the market Wow Does anyone really believe this any more I hope not because very few and I mean less than 1 of the investment managers in the U S are any good at this I ve tried several long short funds for client portfolios and none of them yet has produced the returns and stabilization that they report to have There s always the chance that we ll nd one in the future but if the major players in the investment game haven t gured this one out by now I doubt they ever will That doesn t mean that tactical adjustments shouldn t take place in client portfolios When we observe major economic disruptions under valuations or over valuations in assets we will make adjustments We are usually not ahead of the game but we try not to be behind it either It s a matter of keeping your ear to the ground and being a full time professional in this business Artifex Financial Group 4

The Artifex Way So what is our philosophy Before I get into that I want to explain that everything we believe is possible to execute for each and every client We ve invested much time energy and money in creating trading and reporting systems that enable our approach We provide an investing experience unlike an other you have likely encountered Our models which we refer to as Folios are practical and applicable to a wide range of client needs We basically create your own personal mutual fund s and apply them in a customized way to accomplish your goals You have access to your information 24 7 Not only the actual holdings but additional reporting information and up to date performance We keep our clients apprised of the composition of the models rationale for changes and we encourage input and questions from each and every client It s really a collaborative effort You can be as involved or uninvolved as you like Additionally if you have an idea for a portfolio we may create one with you We want our clients to be true investors not product buyers not asset class allocators and certainly not blind adherents to unproven strategies My background I ve always been interested in investing I can remember picking up my rst book on the stock market when I was 10 years old Back then however the world of investing was really reserved for those with lots of money Not many Americans bought individual stocks Stock brokers focused on the rich and mutual funds weren t even popular yet this was in the 70 s so it wasn t THAT long ago In those days interest rates were much higher than today so bonds were a very attractive place for people to put their money My dad was a life insurance agent and sold a lot of dividend paying whole life insurance for a living In those days that was a reasonable place to build some wealth while protecting your family Upon graduating from Ohio State in 1983 I did not go into the investment business I had a degree in political science and nance and originally thought I d go to law school After 5 years of college however I decided I would rather get to work and make some money The brokerage world did not look too appetizing to me at the time It was lled with dads and sons from the same families cold calling the rich and famous I didn t know too many rich people and I really didn t want to earn a living selling the avor of the day on the phone Soon the world of commissions collapsed on the brokers and that became a very dif cult way to make a living I stayed in the insurance business and also earned my rst securities license in 1983 I maintained my securities licenses until 2007 when I started Artifex Financial Group as a Fee Only Registered Investment Advisor along with my partner Darren Harp I spent 3 years in the yellow pages advertising business with L M Berry Co 11 years in the commercial property casualty business 4 years with Morgan Stanley and 4 years as manager of the Wealth Management division for Fifth Third Bank Western Ohio before starting Artifex Financial Group Along the way I continuously studied investments and earned my CFP certi cation in 1999 I created an investment club with 11 other men from various professional backgrounds in 1990 and kept that running for 10 years We made money and learned a lot about investing the NAIC National Association of Investment Clubs way Artifex Financial Group 5

The NAIC Way is a very sound and fundamental approach to investing It emphasizes thorough research and making decisions on the fundamental factors of a company more than technical or momentum driven approaches I ve known several people and at least one client who have built small fortunes using these techniques I would say the things that I learned over the 10 years of our investment club have stuck with me as much as anything else I ve learned and have taught me to be an optimistic sceptic about research news and information in this business It is very much a Warren Buffett philosophy Ok enough about me now onto our unique Folio approach Artifex Financial Group 6

The Advent of Artifex Folios In the nancial calamity of 2008 we were fortunate that our overall philosophy of protecting client wealth rst and growing it second stood the supreme test We had an overweighted position in U S Treasury bonds at that time and were working hard at diversifying new client assets This put the brakes on a frightening period in U S history I personally will never forget how the major banks and brokerage rms had to be bailed out of problems that they created largely on their own I really hope to never hear from a client or potential client how Merrill Lynch or UBS or any large brokerage rm is safer than the custodians that we use The independent RIA rms like Artifex Financial Group had nothing to do with the problems of that period and in many ways helped to preserve the wealth of many Americans During that time Darren and I observed how our clients who had directed us to use only individual stocks or ETF s faired a bit better than those who deferred to mutual funds It seemed that a more focused diversi ed approach and one that avoided banks of course actually performed very well I believe that this point in our economic history is not one to be exposed to the markets in general but to be much more focused in investment selection We had just started a relationship with Folio Institutional a smaller investment custodian with some very advanced technology Folio Investments had pioneered the concept of allowing investors to create their own folios for virtually any size account by unitizing or decimalizing stock or ETF shares similar to a mutual fund So if someone has 50 000 to invest and wants to buy a portfolio of 30 stocks he or she can do that by percentages and not have to worry about commissions or not being able to buy a high priced stock for the model like Google So I started working with Folio Institutional to create our own models Folio began tracking our performance and portfolio performance and low and behold the models worked pretty well I started showing them to a few clients who ended up wanting to try them and we formalized our process This initial experiment has worked it s way into our overall business model and has proven to be very effective for our clients On the following pages I ll describe the models and provide some insight into each The thing to remember is that not every model is suitable for every investor We allocate each client s assets to mutually agreedupon models according to what they are trying to accomplish The blend that we ultimately implement will determine your results The data is obtained from Folio Institutional a third party custodial rm who maintain performance and statistical information on the models All information is as of January 30 2014 Artifex Financial Group 7

AFG Laddered Bond This model was developed in response to our current interest rate environment After 20 years of declining interest rates and the current Fed Taper there is a very real threat of rising rates and falling bond prices We also manage two broad bond portfolios CFI Core Fixed Income and CMI Core Municipal Income In January of 2011 we implemented this model which currently holds limited maturity bond ETF s and shorter term ETF s issued by Vanguard The strategy is to more directly control the maturities of the bond portfolio which should limit declines in the asset value related to increasing rates We also want to provide a minimum yield as compensation for holding bonds as an asset class The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the NYSE 10 Year US Treasury Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 9 10 2012 of the Laddered Bond model is 2 01 vs the benchmark return of 5 00 The yield on the underlying assets currently ranges from 0 4 45 Artifex Financial Group 8

AFG CFI Core Fixed Income This is our core bond model for non taxable accounts IRA s etc and currently utilizes a blend of 10 ETF s Exchange Traded Funds It is designed as a core bond holding for accounts where exposure to xed income is warranted although we are currently overweighting the bond allocation to the Laddered Bond Model to minimize interest rate risk The inception date for the model is November 9 2009 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 11 9 2009 of the CFI model is 15 68 vs the benchmark return of 8 06 The yield on the underlying assets currently ranges from 0 6 40 The model does have a 6 allocation to high yield bonds and a 6 allocation to preferred securities Artifex Financial Group 9

AFG CMI Core Municipal Income This is our core bond model for taxable accounts where tax minimization is a priority It currently utilizes a blend of 8 ETF s Exchange Traded Funds and a Vanguard Intermediate Term Municipal Fund It is designed as a core bond holding for accounts where exposure to xed income is warranted although we are currently overweighting the bond allocation to the Laddered Bond Model to minimize interest rate risk The inception date for the model is November 4 2009 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the PIMCO Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 11 4 2009 of the CMI model is 25 56 vs the benchmark return of 14 55 The yield on the underlying assets currently ranges from 0 6 68 Artifex Financial Group 1 0

AFG DG Dividend Growth For many investors dividends are an important part of portfolio construction Dividends provide income to the investor and the portfolio This is the fuel that keeps the engine running through good and bad periods For investors who do not rely as heavily on current income the DG Model includes stocks that provide more potential for growth and a reliable dividend stream Although dividend stocks in general as well as our dividend models lagged the S P in 2013 the DG model still provided a 22 31 return for our clients This portfolio currently holds 22 different stocks with an average dividend yield of 4 14 The beta sensitivity to the S P 500 Index is 88 or below average The volatility is 10 71 again below average as per our strategy The inception date for the model is June 9 2011 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the S P 500 Total Return Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 6 9 2011 of the DG model is 52 36 vs the benchmark return of 47 41 Current Market Cap Weighting of Model Holdings Artifex Financial Group 1 1

AFG EI Equity Income One of our rst models Equity Income was developed in 2009 as a core holding for most clients The primary criteria for inclusion is above average dividend yield This is meant to be a very low turnover model A buy and hold portfolio which is comprised mainly of domestic blue chip stocks where growth is secondary We are looking for an average annual return on this model of a minimum of 6 but do not expect consistently high returns The goal is to reduce volatility and provide steady income and returns Although dividend stocks in general as well as our dividend models lagged the S P in 2013 the EI model still provided a 24 11 return for our clients This portfolio currently holds 25 different stocks with an average dividend yield of 4 10 The beta sensitivity to the S P 500 Index is 83 or below average The volatility is 10 05 again below average as per our strategy The inception date for the model is April 22 2009 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the S P 500 Total Return Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 4 22 2009 of the EI model is 141 31 vs the benchmark return of 135 35 Current Market Cap Weighting of Model Holdings Artifex Financial Group 1 2

AFG ALT HEDGE Model The Alternative Hedge Model is typically a core holding for most of our clients It is designed to be less correlated to stocks or bonds in terms of risk and return We developed this model for diversi cation purposes and as a result of having a dif cult time nding commercially available funds or ETF s that successfully implement alternative strategies Originally the model did not include any equities other than REIT s Real Estate Investment Trusts As our research capabilities have improved we have included special situation stocks as identi ed by hedge fund analysts In our minds equity special situations include M A merger and arbitrage candidates deep value or turnaround companies activist investor situations or simply undiscovered opportuinities This portfolio currently holds 24 ETF and stocks The beta sensitivity to the S P 500 Index is 92 or average The volatility is 14 35 or below average as per our strategy The inception date for the model is April 22 2009 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the DJ Credit Suisse Core Hedge Fund Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 4 29 2009 of the ALT model is 45 55 vs the benchmark return of 1 11 Current Market Cap Weighting of Model Holdings Artifex Financial Group 1 3

AFG LC Core Large Cap Core Our rst model Large Cap Core was developed in 2008 as the core holding for clients who are more interested in growth over time than they are in current income Like the EI Model this is meant to be a very low turnover model A buy and hold portfolio which is comprised mainly of domestic blue chip stocks where income is secondary We are looking for an average annual return on this model of a minimum of 6 and desire steady performance with more focused exposure than that provided by the broad S P Index This portfolio currently holds 32 different stocks with an average dividend yield of 1 87 The beta sensitivity to the S P 500 Index is 1 00 or average The volatility is 11 67 below average as per our strategy The inception date for the model is October 27 2008 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the S P 500 Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 10 27 2008 of the LC Core model is 147 03 vs the benchmark return of 111 35 Current Market Cap Weighting of Model Holdings Artifex Financial Group 1 4

AFG C9 Cloud 9 Although we shy away from theme investing we do believe that the push to cloud computing is a sustainable trend and that much of the technological innovation taking place today has something to do with offsite central hosting and data management Many social media applications could also fall into this category We created our Cloud 9 model to take advantage of this trend It originally held our best 9 cloud computing ideas but has since worked its way up to 10 holdings Turnover has been low and growth is the primary objective here This model is suitable for a smaller satellite allocation in client portfolios to enhance returns The beta sensitivity to the S P 500 Index is 96 or average The volatility is 14 80 again below average as per our strategy The inception date for the model is January 12 2010 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the Dow Jones U S Technology Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 1 12 2010 of the Cloud 9 model is 103 44 vs the benchmark return of 49 96 Current Market Cap Weighting of Model Holdings Artifex Financial Group 1 5

AFG HFA SC Hedge Fund Advisors Small Cap The HFA Small Cap model originates from research provided by Hedge Fund Advisors who track the top holdings of hedge fund managers on a quarterly basis We analyze this data and make our own determination regarding the portfolio The strongest positions in hedge fund portfolios have recently been the smaller capitalization stocks which results in the tilt toward small cap in this model The portfolio is subject to quarterly turnover and rebalancing and it currently holds 20 positions Although a newer model it is showing promise The concept has gained traction as well through the introduction of ETF s which utilize a similar strategy The beta sensitivity to the S P 500 Index is 1 14 or above average The volatility is 14 88 below average The inception date for the model is February 22 2013 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the Russell 2000 small cap Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 2 22 2013 of the HFA SC model is 45 80 vs the benchmark return of 24 36 Current Market Cap Weighting of Model Holdings Artifex Financial Group 1 6

AFG PVE 4 Prudent Value Equity The PVE model is based on research by Joseph Piotroski who believed that a screening technique could be created to improve the results of a pure price to book value approach to identifying stocks with reasonable valuations and a quality bias The modi cations include restrictions as to EPS industry sector debt ratios improving margins and capitalization This model is rebalanced every 4 weeks so turnover will be moderate to high relative to our other portfolios It currently holds 17 positions Additionally this model is potentially suitable for more conservative investors who are not as focused on income The beta sensitivity to the S P 500 Index is 1 09 or above average The volatility is 14 11 below average The inception date for the model is January 7 2013 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the Russell Mid Cap Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 1 7 2013 of the PVE model is 45 65 vs the benchmark return of 27 11 Current Market Cap Weighting of Model Holdings Artifex Financial Group 1 7

AFG PYH 4 Prudent High Yield Equity The PYH model was created for investors who require a higher yielding equity portfolio but are concerned about diversi cation and risk We run a proprietary screen every 4 weeks to identify possible holdings or replacements We then engage in more detailed research to formulate our revisions The goal is to generate a consistent portfolio yield of over 6 Appreciation of assets is secondary as is tax complexity as this model will hold a higher degree of publicly traded limited partnerships which are subject to K 1 s at tax time The current yield of the portfolio is 8 68 The beta sensitivity to the S P 500 Index is 82 or below average The volatility is 12 25 or below average The inception date for the model is January 7 2013 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the SPDR Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond ETF over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 1 7 2013 of the PYH model is 11 31 vs the benchmark return of 48 Current Market Cap Weighting of Model Holdings Artifex Financial Group 1 8

AFG ROE Return On Equity The ROE model is based on Zacks research which identi es top performing companies through Return on Equity metrics ROE is a measure of management talent re ecting asset allocation decisions at the corporate level and attempts to identify whether a company is burning through its cash or creating assets for enhanced shareholder value We are looking for companies with ROE greater than 10 with lower price to sales ratios and some additional criteria This tends to be a more aggressive model with higher turnover It is most suitable as a satellite holding to enhance returns The beta sensitivity to the S P 500 Index is 1 16 or above average The volatility is 16 26 or above average The inception date for the model is January 18 2013 The following chart shows the performance of the model since inception in dark blue compared to the S P 500 total return Index over the same period The cumulative rate of return since inception 1 18 2013 of the ROE model is 46 21 vs the benchmark return of 23 37 Current Market Cap Weighting of Model Holdings Artifex Financial Group 1 9

Putting it all together an example Shown at the right is a real life example of how this works After developing a thorough analysis and nancial plan for this client we established a conservative allocation based on our various models At the time the client was interested in fully retiring from a medical practice within 4 years This was a portion of his assets that were invested in a corporate retirement plan The inception date of this allocation was June 2010 How has it done Here is the chart showing this client s performance The cumulative rate of return over this period has been 43 46 net of fees compared to the Dow Jones Moderately Conservative benchmark rate of return of 30 92 We have many more examples to prove that this concept works And it works well Artifex Financial Group 2 0

For more information If you would like more information on our approach or any of our models or if you would like a complimentary analysis of your portfolio please contact me Doug Kinsey at 855 752 5544 or doug kinsey artifex nancial com or go to our website www artifex nancial com and click on GET STARTED TODAY Artifex Financial Group 2 1