History

Our company began as Robert Skena & Associates in 1994. Our founder was a member of the management team in one of the nation's largest banks and trust companies, where he served as the senior investment officer for the firm's retirement plans, savings plans, charitable foundations and other trust funds. He also taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the MBA program, teaching Investment Management. Several years later he taught the same course at Carnegie Mellon University.

Shortly after the end of one semester a student contacted him to ask if he could assist with the management of an endowment fund for the organization where the student served as Treasurer. After consulting with the bank's management to ensure that there were no conflicts of interest he began to work with the endowment fund, effectively serving as its Chief Investment Officer on an outsourced basis. Fifteen years later the business became Artisan Investor Services, LLC.

Over many years we have observed that large institutional investors have an important advantage compared with smaller funds. Large funds can afford to hire a professional investment staff. They also support that team with the other resources needed to manage their funds intelligently and effectively.

Smaller institutional investors cannot justify the cost of hiring a qualified Chief Investment Officer, nor can they afford to establish an investment staff in-house. Responsibility for monitoring the investment fund falls to staff members such as the Chief Financial Officer or Treasurer. These individuals can devote only part of their time to managing the portfolio, and often there is very little time available. In addition, the people in those positions generally are not investment professionals. Therefore, they find themselves in need of additional, and specialized, assistance.

Artisan Investor Services combines and manages the resources needed to operate an institutional fund in a very efficient and highly effective manner. These resources include actuaries, accountants, auditors, consultants, investment managers, trustees, and other financial professionals.

We do not compete with any of these professions. Our experience, however, often enables fund sponsors to reduce their reliance on these service providers. By doing so, we reduce your organization's cost of doing business.

With Artisan Investor Services on your team you will have a world class investment office.