What We Do We manage the investments. We advise the family. We coordinate everything else.
Mike Shell designs and manages the investment portfolio. Christi Shell brings the rest of your financial picture into the same conversation. From investment decisions to estate, tax, succession, retirement income and family strategy, the important decisions are made with the consequences of the others in view.
For investors and families with $5 million or more.
Each adviser sees a part. We keep everyone working from the same picture.
Investment management and private wealth strategy, built around the same family.
We manage the investments.
Mike Shell manages every portfolio himself. Each position goes in with its exit and its size already decided, and exposure rotates as the evidence changes.
- ASYMMETRY® Managed PortfoliosThe flagship. Portfolios built from tested systems, managed risk first.
- Portfolio EngineeringHow we decide what goes in, and what we reject.
- How We Manage RiskAt the trade, the portfolio and the family.
- ASYMMETRY® Portfolio HedgingFor a concentrated position you can’t afford to lose and don’t want to sell.
- Alternative InvestmentsReturns from something other than a rising stock market.
We advise the family.
Christi Shell leads the planning around the capital: estate, tax, trusts, retirement income, insurance, asset protection and the business. Her job is to see what specialists see separately.
- Private Wealth ManagementASYMMETRY® Wealth Strategy: the whole balance sheet, in one plan.
- Business Exit PlanningThe decisions before a sale, and the money after it.
- Family OfficeFamily-office capabilities, with or without the family office.
- Who We AdviseInvestors and families with $5 million or more.
Where are you now?
- 01Building and managing capitalA portfolio that has to grow, and survive whatever it sees.Managed Portfolios
- 02Preparing to sell a businessThe decisions before the letter of intent, and the money after the close.Business Exit Planning
- 03Holding concentrated wealthOne stock, one company, decades of gains you don’t want to sell.Portfolio Hedging
- 04Coordinating a complex family balance sheetTrusts, entities, generations, and advisers who don’t talk to each other.Private Wealth Management
A sale, reviewed in parallel, not in sequence.
Most families make the big decisions one after another: the deal closes, then the taxes are figured, then the estate is updated, then the money is invested. By then, the choices that mattered most are fixed.
In sequence
Each decision waits for the last one, and inherits its mistakes.
In parallel
Each decision is made with the others in view, before the terms are set.
One philosophy. Two disciplines.
ASYMMETRY® is the discipline we use to manage money and make financial decisions: limit what a decision can cost, leave open what it can earn, and size it so that being wrong is tolerable.
It applies to a portfolio, and to a sale, a trust, an insurance policy or a gift. Every wealth decision is a bet. ASYMMETRY® is the discipline. Shell Capital Management is the firm behind it.
Independent, and paid by you.
- Advice and management. Nothing to sell.We’re paid advisory fees, agreed in writing, not commissions.
- Your money stays in your name.Accounts are held in your own name at Goldman Sachs. We make the investment decisions. We never hold your money.
- One plan for your tax, estate and trust decisions.Christi leads the planning and works with your CPA, attorney and trustee. If you don’t have one, we’ll introduce you to ours.
- The people you read here do the work.You work with Mike and Christi, not an assistant or a junior adviser.
- Your objective is in dollars, not a benchmark.Losing less than an index is still losing. The objective is smaller losses and larger gains across a full market cycle.
Questions about what we do.
What does Shell Capital Management do?
Shell Capital Management is an independent, fiduciary registered investment adviser in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the firm behind ASYMMETRY®. For investors and families with $5 million or more, we manage the investments, advise the family on estate, tax, trusts, retirement income and the business, and coordinate their CPA, attorney, trustee and lender. Mike Shell founded the firm in 2004.
Where is my money held?
In your own name, at Goldman Sachs Custody Solutions. They hold the assets, execute the trades and report to you directly. We make the investment decisions as an independent fiduciary. We never hold your money.
How are you paid?
Advisory fees, not commissions. We go through the fee in the first conversation, and it is agreed in writing before you commit to anything.
Do I keep my CPA and attorney?
Yes. We work with them, in one plan. If you don’t have one yet, we can introduce you to ours, or help you find one, vet them and give you options.
Who does the work?
Christi is your overall wealth manager and adviser. Mike is your portfolio manager. They both advise your family. When a family needs entity accounting, bill pay or a family office built, we bring in specialist firms we select and oversee, working from the same plan as your attorney and CPA.
Start with what concerns you most.
A sale, a stock, a trust, a portfolio that has to last. Tell us about it. We’ll tell you how we would approach it, and whether we’re the right fit.
If you write, I’ll read it myself.
Mike Shell, Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Related: Who We Advise, What We Believe, Asymmetric Bet and Convexity.