Michael Hughes

Michael Hughes is the current advisor at Aware. Michael has over 10 years of experience in the industry and has held multiple positions of high authority. Michael started their career at Cornerstone Advisors, Inc. in January 2008 and worked their way up to Chief Investment Officer by December 2018.

During their time at Cornerstone, they were responsible for building a strong team of investment professionals and developing expert investment solutions for clients. This included aspects such as strategy, research, manager due diligence, asset allocation, forecasting, performance attribution, risk management, and communication.

One of their proudest accomplishments during their time at Cornerstone was the reverse strategic asset allocation model they designed and implemented. The process starts by allocating to diversifying and/or private asset classes first, then allocating the balance of the portfolio to traditional stocks and bonds to meet the client's risk and return targets. This resulted in very efficient and highly configurable investment solutions that used scale to lower the cost of investing for clients.

Michael also successfully managed the global financial crisis by adhering to the company's investment philosophy and introducing new investment solutions to take advantage of market dislocations. This resulted in a trough-to-peak recovery of only 13 months - nearly twice as fast as a naïve 60/40 portfolio and five times faster than an all stock portfolio.

When two legacy Ponzi schemes were discovered within the portfolios, they instituted an institutional manager due diligence process that increased client

Michael Hughes has an MBA in finance from the University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business and a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Colorado Boulder. Michael is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analysts (CAIA).