Money is like a bar of soap

Wall Street offers a virtually unlimited smorgasbord of investment products and services.

Andrew Crowell’s strategy for competing: Stick with meat and potatoes, forget the rest.

Crowell heads Los Angeles-based Crowell, Weedon & Co., a brokerage that prides itself on being a throwback to a less complicated time. Its brokers are old-fashioned stock and bond pickers in an industry that increasingly is turning its back on simple investing concepts in favor of the newest hedge fund, commodity future or algorithmic trading program.

Crowell, 42, is trying to sustain the basic business strategy of his grandfather, Warren, who co-founded the brokerage in the depths of the Depression, and of his father, Don, who was at the helm for more than 30 years, until his death in 2004.

Buy high-quality investments and hold on to them, the elder Crowells preached. Build a diversified portfolio. And don’t try to time the markets’ swings, because you won’t get them right.

Andrew Crowell recalls one of his father’s favorite sayings: "Money is like a bar of soap: The more you handle it, the smaller it gets."

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