About Us

Maclura Investments was founded in 2020 during the midst of the worldwide COVID-19 crisis. That event abruptly transformed societies throughout the world as fear changed behaviors in a matter of days that typically took multi-generations to materialize. Individuals’ wants, desires, and needs were reprioritized within days, potentially forever changing behaviors everywhere. While others were shaken by the market uncertainty and volatility, we saw it as a catalyst for change. Maclura Investments was founded to bring disruptive change to the investment industry by closing the gap between investors and the individuals directly responsible for handling their investment decisions. Through the process of direct investing, your capital is directly invested into stocks versus mutual funds or ETFs. Maclura Investments partners with you to provide unique wealth strategies with customized portfolio management. So, in times of great uncertainty, you can connect directly with your partner at the helm to help you weather the storm, keeping you focused on your long-term investment objectives.

Clay E. Brethour, CFA

is Founder and President of Maclura Investments, LLC and has almost 30 years of investment industry experience. He was previously with Kornitzer Capital Management, Inc., from 2000 to 2020 where he was a portfolio manager of the Buffalo Discovery Fund and Buffalo Growth Fund and served as President of Buffalo Funds since 2015. Prior to joining Kornitzer Capital Management, Mr. Brethour was an equity analyst with Security Management Group and worked in the equity research department and Asset Management Group of regional brokerage firm Dain Rauscher Wessels (f/k/a Rauscher Pierce Refnes, Inc.). Mr. Brethour is a CFA charter holder and earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Kansas State University.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why the name “Maclura”?

Maclura Pomifera is the scientific name of a tree commonly called “Osage Orange” or “Hedge”. Native Americans used the tough, dense wood of these trees for bows, arrows, and war axes. Settlers in the 1800’s trained the young trees to grow into a thorny, natural livestock fence. It was so effective in containing or excluding livestock, it was often described as “horse-high, bull-strong, and pig-tight”. With its resistance to rot and insects, it is still used for long-lasting fence posts throughout the Plains.

For us, Maclura symbolizes our investment strategy as we build custom portfolios for our clients: strong and sturdy, able to stand the test of time, and providing “horse-high, bull-strong, pig-tight” investments for your portfolio. Our strategies are here for the long-term.

Who is your typical client?

Maclura has two product offerings: Maclura Wealth Building Strategies and Maclura Wealth Preservation Strategies. Maclura Wealth Building Strategies is for investors earlier in their wealth building cycle. We work with clients to build a customized strategy in building wealth for retirement. While Maclura commits to developing an overall portfolio strategy that should help close the gap from the starting point to the long-term financial goals, clients are also encouraged to contribute capital annually to achieve the end results they desire.

Clients utilizing the Maclura Wealth Preservation Strategy are towards the end of their wealth building journey but desire their capital to work for them and continue to grow. Clients are typically more interested in having the portfolio generate income for them, rather than contributing annually to their portfolio. This strategy should be the end goal for the Wealth Building Strategy clients.

What makes this the perfect time to start Maclura Investments?

In every avenue of our lives, we see first-hand how quickly innovation is changing the world around us. I believe that most individual investors continue to be placed in inadequate investment vehicles as legacy investment firms are more focused on their internal efficiencies by only offering legacy products versus embracing technology advancements to bring the best investment vehicles to all individuals. My background of nearly 30 years of varied investment experience from brokerage operations, retail investment product development, equity research, and portfolio management has given me a unique vision of where I believe the industry needs to be for the individual investor. I am building an investment firm from the ground up to bring this change to the industry, for the benefit of individual investors everywhere.

How does your strategy address the disadvantages of mutual funds?

Both the Maclura Wealth Building and Maclura Wealth Preservation Strategies hold individual securities directly in the client’s portfolio through a process called direct investing. This eliminates the influences that other investors can have on an individual’s invested capital. With all equities directly held by the client, tax liabilities can be minimized, and there is no dilution of any dividend growth to outside investors. Holding the securities directly, Maclura can modify an investment strategy throughout the day if market movements are severe, raising cash immediately for the client rather than the client having to wait until after the market close to sell or buy a mutual fund. With Maclura Investment doing the investing directly, there are no expenses associated with outsourcing your capital to a mutual fund, thus lowering overall cost and maximizing overall return for the client.

Additionally, when an investor reaches retirement age, they have a portfolio that works for them directly, producing income or allowing them to selectively sell securities to fund withdrawals to minimize tax liabilities.

What are the disadvantages of mutual funds?

There are three main disadvantages of mutual funds that negatively impact an investor’s total returns. First and foremost, for investors working with an investment advisor who charges an asset-based fee for guidance, outsourcing the investment management to a mutual fund adds additional costs to the investor which are often overlooked. Even though the shareholder doesn’t see the fees associated with the mutual funds’ expenses, these fees are paid by the fund which has the effect of increasing the total cost to the investor.

Additionally, any dividends from stocks that a mutual fund owns can be diluted by new shareholders. This mitigates the potential benefit a long-term investor would receive from companies increasing their dividends over time.

For investors that hold mutual funds in taxable accounts, there are also significant tax inefficiencies from the capital gains distribution requirement of mutual funds to all shareholders, regardless of whether they participated in the gains or not.

These disadvantages of mutual funds add up over the long-term, placing a burden on investors striving to achieve their long-term wealth building goals.

LEGAL DISCLOSURES