Howard Capital Management

Howard Capital Management

Vance Howard established Howard Capital Management in 1999, launching a registered investment advisor that would grow to serve high-net-worth individuals, trusts, and corporations from its headquarters in Roswell, Georgia. The firm operates as an independent wealth manager, distinct from the wirehouse model, with a national client base drawn primarily through financial advisor relationships and direct retail engagement. The firm's portfolio construction relies on a series of technical indicators developed in-house. The HCM-BuyLine serves as the central signal, historically prompting the firm to move client allocations to cash during periods of broad market stress — a posture executed in early 2020 and again during volatility episodes that followed. Howard Capital Management deploys capital across US large-cap equities, fixed income, and real estate investment trusts, with strategies that span growth, value, and income-oriented mandates. The firm also offers separately managed accounts and a mutual fund, the HCM Tactical Growth Fund, which applies the same tactical-overlay methodology to a concentrated equity portfolio. The firm operates from a single office in Roswell and does not publicly disclose total assets under management or employee headcount. As of 2023, the HCM Tactical Growth Fund reported net assets of approximately $1.1 billion per regulatory filings, though this figure reflects only one product and not the firm's full advisory book. Howard Capital Management does not operate a charitable foundation, a real-asset arm, or a formal co-investment club, and its structure remains that of a founder-led RIA without institutional private-equity or venture-capital vehicles. Howard Capital Management's structural differentiator lies in its reliance on a single, publicly articulated timing mechanism as the backbone of its investment process. Most RIAs build portfolios around strategic asset-allocation targets or manager selection — here, the decision to be fully invested or defensively positioned flows from one indicator that the founder has maintained and promoted for over two decades. Succession risk and model-concentration risk are the natural trade-offs of that architecture.