Milwaukee Company

Milwaukee Company

Andrew Willms founded the modern Milwaukee Company in 2004, resurrecting the brand his father Dennis ran as a regional NYSE member firm. Willms came to wealth management through estate planning — he had already built a nationally known trust-and-estates law practice before concluding his clients needed an investment adviser who would apply academic research rather than market-timing. That law-firm origin still shapes the office: the RIA collaborates with O'Leary-Guth Law Office on tax and estate matters, and several team members have worked alongside Willms for more than two decades. The firm deploys client capital exclusively through a core-satellite architecture of internally developed, rules-based strategies. Core strategies — Systematic Market Beta and Classic Asset Allocation Revisited — aim to capture broad market beta with volatility dampeners that shift allocations when proprietary indicators signal elevated risk. Satellite strategies add exposure to specific return drivers: Fixed Income Trend rotates among bond ETFs using momentum, Sector Rotation overlays contrarian and momentum signals across US equity sectors, and Tactical Stock Strategy selects individual large-cap US equities with a risk-regime overlay. All strategies execute through low-cost ETFs, and client accounts are custodied at Fidelity Investments; the firm is fee-only and does not accept commissions. Eight professionals operate from the single Thiensville office, led by Willms and Senior Portfolio Manager Shrey Patel, a CFA charterholder. In 2024 the firm launched the Brinsmere Funds — two sub-advised ETFs (Conservative ETF, ticker TBFC, and Growth ETF, ticker TBFG) that package the Systematic Market Beta strategy for a public-vehicle audience — marking a structural expansion beyond separately managed accounts. The investment committee also draws on consultant James Picerno, author of three quantitative-finance books, for model development and stress testing. Few registered investment advisers of Milwaukee Company's size also manufacture and list their own ETFs, creating a hybrid structure where clients and public shareholders access the same systematic risk-management engine. The firm does not take venture-capital, private-equity, or direct-deal exposure — a deliberate constraint that keeps the portfolio entirely liquid and the operational complexity low, a posture consistent with Willms's trust-and-estates focus on capital preservation across generations.