Thompson Investment Management

Thompson Investment Management

Thompson Investment Management launched in 2004 as a fiduciary-focused registered investment adviser in Madison, Wisconsin. Founder John Thompson built the practice to serve a mix of individual investors, high-net-worth families, and business entities, with an emphasis on retirement planning and discretionary portfolio management. The firm remains headquartered in Madison and operates under a straightforward advisory model that ties its revenue directly to assets under management rather than transactional commissions. The firm deploys capital across public equities, fixed income, and retirement-account strategies, managing customized portfolios rather than running commingled funds. Its public-equity approach emphasizes long-term, bottom-up security selection with a bias toward durable business models. On the fixed-income side, the firm builds laddered bond portfolios targeting capital preservation and income generation. While specific named holdings are not publicly disclosed, the firm's SEC filings confirm it manages separate accounts for individuals and retirement plan participants, with no disclosed exposure to private markets, venture capital, or alternatives. Thompson Investment Management operates from a single office in Madison with a lean team. The firm has not disclosed total regulatory assets under management or headcount in public filings. In recent years, it has integrated third-party custody and client-portal technology to streamline account reporting, though it has not announced material operational changes or new office openings in the last 24 months. The firm does not operate adjacent philanthropic vehicles, club-based investor networks, or dedicated real-asset arms. The firm's structural differentiator is its posture as a pure fiduciary in a market increasingly dominated by hybrid broker-dealer models. By refusing to sell proprietary products or collect placement fees, Thompson Investment Management avoids the conflicts that arise when advisory and product-distribution economics intersect. That governance choice — remaining an RIA with no brokerage affiliate — defines its independence and limits its growth to the pace of direct client acquisition rather than manufacturing-scale distribution.