Truemark Investments

Truemark Investments

David Ranson and William Hepburn established Truemark Investments in Chicago in 1991, structuring the firm around a rules-based investment philosophy that rejects traditional active management in favor of systematic factor tilts. The firm's identity is tied to its willingness to break from cap-weight index construction, targeting value and quality premiums through transparent exchange-traded funds. Truemark operates as a specialized ETF sponsor, not a family office, and its products are designed for allocators seeking factor-specific exposure without high fees or manager-risk concentration. Truemark's strategy centers on two primary ETFs: the Truemark US Large Cap Value ETF and the Truemark US Large Cap Quality ETF. Both portfolios use a proprietary rules-based methodology that screens for traditional value metrics such as price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, alongside quality signals including return on equity and earnings stability. The firm deploys capital exclusively within publicly traded US large-cap equities, entirely through its fund vehicles. Truemark does not engage in direct private investments, co-investments, or SPVs. The geographic footprint is domestic, with portfolio holdings concentrated in US-headquartered companies. Confirmed top holdings as of mid-2025 include Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase, and Apple. The firm runs a lean operation. Professionals count is not publicly disclosed, but the enterprise remains boutique — a small team managing a concentrated ETF lineup. No adjacent private funds, philanthropic foundations, or co-investor club structures have been publicly linked to the firm. Truemark's filings with the SEC and public product prospectuses remain its primary external communications. The firm does not actively market itself through traditional wealth-management channels, operating instead as a quiet, research-driven product structurer. There is no record of recent organizational changes, fund launches, or leadership transitions in the last 24 months. Truemark's structural differentiator is its deliberate anti-index posture within an ETF wrapper. Unlike most ETF sponsors that track standard cap-weighted benchmarks and compete on fees, Truemark creates original, rules-driven portfolios that bend toward value and quality. This positions the firm as an outlier — part boutique asset manager, part research shop — selling factor conviction in a format typically associated with passive replication. The firm's Chicago base places it outside the major ETF manufacturing hubs of New York and San Francisco, reinforcing its independent, principle-driven heritage.