West Des Moines, IA Office

Ballast Capital Advisors serves primarily high‑net‑worth individuals and institutional‑type clients — including trusts, retirement plans, estates, charitable organizations, corporations and funds — through discretionary investment management and comprehensive financial planning, retirement, estate and tax planning services. The firm’s client base does not generally include non‑high‑net‑worth retail individuals, resulting in a relatively small number of clients managing roughly $329 million in assets.

The firm emphasizes a liability‑driven investment process that treats fixed income as the foundation of portfolios, favoring individual bonds and asset‑liability matching over bond funds, while using low‑cost indexed ETFs for core equity exposure and selectively adding active equity or credit positions when opportunities arise. Investment decisions combine top‑down cycle and sector analysis with bottom‑up company and capital‑structure research, and the firm may include alternative investments and limited partnership interests within client policy limits.

Distinctive features include an affiliated sponsor that originates and manages commercial and residential real estate syndications and other private offerings, which the firm may make available to clients (often subject to accredited investor status and separate sponsor fees), and a small advisory team with institutional fixed‑income experience and professional credentials that focuses on bespoke, bond‑centric portfolios for a concentrated client roster. The firm discloses these relationships and referral arrangements and reports potential conflicts of interest when affiliated private opportunities are presented to clients.