EARNEST Partners LLC is an employee owned institutional investment management firm. The firm primarily manages assets on behalf of public funds, Taft-Hartley plans, endowments, foundations, charitable organizations, corporations, and state and municipal government entities. The firm invests in the public equity markets across the globe and fixed income markets of the United States. The firm employs a fundamental and a statistical analysis with a bottom-up stock picking approach to make its equity investments. For its fixed income investments, it invests in U.S. Government agency debt, U.S. investment grade debt, mortgage-backed securities, and asset-backed securities. The firm employs a credit and a fundamental analysis to make its fixed income investments. EARNEST Partners was founded in 1998 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia with additional research operations in Brazil and China.