The Industry Standard
The Outsourced Advisor
Many advisory firms outsource portfolio construction to third-party managers or centralized research teams. That can create distance between clients and the people making investment decisions. At Sentara, we conduct our own research, build portfolios internally, and speak directly with clients about what they own and why. Will Allen has managed investments and conducted portfolio research since 1998.
The Solution
Our Investment Pillars
Growth, Balanced Against Risk
As you get older, the job is to keep growing your money while limiting your risk to the downside. A significant decline in a portfolio is far more damaging at age 60 than at 35. We find that sweet spot through the planning process. Then we construct your portfolio with a core and satellite approach. The core is a foundation of low-cost ETFs that give you broad exposure to the market. Around it, we add a smaller group of individual stocks, held only where our research gives us real conviction. We look for elite management teams, strong revenue and earnings, and a dominant position in their niche. The core is the ballast. The satellites are where careful stock selection can add growth.
Rigorous Research, Not Headlines
Every quarter, we listen to or read the transcripts of more than 200 company earnings calls. That is the homework behind every position we hold. It means our decisions come from what companies are actually reporting about their own businesses, not from the day’s headlines or someone else’s summary. To some, it is slow, unglamorous work. Not to us. It is the part of the job we are least willing to hand to anyone else.
Strategic Fixed Income, Built on Individual Bonds
There was a time when you could throw a dart at a list of bond funds, pick one, and earn a comfortable yield without much thought. That stopped being true in 2020. Now the bond side takes real strategy. We build it around individual Treasury bonds, so we can match them to when you will actually need the money and give the portfolio a shock absorber for when stocks fall. When your portfolio becomes your paycheck, stability matters as much as the income.
Behavioral Coaching
The Steady Hand
Markets fall. It is part of investing, and as we like to say, volatility is the price of admission. For some investors, the temptation to sell can be hard to resist, and giving in to it is one of the most expensive mistakes an investor can make.
Our job is to keep that from happening. We have managed portfolios through the dot-com collapse, the financial crisis, the COVID crash, and many more significant declines. Instead of panicking, we seek out opportunities. It is never easy in the moment, and we are not going to pretend it is. But that is when having someone who knows what you own and why, and can show you the plan still holds, is worth the most. That is the steady hand.
Your Next Step
Take your next step with an active partner, not an outsourced one.
The decisions you make in your 40s and 50s set up everything that comes after. And the five years right before and right after you stop working are the most critical stretch of your financial life. They are worth handling with care, by someone who manages your money directly and picks up the phone when you call. Let’s talk about what that looks like for you.
Risk & Security Disclosure
All investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Asset allocation, diversification, and portfolio rebalancing do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets. Direct investment management does not guarantee market outperformance or eliminate systemic risk.