Overview

Our investment platform was created to address the unique needs of wealthy families. Like institutions, wealthy families have the long-term capital to invest in traditional and alternative assets. Unlike institutions, wealthy families are constrained by taxes, legacy investments, restricted stock, and potentially other concentrated asset exposures. We built a platform that can meet the unique needs of all of our clients no matter their personal situation.

We customize investment management to each individual client. We recognize clients vary in risk tolerance, time horizon, liquidity needs, return objectives, and tax postures. Wealthy families can also have business interests, low-basis stock positions, or legacy managers they wish to retain. We work with each client individually to build portfolios that take all of these factors into account.

We offer a broad suite of traditional and non-traditional investments including fixed income, domestic and international equities, private equity, and hedge funds. Our management capabilities also extend beyond these asset classes to include family-specific assets like real estate, oil and gas, and closely held businesses.

Tax Efficiency

We think about tax in everything we do. From tax loss harvesting strategies to analyzing the optimal location for various assets (i.e., IRA, brokerage account, etc.), we constantly think about value creation for our clients. Low-basis assets are analyzed for use in philanthropy or estate planning. Hedge funds, notorious for generating short-term capital gains, are judged on an after-tax basis. When analyzing private equity investments, we prefer value realization taxed at long-term capital gains rather than ordinary income.

Diversification

We analyze, evaluate, and pursue diversification across asset classes, securities, and managers. Our investment advisors tailor portfolios to meet the needs of each individual family and consider liquidity, time horizon, and income as well as their capacity to tolerate risk.

Access and Scale

We have access to institutional-quality investment managers. By pooling client capital and creating leverage in the market, we have the opportunity to take advantage of investments that may otherwise be closed to new or individual investors.

Implementation and Monitoring

We build each portfolio in anticipation of achieving specific risk and return objectives for our clients. We do this by leveraging our data and analytics resources to track and evaluate investments in our client’s portfolios. The metrics we employ provide us with important insights and feedback that we use to implement changes if necessary or to confirm our current positions.

This document is intended for informational purposes only. Nothing herein should be construed as a solicitation, recommendation, or any offer to buy or sell any securities or products. Any offer may only be made in the current offering memorandum of a fund, provided only to qualified offerees and in accordance with applicable laws. This material does not list, and does not purport to list, the risk factors associated with investment decisions. Each type of investment is unique. Before making any investment decision, you should carefully review offering materials and related information for specific risk and other important information regarding an investment in that type of fund.

INSIGHTS

2023 Recap and 2024 Outlook

Todd Burchett and Sentinel Trust’s Investment team review the markets in 2023 and provide an outlook for 2024.

Read More

Recent Credit Ratings Downgrades

Moody’s, S&P and Fitch are still the big three credit rating agencies that rate a borrower’s ability to pay back debt. These agencies rate everything from US Treasurys to riskier high yield corporate debt. A AAA rating generally suggests a bond has a very low probability of default. CCC rated debt on the other hand has about a 20% probability of defaulting in the next year. We’ve recently seen credit rating downgrades outpacing upgrades with a few downgrades garnering headlines.

Read More

2023 Second Quarter Review and Outlook

Todd Burchett and Sentinel Trust’s Investment team review the markets in the second quarter and provide an outlook for the second half of 2023.

Read More

Takeaways from the 2023 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting

We attended the annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting again this year. We came away with many pages of notes and summarized our key takeaways from Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett below: We are leaving the incredible 2020-21 period where the government poured money into the economy. Inventories are now building, sales will likely come, and they…

Read More