Investment Philosophy

We Create Portfolios With You, the Client, in Mind.

Keeping your hard-earned assets working to help you reach your financial goals after-tax and net-of-fees. The foundation of our investment philosophy is risk management – constantly asking ourselves, “What risk are we taking, and how well are we being paid for that risk?”

We believe in a global asset allocation approach to portfolio construction to diversify holdings and mitigate risk while being adaptive within the asset allocation framework. Markets are driven by cycles and thus, we look to maximize our clients’ risk-adjusted returns by taking advantage of opportunities presented to us at different points within the cycle. We maintain this philosophy across all of our clients’ strategies.

Investment Process Overview

 

1. Macro Research

Generate a top-down macroeconomic outlook based on analysis of 8 economic factors.

Identify current location in the economic cycle using economic factors and use this to drive asset class outlooks.

Output: Shepherd Financial Partners’ Investment and Asset Class outlook.

 

2. Allocate & Execute

Implementation: Use macro views (from the Shepherd Outlook) to determine asset allocation views which results in over / under weights compared to agreed-upon benchmarks.

Idea Generation: Use agreed-upon screening criteria for each strategy to generate a universe of ideas – forms watch list. Investment team conducts due diligence. Trades are presented at the Investment Committee meeting.

Execution: Position sizing based on risk budgeting conviction and allocation band constraints.

3. Monitor

Risk Management: Shepherd’s dedicated investment team implements a consistent risk management framework for client portfolios.

Rebalancing: As asset classes and positions drift from desired targets, Shepherd rebalances client portfolios to maintain alignment with stated risk objectives.

Monitoring of the portfolios is completed in accordance with risk parameters and investment outlook updates.

All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. There is no guarantee that a diversified portfolio will enhance overall returns or outperform a non-diversified portfolio. Diversification and asset allocation do not protect against market risk, nor do they ensure a profit.

Meet Our Dedicated Investment Team

Brian Davies

Chief Investment Officer
CFA®, MBA

Sam Shepherd

Wealth Advisor and Portfolio Manager
CFA®

Chris Cogliano

Portfolio Specialist and Investment Analyst
CFA®