Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

What is the minimum investment to be a client at Sentinel?

The firm minimum investment is $2M. Our average client has investable assets between $2M - $20M. The average total net worth of our client base has $6M - $50M in assets.

I have lots of choices when it comes to investment advice, why choose Sentinel?

Our advantage comes from our desire to have very integrated relationships with our clients. Our team provides investment management, tax preparation and planning, estate planning, cashflow projections, transition planning, the household management vault, and more.

Our service is hyper focused on making sure you and your family have clear roadmaps of how their comfort and lifestyle can be managed if unexpected events occur, deaths in the family, etc.

We have an average age of 38, with the intention to outlive our clients so we can see their families needs through several generations. If you are looking for a partnership for the next 30 years, you are exactly the kind of client we are hoping to serve.

How much do services at Sentinel cost?

We are fee only advisors. We do not have a commission structure, or any contingency based fees. We bill based on the assets we manage and oversee. Our investment management fees range from 0.25% to 1.3% of assets under management (AUM).

The specific amount you would pay at our firm is dependent on what services you select and what the total assets we manage are. As the value of assets increases, our fees as a perecentage of assets goes down.

During your exploratory meeting with our firm, we will give you a full breakdown of fees per service and you get to select from a menu of what services you would like.

What kinds of investments does Sentinel reccomend to clients?

We invest almost exclusively in ETF's and low cost investment vehicles. We also purchase federal and municipal bonds and from time to time individual stocks. We will also use options to hedge investments as needed and from time to time use leveraged ETF's for short term scenario based programs.

We do not try and time the market. We believe that we can accomplish any goal a client has by remaining fully invested and instead change our allocations based on economic factors.

In most cases we are moving clients to a greater or smaller allocation of stocks - bonds depending on market conditions. We also spread our equity investments out to sector spider ETFs that allow us to increase our exposure to sectors we are bullish on while minimizing our investments to sectors that are overbought.

I can invest in an ETF myself, why hire Sentinel to do that?

We agree with you. Making and managing that investment is easy without an advisor. Where we provide value is using our analysts to determine where incremental opportunity exists. We are aware that our performance needs to not only pay for our services but provide less volatility and better outcomes than simply investing in the S&P 500 funds.

But investing is a small part of our services. For instance, in our Household Management Vault (HMV) we spend 12 months and 5-6 meetings (each are about 90 minutes) mapping out what your spouse, children, or other family members will need to know in the event you cannot lead the household any longer.

If you become disabled or are unable to continue managing bills or the home, we plan for these possibilities and what action plans we will take at that time so that you maintain your standard of living and have the peace of mind that unforseen events will be handled correctly and with your best interest in mind.