Trends with Benefits #55: The State of Asset Allocation with Dana D’Auria

In this week’s episode I get to run the gamut of asset allocation topics with Dana D’Auria, Co-CIO at Envestnet PMC. As someone who helps implement investment solutions for wealth managers, I wanted to cover a number of questions that were bouncing around my head about how asset allocators were navigating some of the “buzziest” trends in investment markets today including the 60/40 portfolio, thematics, growth to value rotation, ESG and the potential for higher taxes.

Asset Allocation Challenges

Market environments like we’re living through now, are why you pay for professional advice on your portfolio. There are a whole host of concerns that investors need to navigate. For one, with interest rates as low as they are, risks are higher for income investors that are banking on their bond allocations to be a counterweight to their stock allocations or to provide current income. So, then where do you go?

Also, more investors are facing a wave of new and shiny objects in the way of thematic strategies or crypto and a heavy dose of media attention to the growth-to-value rotation. Not that any of these are bad in concept, but it raises issues of how investors should think about these and how to incorporate these new dynamics into a portfolio. Among other topics top of mind for Dana, is the alpha-thesis in ESG investing and tax policy. All topics I had fun discussing with Dana.