The Perfect Portfolios for Risk-Averse Clients

Some investors can take market swings in stride ... and some even like the thrill of risk. But for many clients, it's difficult to remain committed when the market takes a steep dive.

Our defensive Earnings Certain Portfolio (ECP) can help risk-averse clients get through inevitable downturns and volatile periods.

Find out how our family of ECP portfolios can help risk⁠–⁠averse clients⁠–⁠and all clients⁠–⁠feel more confident and stay invested in the market.

Our family of ECP portfolios are available on Advisor Tools—and you can get a free, no-obligation trial of Advisor Tools right now.

Beyond Growth and Value, We Look for Quality.

Our Earnings Certain Portfolios are equity portfolios that hold companies which have demonstrated steady and highly predictable earnings growth over sustained periods of time by being well-insulated from boom-bust cycles.

We find these companies by looking for quality. But what exactly is quality? Our definition has just two parts: consistency and durability. That’s it.

We measure consistency and durability using four factors: Return on Invested Capital;
EPS Linearity; EPS Growth; and FCF (Free Cash Flow) Conversion. Companies that can sustain these factors over long periods generally have significant business durability that insulates them from economic ups and downs, and from competition. This tends to lead to high returns on capital for sustained periods of time, leading to outperformance for long-term investors.

Metrics we use to measure consistency and durability include:

  1. Return on Invested Capital
  2. PS Linearity
  3. EPS Growth
  4. FCF Conversion

Meet the Family

Earnings Certain Portfolio

This portfolio includes 70 quality, earnings‑stable companies and delivers strong, reliable performance that can withstand the ravages of a recession.

ECP Admiral Portfolio

Our easy-to-manage Admiral Portfolio is composed of 30 quality companies and delivers reliable performance that can perform in any economic climate.

ECP Dividend Portfolio

Our Dividend Portfolio is an income-generating variation that includes 25 quality companies that produce steady and historically rising dividends.

Using Earnings Certain Portfolios

Any of our three portfolios (Earnings Certain, Admiral, and Dividend) can serve as an ideal core portfolio—eliminating the need to rely on SMA's or mutual funds. Not only does this approach eliminate managed fund fees, it also justifies your own higher advisory fee. Your client pays lower fees overall—a true win-win.

Additional Benefits

  • No unexpected capital gains distribution
  • Low volatility, low turnover
  • Tax-loss harvesting like an SMA
  • Can be used as a risk-off strategy

Generate alpha in up markets

Since the ECP portfolios are generally defensive, you will likely want to adjust the balance of ECP and whatever tilts you use, based on market conditions. Invent your own tilt strategy or use one of ours.

Zacks offers a number of tilt strategies including:

Economic Tilts

This tilt portfolio includes stocks from sectors that are responsive to specific phases of the economic cycle such as Financials, Insurance, Real Estate, Energy, and Commodities.

Bull Market Tilts

Our high beta tilt portfolio, currently consisting of 6 stocks we believe will dramatically outperform during a bull market.

Zacks Top 10 List

Created from the Zacks stock universe by applying the Zacks Rank, then narrowing the list to the 10 best stocks to buy and hold for the entirety of each year.

Get a Free Trial of Advisor Tools—the Research Platform That Powers Success.

All Earnings Certain (ECP) portfolios are available on the Advisor Tools platform.*

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Learn about Zacks' full range of high-performing model portfolios.

In addition to the Earnings Certain family of portfolios, we offer many more high-performance equity model portfolios based on Zacks research, plus a set of total return ETF model portfolios for differing risk/return profiles.

Watch this video to learn more about all the model portfolios we offer.