Gaining Perspective

Restrictive compliance and new, rapid-fire regulatory rules pose a challenge for independent advisors who often do not have the bandwidth to respond in a timely manner. Corporate RIAs must differentiate themselves on how they can help advisors navigate this often-confusing reality. My guests today lead one of the fastest growing independent broker-dealer/RIA hybrid platforms, CoastalOne, with over...

If you want to call yourself a lawyer, doctor or accountant, you must adhere to strict regulatory requirements. Even electricians and plumbers must be properly licensed. But that is not and has not been true of financial planners. Anyone can call themselves a financial planner. That is about to change. On July 21, the Financial Planning Association® (FPA®), the leading membership organization and...

A couple of weeks ago, DWS Group, a global asset manager and one of the world’s largest real estate investment managers, announced it was making a strategic investment in its Americas Alternatives distribution platform to make its real estate products more widely available to the retail market. The investment is part of a longer-term initiative to provide retail investors with access to DWS’s broa...

The CFP Board published a book called the Psychology of Financial Planning. This groundbreaking new material incorporates interpersonal components of financial planning and the effects of money on individuals. My guests today are here to talk about that book.

Market volatility, inflation, and talk of a recession certainly has grabbed the headlines over the past few months. As financial planners, this is your chance to differentiate yourself as you walk your clients through turbulent times. My guests today form the leadership team for one of the country's most prominent planning firms, Integrated Financial Group (IFG), IFG consists of 60 teams of financ...

In April of this year, the FlexShares team at Northern Trust conducted a survey of more than 500 high-net worth investors who work with financial advisors. The survey asked investors a range of questions about ESG investing including, but not limited to: how much they understand it, why they are or aren’t interested, whether their advisors are recommending it, and how and where they’re learning ab...

The S&P 500 officially fell into bear market territory during the month of May, although a late month bounce allowed it to finish the month only slightly down from April. It is down about 2.5% thus far in June. The tone of the market has changed, and it doesn’t appear to be calming down anytime soon. According to my guest today, Greg Taylor, when looking at the performance of the large-cap tec...

The most consequential decision an advisor will face is transitioning to a new broker dealer. It will affect the products they can sell, the service their clients will receive, the support they will have in running their practice, and ultimately how they will be compensated. My guest today will discuss how those transitions are being navigated by advisors who are seeking better outcomes for their...

As proxy season comes to a close, investors and advisors have grappled with company stewardship on a wide variety of issues. But what’s the best way to get a company to listen? Is divestment the way to go? Or must you engage with a company? And how do investors in ETFs and mutual funds make sure their voices are heard at the asset managers they invest with? Engine No. 1 focuses on engaging with co...

BNY Mellon Wealth Management released its inaugural Charitable Giving Study a couple of weeks ago. It was a survey of 200 people with at least $5 million in AUM. It painted a vivid picture of high-net-worth investors’ behaviors, attitudes and experiences towards charitable giving. Some of the key findings included that only 56% had a charitable giving strategy, and that the top motivators for givi...

Edward Jones and Age Wave’s latest study, “Longevity and the New Journey of Retirement,” explores how the journey of retirement unfolds, the patterns of people’s experience in retirement, and the keys to thriving along the way. Among the findings, nearly 70% of Americans reported wanting to live to be 100 years old. The study also shows how the definition of retirement has vastly changed from that...

The past few decades presented an outstanding market environment for the  asset management industry . Global AUM rose at a steady pace between 2001 and 2021, thanks largely to the strength of the world’s equity markets, which were able to rebound even after several severe downturns. And 2021 was even stronger. Global AUM grew at 12% last year, to more than $112 trillion, a growth rate well above t...

We’re here to talk about misconceived notions that advisors have about millennial investors. While it is often reported that millennials are rejecting financial advisors, my guest says this is not the case. The biggest issue that he sees is that financial advisors have minimums that make it difficult to serve millennials at the tail-end of the age bracket (those born between 1990-1996, or age 26 t...

The best retirement-savings vehicle is one that few have heard about: I bonds. They offer a risk-free yield of 9.62%, yet the amount of I bonds issued is only a small fraction of the total volume of bond issuance by the U.S. Treasury.  My guest today will explain that paradox. This is also the 300th episode of the Gaining Perspective podcast, and no guest would be more appropriate than Zvi Bodie....

Since 1992 the Belkin Report has been helping portfolio managers outperform their benchmark indices, and allowing hedge funds to harvest absolute gains. The BR combines a weekly x-ray of market sector performance with forecasts for each one. Its proprietary forecast model focuses on sectors, groups, and individual stocks, with a particularly strong emphasis on sector rotation. The report also feat...

In the span of just over two years, the world economy has been stricken by a pandemic and challenged by a military conflict in the heart of Europe. Major historical turning points are nearly always accompanied by fundamental shifts in the economy. The pace of history is accelerating with the global energy transition, urgency to secure reliable supplies of traditional energy, and locking in renewab...

Since the global financial crisis, assets in private credit have grown exponentially as investors search for yield while protecting against inflation and rising interest rates. Once a small corner of the investment universe, private credit has boomed into a major asset class that does not show signs of slowing. Over the 2010-2020 period, assets grew by 12.8% annually. However, not all private cred...

Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) have taken a hit over the last several weeks with the news of the Fed’s plans to shrink its balance sheet. Today's guest, Dean Smith of FolioBeyond, will discuss why the combination of the rise in Treasury yields and the widening of MBS spreads is continuing to increase the valuations of certain types of mortgage-backed securities. With the expectation that the pac...

As expected, on March 16, the Fed signaled its intention to hike the Fed Funds rate by 25bps. My guest today, Matt Dines, the CIO of Build Asset Management, sees three big takeaways from its report. First, the Fed’s guidance on the path of the policy rate telegraphed its commitment to addressing the rising price levels afflicting the economy. Second, the FOMC’s guidance on the Fed Funds rate joine...

Last year, Commonwealth Financial introduced the Brand Studio to help advisors establish a name, logo and website – all the fundamentals to get marketing off the ground. Brand Studio provides advisors with resources and services in a centralized portal and serves as the engine for strategic advisor marketing support. My guest today, Sarah Howes, oversees that effort.

Family wealth transfers are complicated conversations. My guest, Jim Bertles of Tiedemann Advisors, has managed those conversations among his many UHNW clients and their millennial children. He has extensive experience overseeing and coordinating these transfers. Jim and I will discuss the dynamics of a successful family wealth transfer.  I will ask Jim about the questions he is encountering with...

Roughly half of adults over the age 55 say their biggest financial fear is not having enough money saved for retirement. Add in inflation, market volatility and low interest rates, and that’s enough for any investor to have serious cause for concern. Those at or near retirement don’t have time on their side. Enter Constance. Last October, RetireOne, an independent distribution platform for fee-bas...

ESG regulations and standards are proliferating across the globe. Along with that has been a surge in ESG investor appetite and fund launches.  That puts ESG at the center of dialogue among financial advisors.  It is increasingly likely that US policymakers will move to integrate ESG into its regulatory landscape in the near future, as Europe has already done.  My guest, Adrian Whelan, will discus...

Amid the human tragedy brought on by the war in the Ukraine, there is a need to quickly and reliably expose assets aligned with Russia. But it’s hard to track the risks faced by big investors across diverse public and private assets that are multinational. Asset managers and regulators are turning to STP Investment Services, a Westchester, PA-based company and its BluePrint software platform that...

Investors continue to need a balanced portfolio, including fixed income. But the bond markets are challenging: Rates are low, duration risk is high, and runaway inflation is putting pressure on long-term rates. “Buy and hold” fixed-income strategies will not work as well as they have in the past. A better alternative is a tactical, disciplined approach to when and how to invest in fixed income.