Gaining Perspective

One of the biggest challenges facing advisory firms is growing their human capital – hiring and retaining the best people. As in any service-oriented profession, there is no substitute for motivated, intelligent workers with a team-oriented attitude. Add to that the facts that the pandemic has expanded the need to communicate with clients in a remote work environment, and the job market has tighte...

One of toughest challenges for advisors and their clients is the relentless downward pressure on interest rates. It has pressured savers to stretch for yield and take incremental risk for the safest portion of their portfolios.  Morgan Creek and Exos have a long history of providing innovation investment solutions to address the most pressing challenges in markets.  Taking advantage of structural...

Racial equity is imperative to ensure change in a world that is becoming more diverse. We all can lead with kindness and empathy when it comes to learning about the differences of others. We can’t continue to have conversations about racial equity that are not followed by actions that do more than level the playing field. C-suite executives are adding more DEI professionals to their leadership tea...

With several rate hikes on the horizon, inflation weighs heavy on the minds of most investors. Yet, over two-thirds of individuals with debt are not planning to refinance or consolidate their debt in the next year. That presents a valuable financial planning opportunity for advisors. Half of Gen Zers and Millennials, those carrying the most student loan debt burden, are considering working with fi...

manager, launched its first ETF, the Grayscale Future of Finance ETF (symbol: GFOF). It is built upon the thesis that the digital economy will boost global commerce, drive market efficiencies, and provide access to new pools of capital, while reducing the need for costly and cumbersome intermediaries. GFOF is the first equity ETF to track the investment performance of the Bloomberg Grayscale Futur...

The fixed income markets have changed dramatically since the global financial crisis, providing the opportunity for disciplined investment managers to add alpha. My guest will discuss ways to navigate the changing fixed income markets, including the difficulty in consistently calling interest rate moves, how conditions in the credit markets have dramatically changed, and how his firm manages fixed...

As we head into 2022, the two major fears clients face are inflation and rising interest rates. Multiple rate hikes are already priced in, which will be a challenge for once high-flying growth stocks. This is the time to consider value stocks – which have been outperforming growth stocks over the past six months. But how can advisors make sure they are making the right move to value stocks? My gue...

Diversity among financial planners improved in 2021, but the profession still has work to do to ensure all investors have the tools and resources they need to achieve successful financial outcomes for their clients. In this episode, James Seth Thompson will discuss his role in promoting financial literacy and expanding opportunities for diverse investors through his recruitment efforts at Bernstei...

Podcasting is the most intimate medium for communicating and building a relationship with clients and prospects on their time – through opt-in marketing. My guest today, Matt Halloran, has founded the only podcasting company that has compliance completely figured out. It specializes in helping advisors and professionals in highly regulated industries to start a podcast that turns skeptics into pre...

A recent study by Hartford Funds revealed that more than half of respondents believe that men and women have different financial needs. But only 24% said they want to work with a financial professional who caters to the needs of their gender. It is clear that investors simply want to be treated as individuals. To provide sound financial advice, it’s imperative that advisors avoid making generaliza...

Financial advisors are increasingly abandoning the 60/40 portfolio for higher allocations to alternative investing strategies. They have found that alternatives enhance returns, diversify risk, and supplement income. In this episode, we will discuss the trends shaping the future of wealth management and driving growth of alternative product usage, including regulatory easing, product innovation, a...

Inflation, as measured by the CPI, is at muti-decades highs. The last time the U.S. experience inflation at current levels was in the early 1980s. That was coming off the energy crisis of the 1970s, when CPI climbed over 14% and interest rates on the 10-year U.S. Treasury were pushing 16%. My guest is here to examine U.S. inflationary periods from 1965 through the current episode, the relationship...

The William Blair Large Cap Growth fund (LCGFX) has been one of the top performing funds in its class, returning 20.72% over the last decade, which puts it in the top 8th percentile of its Morningstar large-growth peer group. The fund focuses on growing companies in growing industries—what they call structurally advantaged companies—whose long-term growth is underappreciated by the market.

Last month, Amplify ETFs expanded its suite of BlackSwan ETFs with the launch of the Amplify BlackSwan Tech & Treasury ETF (NYSE Arca: QSWN). QSWN is an index-based ETF that seeks to hedge against significant losses while still participating in technology & growth equities, without an artificial cap.  QSWN is Amplify’s third BlackSwan ETF. The other BlackSwan ETFs, SWAN and ISWN, have toge...

With more than 12,000 crypto assets in existence and the potential to power decentralized transactions using blockchain technologies, crypto assets are a new and evolving approach to capturing highly sought-after benefits.  Together with renowned index provider Nasdaq, Inc. and crypto-focused asset manager Hashdex Asset Management Ltd., Victory Capital has created a way for investors to gain broad...

RIA merger and acquisition activity achieved yet another milestone, crossing 200 transactions within a calendar year for the first time ever. The year’s 200th RIA M&A transaction was announced just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. 2021 is the eighth successive record year for RIA M&A activity. For context, the industry posted 159 transactions in 2020 and 131 in 2019.

Northern Trust, one of the world’s largest asset managers, foresees 2022 as a year of transitions. Central bank fiscal policy might become less accommodative or stimulative through a reduction in bond purchases. After years of virtually no inflation, investors are becoming more aware of the importance of hedging against it, given its recent sharp emergence. While there are indications of inflation...

Research from the Alliance for Lifetime Income shows that individuals’ concerns about financing their retirement increased during the pandemic. Eighty percent of American pre-retirees are at least somewhat anxious that their savings may not provide them enough to live on in retirement.

Investors are taught that highly concentrated portfolios mean taking on more risk, but that is not always the case. In some cases, the perceived risk of holding a concentrated portfolio can be offset by owning high-quality investments. By owning a concentrated portfolio containing only the highest quality companies, investors can take meaningfully less risk than the market while generating greater...

Among the many themes that advisors must consider in constructing portfolios for clients, three stand out: reducing volatility, hedging against inflation and incorporating ESG factors. My guest today, Chris Huemmer of Northern Trust FlexShares, will discuss why a low volatility approach to equities makes sense, his preferred ways to help clients address rising inflation, and how clients are lookin...

Last night, I went to the Positivly site and took its financial personality assessment. I was asked a series of 13 questions about my risk tolerance, investment priorities, and which causes – such as ESG – were most important to me. It took less than five minutes, and the results were quite accurate. It showed that I place a lot of weight on the safety of my investments and the purpose they fulfil...

The bull market in U.S. equities has driven a need for investment products that protect against downside risk. But those products must offer upside participation because nobody will ring a bell when the market peaks. Advisors must consider defined-outcome ETFs, low-vol and long-short funds, structured insurance offerings and a variety of other products. My guest today is here to discuss a unique s...

As we head towards the close of 2021, advisors are faced with the challenge of managing client expectations amid record-high equity markets, dismal interest rates, and heightened threats of inflation. In addition to market headwinds, the gap in future return expectations between advisors and clients is at all-time highs.

The U.S. equity market is characterized by extreme dispersion. Virtually all the gains in the last eight years have been concentrated in six stocks: the FAANGs plus Microsoft. Strip out those six stocks, and the S&P 494’s performance has been utterly mediocre, roughly equal to that of the rest of the world. Here to discuss the role that dispersion plays in fund management is Chris Davis.

I attended the annual NAPFA conference a couple of week ago, which was held in Boston, where I live.  One of the most important sessions featured Kevin Keller, and he spoke about the initiatives and priorities of the CFP Board. Kevin is here today, along with Tom Sporkin, to talk about those initiatives. We’ll also talk about the steps the CFP Board took following an  article  that appeared in the...