Wall Street’s model-portfolio boom appears to have flashed its invisible power for the second time in this week after a once-sleepy Charles Schwab Corp. bond exchange-traded fund received another monster inflow.
Valid until the market close on April 30, 2023.
The S&P 500 closed March with a monthly gain of 3.51%, after a loss of 2.61% in February. At this point, after close on the last day of the month, two of five Ivy portfolio ETFs — Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) and Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC) — are signaling "cash," a decrease from last month's final triple "cash" signal.
For millions of borrowers, student loan forgiveness will mean the difference between significant relief and ongoing payments. If you’re among them, the question is… what next?
As we discussed last week in Looking to the Futures, natural gas prices have been plagued by the perfect storm of lower demand and higher production throughout the withdrawal season.
Income-seeking investors are accustomed to casting wide nets after years of low yields.
Portfolio Manager Andy Acker explains why the healthcare sector could offer an attractive combination of defense and growth in today’s market.
My “five-step investment process” provides an ongoing systematic framework for making portfolio decisions, and further incorporating financial planning and tax considerations into overall portfolio construction.
Head of Portfolio Strategy David Dali explains why it’s an opportune time to add emerging-market exposure.
I will explain what ChatGPT is beyond the headlines, and its capabilities and limitations. I will then share a use case in wealth management and explore whether it will replace human financial advisors.
Today’s inflationary market landscape is fraught with risks for investors. Despite these circumstances, Scott Welch and Kevin Flanagan outline how bond investors can generate yield.
A gold IRA is one way to diversify your retirement portfolio. It can protect your savings from plummeting in the event of a stock market crash or high inflation.
Silver is more volatile, cheaper and more tightly linked with the industrial economy. Gold is more expensive and better for diversifying your portfolio overall.
With the consumer price index increasing during the last few years at a rate not seen for nearly 40 years, the investing challenge for the coming year is finding ways to generate real returns during exceptionally high inflation.
There are several ways to include philanthropic giving in your estate plan. Here are five common options.
As the financial services industry has evolved away from transactions and toward financial planning, an interesting shift has happened: more couples have started showing up in advisors’ offices to discuss their investments and their financial plan.
History tells us it's a matter of when and not if tighter monetary will send the economy into a recession.
Corn futures traded higher to start the month with weekly USDA data showing an increase in exports week over week.
Like all trusts, a charitable trust is a legal entity that you create for the purpose of holding and managing assets. The trust is wholly separate from you. It owns any assets it holds, pays taxes and requires management just like any other legally recognized entity.
Suppose recession warnings, such as the yield curve and manufacturing surveys, prove prescient, as they reliably have. In that case, this will be a rough year for the Goldilocks soft-landing believers.
Last year, 2022, the 10-year bond yield rose 225 basis points, delivering record losses to bond investors. Equities were not much better, as the S&P lost 18.11% of its value. But this year has been different. The 10-year yield is down 27 basis points, and the S&P 500 is up 6.08%. Here to discuss whether those rallies in stocks and bonds will continue, and how advisors can protect portfolios from the volatility that we saw last year is Tim Urbanowicz.
Northern Trust Asset Management (NTAM) is a leading global investment manager with $1 trillion in assets under management. It released “The Risk Report” late last year, which is an aggregated analysis of 280 institutional equity portfolios across the globe. The report revealed six common drivers of unintended investment results. As an investment manager that employs a quantitative risk-aware approach, NTAM regularly partners with investors and their consultants to provide them with a distinct analysis of underlying risk components impacting their portfolios’ ability to achieve intended outcomes. Of utmost importance to our Advisor Perspectives listeners and readers, the findings of the research are as applicable to portfolios managed by advisors for individual investors as they are to institutional investors. NTAM does indeed serve individual advisors through a number of offerings, including Northern Mutual Funds, FlexShares ETFs, and Diversified Strategist model portfolios. NTAM’s purpose in conducting the research behind the Risk Report was to help investors make needed adjustments consistent with NTAM’s core philosophy, which is that investors should get paid for the risks they take – in all market environments and in any investment strategy.
Cash flows into US sustainable funds plummeted last year as the broader market took a beating and anti-ESG crusaders targeted money managers including BlackRock Inc. for “woke capitalism.”
A trading tool like portfolio insurance is poised to trigger a stunning display of market instability.
2022 was a painful year in financial markets with almost all traditional assets delivering significant losses.
Investors are still recovering from the municipal market beatdown of 2022, but the current higher absolute yield levels provide an attractive “re-entry” point for municipal market investors.
Successful investment management can be Impaired by perverse incentives, which are what now plagues value funds.
A common mistake that investors make regarding dividend portfolio construction is not having a well-thought-out plan.
We believe it is important to keep you informed on the latest proposals and regulations impacting the retirement industry, as well as implications to your business.
This article explores how the addition of specific liquid alternative strategies produces an “All-Terrain” portfolio with the potential for improved long-term performance across a wider range of market environments.
You read that right. The Fed wants lower stock prices.
At KCR, we believe in the Quantamental Investment approach–a strategy that leverages the most useful aspects of both quantitative investing and fundamental investing.
Gold prices have increased to start 2023 as the dollar index extends last Friday's losses.
Commodities may seem like just another one of the bunch, but these products offer a unique way to invest your money in the market.
Build your ladder with multiple target-maturity ETFs representing different segments of the bond market, with different target years.
Public and private real estate investments present a compelling opportunity in the current environment of high inflation and rising interest rates, according to Daniel Scher and Blair Schmicker from Franklin Equity Group.
Let's examine the three paths the Fed might take in 2023 and what they mean for stock prices.
An OCIO can deliver vastly expanded investment capabilities while seamlessly alleviating the burden of investment infrastructure, operations back-office, and administrative tasks, freeing up advisors’ time for vital client-facing and relationship-building activities.
The February crude oil contract CLG23 was down over 2% in trading early Thursday.
Bear markets end with widespread capitulation while a chorus of the stock trader’s prayer (God, if you get me out of this mess, I swear I will never buy another stock) spreads through out the land.
The market dislocations and skyrocketing inflation of the last year put longstanding retirement maxims to the test and that test isn’t over yet.
Putting 60% of a portfolio in stocks and 40% in bonds is supposed to hedge against both assets dropping simultaneously. But it didn’t pan out that way in 2022.
The Fed’s repeated manipulation of the price of capital has weakened productivity growth and reduced economic activity. Ultimately it is the citizens that pay the price.
As investors increasingly seek out more personalized options, many advisors are seeing direct indexing grow in popularity. Direct indexing is a type of separately managed account or SMA, where investors can express their personal values and tax preferences. The personalization and flexibility afforded by an SMA allows advisors the flexibility to manage each client’s tax situation and reflect their values. Dimensional Fund Advisors recently conducted research into the tax management benefits of an SMA. It found that a multifaceted tax management approach that goes beyond tax loss harvesting and considers tax implications at every step of the investing process can lead to more significant, longer-term gains. Here from Dimensional to discuss further is Kaitlin Hendrix, senior researcher and vice president.
Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of trading in your traditional bank for a virtual banking experience.
This fall was a memorable time in the Halverson household.
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a half point (50 basis points) on Wednesday in line with forecasts.
In part 1 I covered a model portfolio that was built on August 24, 2021, with the primary objective of generating a higher level of current income safely.
The financial foghorn is blowing. Historical odds greatly favor a recession, stock market drawdown, and a much lower Fed funds rate.
Starting in 2012, it became more and more difficult for prudent dividend growth stock investors looking for income.
One thing to consider when opening a 529 plan is whether it should be a custodial or individual account. While both allow you to save for college costs and enjoy some tax breaks, they differ in terms of who has control of the account and the assets in it.
We’ve broken down nine of the best 529 plans.
Here are four questions independent financial advisors should ask before choosing a TAMP.
Equity investors are not being adequately compensated for the economic, geopolitical and financial risks they are bearing. The equity risk premium is too small.
Let’s look at the powerful feature set an advisory firm could put together from a collection of the higher-rated, low-market-share programs and solutions that I’ve collected from past surveys, many of which you may not even be aware of.
Whether foreign nations want or need tightening or easing, they are stuck with the monetary policy that the Fed decides America needs.
Our annual ESG manager survey of active managers assesses the integration of ESG considerations in investment processes among equity, fixed income and private markets managers, and spotlights firmwide policies, use of data, engagement and integration.
Although off their Thursday lows, equity index prices closed lower yesterday.
To foresee what crisis might be next, it is vital to understand the dollar's role in global finance and economics and the resulting role that the Fed plays in influencing global monetary policy.
There is a long history that proves ESG’s viability and more than 2,000 empirical studies that show little absolute difference in performance by adopting it as a criterion for analysis.
What are the implications of strategic asset allocation, the dynamics of public and private credit, tech-driven megatrends, and more?
About 90% of this year’s S&P 500 loss was attributable to higher interest rates.
On Thursday, October 21 stock plunged following a sharp rise in consumer prices.
Russ Koesterich, CFA, JD, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager, of the Global Allocation team discusses whether markets have bottomed or not.
Quality investing is an approach well suited to small cap equity.
The advisors who are listening to this podcast will start a financial-planning process with a risk assessment for a client. That exercise will evaluate how much volatility the client can tolerate. It will serve as input to constructing a portfolio that optimizes returns given a client’s risk tolerance.
My guest today is here to explain why that is the wrong approach. The problem is not to minimize volatility, he says, but to figure out how money a client needs, when they need it, and to solve for that problem.
Depending on where they live, student borrowers may soon face an unexpected tax burden.
Bond yields may keep rising, but a significant driver of yields is done selling.
Despite crypto markets being one of the hardest hit throughout the bear market that has engulfed almost all risk assets over the past 12 months, we have seen crypto not only hold up relatively well since the June lows but indeed be one of the better performing asset classes.
I look back to other periods when bonds outperformed stocks. This analysis allows us to assess specific stock traits and specific industries that over- and underperformed in those eras.
Sandpiles can be fun. Nothing beats taking kids to the beach (or being a kid!) and watching their creativity blossom into all kinds of magical shapes. The problem with sand construction is it doesn’t last. I have it on good authority that building your house on the sand probably won’t end well.
With Treasury yields around 4% and corporate bonds yields even higher, fixed income is the better alternative to stocks.
The world seems an increasingly uncomfortable place for traditional stock and bond investments.
If one is watching CNBC to figure out where markets are headed, they will be better served looking to the bond market for direction.
One investment with the ability to provide current income, inflation protection, and even the potential for capital appreciation has been largely overlooked – rising dividend stocks.
In the 1980s there was a famous TV ad for Wendy’s with the tagline “Where’s the beef?”.
In the long run, stock prices and returns are anchored by the cash flows that companies provide investors. If profits grow slower than expected, stock return projections must be recalibrated.
Bleeding into this week, the British pound reached its lowest level ever Monday, relative to the U.S. dollar.
While 2022 has been a challenging year for nearly every segment of the capital markets, it comes with a silver lining for income investors: higher yields.
Balancing acts. As the Fed walks the line between curbing inflation and averting recession, anxious investors are seeking to balance the two risks. Amid the uncertainty, we believe stock selection matters more.
The leading tail-risk potential is the increased odds that high inflation remains stubborn, and the Fed continues to fight those odds aggressively.
How can we design and deliver our advice in a way that clients implement it? Enter the commitment device.
This week, Advisor Perspectives is set to host a variety of free CE webinars for financial professionals. These webinars will cover a variety of topics that are intended to help advisors gain valuable insight and education, allowing them to better meet their clients’ needs.
When the supply and demand for bonds normalize, bond investors will realize that economic, inflation and other factors warrant much lower yields.
Silver rallied to start the week as all contract months were up four percent or more.
Investor risk tolerance drives portfolio decisions, yet many financial advisors are rightly concerned about the accuracy of risk tolerance assessments. Why is it so hard? How can we get it right?
Investors increasingly want more control and customization of their portfolios. Personalized managed accounts give them the opportunity to do that.
As one of us points out relentlessly, risk isn’t a number, rather it is a notion or a concept.
I explore consumer staple and discretionary companies to see how they are navigating the inflation storm.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish comments dominated the markets on Friday, with the major indices all seeing a drop of over 3%.
With the recent increases in interest rates, the carry trade has had a sudden resurgence in performance, which could make it a tempting strategy for investors.
Separately Managed Accounts
Schwab ETF Logs $4.6 Billion Inflow Amid Quarter-End Shuffle
Wall Street’s model-portfolio boom appears to have flashed its invisible power for the second time in this week after a once-sleepy Charles Schwab Corp. bond exchange-traded fund received another monster inflow.
Moving Averages: S&P Finishes March Up 3.51%
Valid until the market close on April 30, 2023.
The S&P 500 closed March with a monthly gain of 3.51%, after a loss of 2.61% in February. At this point, after close on the last day of the month, two of five Ivy portfolio ETFs — Vanguard Real Estate ETF (VNQ) and Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund (DBC) — are signaling "cash," a decrease from last month's final triple "cash" signal.
The Supreme Court May Quash Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness: Here's What Borrowers Should Do
For millions of borrowers, student loan forgiveness will mean the difference between significant relief and ongoing payments. If you’re among them, the question is… what next?
Natural Gas Woes Continue
As we discussed last week in Looking to the Futures, natural gas prices have been plagued by the perfect storm of lower demand and higher production throughout the withdrawal season.
Taming Biases in High-Dividend Equity Strategies
Income-seeking investors are accustomed to casting wide nets after years of low yields.
Two Sides of Healthcare, One Strong Investment Case
Portfolio Manager Andy Acker explains why the healthcare sector could offer an attractive combination of defense and growth in today’s market.
The Professor's Portfolio
My “five-step investment process” provides an ongoing systematic framework for making portfolio decisions, and further incorporating financial planning and tax considerations into overall portfolio construction.
Add Emerging Market Strength in Global Weakness
Head of Portfolio Strategy David Dali explains why it’s an opportune time to add emerging-market exposure.
Embracing ChatGPT in Wealth Management
I will explain what ChatGPT is beyond the headlines, and its capabilities and limitations. I will then share a use case in wealth management and explore whether it will replace human financial advisors.
What’s Yield Got to Do, Got to Do with It?
Today’s inflationary market landscape is fraught with risks for investors. Despite these circumstances, Scott Welch and Kevin Flanagan outline how bond investors can generate yield.
What Is a Gold IRA?
A gold IRA is one way to diversify your retirement portfolio. It can protect your savings from plummeting in the event of a stock market crash or high inflation.
Gold versus Silver Investments: Which is Better?
Silver is more volatile, cheaper and more tightly linked with the industrial economy. Gold is more expensive and better for diversifying your portfolio overall.
The Top Six Investments for Inflation in 2023
With the consumer price index increasing during the last few years at a rate not seen for nearly 40 years, the investing challenge for the coming year is finding ways to generate real returns during exceptionally high inflation.
Using Philanthropic Giving in Your Estate Plan
There are several ways to include philanthropic giving in your estate plan. Here are five common options.
Want to Know How Advisors Are Sabotaging Themselves?
As the financial services industry has evolved away from transactions and toward financial planning, an interesting shift has happened: more couples have started showing up in advisors’ offices to discuss their investments and their financial plan.
The Leading Indicators are Signaling Recession
History tells us it's a matter of when and not if tighter monetary will send the economy into a recession.
Have Corn Prices Found Support?
Corn futures traded higher to start the month with weekly USDA data showing an increase in exports week over week.
How a Charitable Trust Works
Like all trusts, a charitable trust is a legal entity that you create for the purpose of holding and managing assets. The trust is wholly separate from you. It owns any assets it holds, pays taxes and requires management just like any other legally recognized entity.
Don't Rely on Recession-Predicting Rules of Thumb
Suppose recession warnings, such as the yield curve and manufacturing surveys, prove prescient, as they reliably have. In that case, this will be a rough year for the Goldilocks soft-landing believers.
What Drove the Hottest ETF Category in 2022?
Last year, 2022, the 10-year bond yield rose 225 basis points, delivering record losses to bond investors. Equities were not much better, as the S&P lost 18.11% of its value. But this year has been different. The 10-year yield is down 27 basis points, and the S&P 500 is up 6.08%. Here to discuss whether those rallies in stocks and bonds will continue, and how advisors can protect portfolios from the volatility that we saw last year is Tim Urbanowicz.
The Pervasive Effects of Uncompensated Risks
Northern Trust Asset Management (NTAM) is a leading global investment manager with $1 trillion in assets under management. It released “The Risk Report” late last year, which is an aggregated analysis of 280 institutional equity portfolios across the globe. The report revealed six common drivers of unintended investment results. As an investment manager that employs a quantitative risk-aware approach, NTAM regularly partners with investors and their consultants to provide them with a distinct analysis of underlying risk components impacting their portfolios’ ability to achieve intended outcomes. Of utmost importance to our Advisor Perspectives listeners and readers, the findings of the research are as applicable to portfolios managed by advisors for individual investors as they are to institutional investors. NTAM does indeed serve individual advisors through a number of offerings, including Northern Mutual Funds, FlexShares ETFs, and Diversified Strategist model portfolios. NTAM’s purpose in conducting the research behind the Risk Report was to help investors make needed adjustments consistent with NTAM’s core philosophy, which is that investors should get paid for the risks they take – in all market environments and in any investment strategy.
BlackRock US ESG Flows Fall on Tech Rout, Anti-Green Backlash
Cash flows into US sustainable funds plummeted last year as the broader market took a beating and anti-ESG crusaders targeted money managers including BlackRock Inc. for “woke capitalism.”
How "0DTE" Options Will Cause the Next Black Monday
A trading tool like portfolio insurance is poised to trigger a stunning display of market instability.
4Q 2022 GMO Quarterly Letter
2022 was a painful year in financial markets with almost all traditional assets delivering significant losses.
Municipal Bonds: Is it Safe to Get Back in the Water?
Investors are still recovering from the municipal market beatdown of 2022, but the current higher absolute yield levels provide an attractive “re-entry” point for municipal market investors.
The Perversion Afflicting Value Investors
Successful investment management can be Impaired by perverse incentives, which are what now plagues value funds.
Constructing a Dividend Growth Stock Portfolio for Total Return
A common mistake that investors make regarding dividend portfolio construction is not having a well-thought-out plan.
US Retirement Legislation and Regulation Bulletin: Fourth Quarter 2022
We believe it is important to keep you informed on the latest proposals and regulations impacting the retirement industry, as well as implications to your business.
From All-Weather to All-Terrain Investing for the Stormy Decade Ahead
This article explores how the addition of specific liquid alternative strategies produces an “All-Terrain” portfolio with the potential for improved long-term performance across a wider range of market environments.
The Fed Wants Lower Stock Prices
You read that right. The Fed wants lower stock prices.
Quantamental Investing: A Brief Primer on KCR’s Toolkits
At KCR, we believe in the Quantamental Investment approach–a strategy that leverages the most useful aspects of both quantitative investing and fundamental investing.
Gold Rallies on a Weaker Dollar
Gold prices have increased to start 2023 as the dollar index extends last Friday's losses.
A Primer for Clients to Invest in Commodities
Commodities may seem like just another one of the bunch, but these products offer a unique way to invest your money in the market.
How to Build a Bond Ladder Using ETFs
Build your ladder with multiple target-maturity ETFs representing different segments of the bond market, with different target years.
Alternative Investments: The Case for Real Estate
Public and private real estate investments present a compelling opportunity in the current environment of high inflation and rising interest rates, according to Daniel Scher and Blair Schmicker from Franklin Equity Group.
Three Paths for 2023
Let's examine the three paths the Fed might take in 2023 and what they mean for stock prices.
Rethinking the Traditional OCIO Model: A Guide for RIAs
An OCIO can deliver vastly expanded investment capabilities while seamlessly alleviating the burden of investment infrastructure, operations back-office, and administrative tasks, freeing up advisors’ time for vital client-facing and relationship-building activities.
Crude Oil Slumps on Travel Concerns, Forecasted Production Increases
The February crude oil contract CLG23 was down over 2% in trading early Thursday.
The 70% Solution
Bear markets end with widespread capitulation while a chorus of the stock trader’s prayer (God, if you get me out of this mess, I swear I will never buy another stock) spreads through out the land.
Reflecting Back on a Testing Year and Looking Ahead to 2023
The market dislocations and skyrocketing inflation of the last year put longstanding retirement maxims to the test and that test isn’t over yet.
Will the 60/40 Portfolio Stage a Comeback in 2023?
Putting 60% of a portfolio in stocks and 40% in bonds is supposed to hedge against both assets dropping simultaneously. But it didn’t pan out that way in 2022.
The Federal Reserve is Killing Capitalism
The Fed’s repeated manipulation of the price of capital has weakened productivity growth and reduced economic activity. Ultimately it is the citizens that pay the price.
New Research on Tax-Advantaged Direct Indexing
As investors increasingly seek out more personalized options, many advisors are seeing direct indexing grow in popularity. Direct indexing is a type of separately managed account or SMA, where investors can express their personal values and tax preferences. The personalization and flexibility afforded by an SMA allows advisors the flexibility to manage each client’s tax situation and reflect their values. Dimensional Fund Advisors recently conducted research into the tax management benefits of an SMA. It found that a multifaceted tax management approach that goes beyond tax loss harvesting and considers tax implications at every step of the investing process can lead to more significant, longer-term gains. Here from Dimensional to discuss further is Kaitlin Hendrix, senior researcher and vice president.
Online Banks versus Traditional Banks: Which Is Best for Your Clients?
Here’s a breakdown of the pros and cons of trading in your traditional bank for a virtual banking experience.
Here’s How Advisors Can Help Make Dreams Come True
This fall was a memorable time in the Halverson household.
FOMC Slows Rate Hikes as Expected
The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a half point (50 basis points) on Wednesday in line with forecasts.
20 Dividend Growth Stocks For Faster Growth And Profit (Part 2 of 3)
In part 1 I covered a model portfolio that was built on August 24, 2021, with the primary objective of generating a higher level of current income safely.
Don’t Ignore What the Yield Curve is Telling Investors
The financial foghorn is blowing. Historical odds greatly favor a recession, stock market drawdown, and a much lower Fed funds rate.
Finding 20 Dividend Growth Stocks In A Bad Market
Starting in 2012, it became more and more difficult for prudent dividend growth stock investors looking for income.
529 Plans: Custodial versus Individual
One thing to consider when opening a 529 plan is whether it should be a custodial or individual account. While both allow you to save for college costs and enjoy some tax breaks, they differ in terms of who has control of the account and the assets in it.
The Best 529 Plans for 2023 and Beyond
We’ve broken down nine of the best 529 plans.
Four Questions to Ask Before Selecting a TAMP
Here are four questions independent financial advisors should ask before choosing a TAMP.
Equity Investors Aren’t Being Paid for the Risks They Take
Equity investors are not being adequately compensated for the economic, geopolitical and financial risks they are bearing. The equity risk premium is too small.
The Alternative Tech Stack
Let’s look at the powerful feature set an advisory firm could put together from a collection of the higher-rated, low-market-share programs and solutions that I’ve collected from past surveys, many of which you may not even be aware of.
The Fed is Exporting Global Inflation - Part II
Whether foreign nations want or need tightening or easing, they are stuck with the monetary policy that the Fed decides America needs.
2022 Annual ESG Survey: The ESG Journey Accelerates
Our annual ESG manager survey of active managers assesses the integration of ESG considerations in investment processes among equity, fixed income and private markets managers, and spotlights firmwide policies, use of data, engagement and integration.
Equities Move on Fed Commentary
Although off their Thursday lows, equity index prices closed lower yesterday.
The Dollar is the World's Problem (Part 1)
To foresee what crisis might be next, it is vital to understand the dollar's role in global finance and economics and the resulting role that the Fed plays in influencing global monetary policy.
Let ESG Client Returns Speak for Themselves
There is a long history that proves ESG’s viability and more than 2,000 empirical studies that show little absolute difference in performance by adopting it as a criterion for analysis.
The Search for Hidden Opportunities
What are the implications of strategic asset allocation, the dynamics of public and private credit, tech-driven megatrends, and more?
Interest Rates Explain This Year’s Stock Price Declines
About 90% of this year’s S&P 500 loss was attributable to higher interest rates.
Bear Market – Interrupted
On Thursday, October 21 stock plunged following a sharp rise in consumer prices.
Finding the Market Bottom: Why It’s a Process, Not a Moment
Russ Koesterich, CFA, JD, Managing Director and Portfolio Manager, of the Global Allocation team discusses whether markets have bottomed or not.
Quality Time in Small Cap
Quality investing is an approach well suited to small cap equity.
Nebo - GMO’s New Asset Management Platform
The advisors who are listening to this podcast will start a financial-planning process with a risk assessment for a client. That exercise will evaluate how much volatility the client can tolerate. It will serve as input to constructing a portfolio that optimizes returns given a client’s risk tolerance.
My guest today is here to explain why that is the wrong approach. The problem is not to minimize volatility, he says, but to figure out how money a client needs, when they need it, and to solve for that problem.
Student Loan Forgiveness May Hit You With a Heavy Tax Bill
Depending on where they live, student borrowers may soon face an unexpected tax burden.
The Hidden Force that Will Drive Yields Lower
Bond yields may keep rising, but a significant driver of yields is done selling.
Crypto Outlook: More Bearish Than Bullish
Despite crypto markets being one of the hardest hit throughout the bear market that has engulfed almost all risk assets over the past 12 months, we have seen crypto not only hold up relatively well since the June lows but indeed be one of the better performing asset classes.
Stock Picking in a Bond-Friendly Environment
I look back to other periods when bonds outperformed stocks. This analysis allows us to assess specific stock traits and specific industries that over- and underperformed in those eras.
Pension Sandpile
Sandpiles can be fun. Nothing beats taking kids to the beach (or being a kid!) and watching their creativity blossom into all kinds of magical shapes. The problem with sand construction is it doesn’t last. I have it on good authority that building your house on the sand probably won’t end well.
Bonds are the Better Alternative
With Treasury yields around 4% and corporate bonds yields even higher, fixed income is the better alternative to stocks.
Value Vs. Growth: The Unwind Continues
The world seems an increasingly uncomfortable place for traditional stock and bond investments.
Turn off CNBC and Watch Real Yields
If one is watching CNBC to figure out where markets are headed, they will be better served looking to the bond market for direction.
A Case for Direct Indexing Using Rising Dividend Stocks
One investment with the ability to provide current income, inflation protection, and even the potential for capital appreciation has been largely overlooked – rising dividend stocks.
Where’s the Beef?
In the 1980s there was a famous TV ad for Wendy’s with the tagline “Where’s the beef?”.
Corporate Profit Growth Will Slow
In the long run, stock prices and returns are anchored by the cash flows that companies provide investors. If profits grow slower than expected, stock return projections must be recalibrated.
The Plunging Pound
Bleeding into this week, the British pound reached its lowest level ever Monday, relative to the U.S. dollar.
Tackling the Income Problem
While 2022 has been a challenging year for nearly every segment of the capital markets, it comes with a silver lining for income investors: higher yields.
Taking Stock: Q4 2022 Equity Market Outlook
Balancing acts. As the Fed walks the line between curbing inflation and averting recession, anxious investors are seeking to balance the two risks. Amid the uncertainty, we believe stock selection matters more.
The Tail Risk of Persistent Inflation
The leading tail-risk potential is the increased odds that high inflation remains stubborn, and the Fed continues to fight those odds aggressively.
A Toolkit for Improving Client Behavior
How can we design and deliver our advice in a way that clients implement it? Enter the commitment device.
Upcoming Free CE Webinars Hosted by Advisor Perspectives
This week, Advisor Perspectives is set to host a variety of free CE webinars for financial professionals. These webinars will cover a variety of topics that are intended to help advisors gain valuable insight and education, allowing them to better meet their clients’ needs.
Bond Yields are Defying Yesterday’s Logic
When the supply and demand for bonds normalize, bond investors will realize that economic, inflation and other factors warrant much lower yields.
Silver Up, Then Down
Silver rallied to start the week as all contract months were up four percent or more.
Building the Ultimate Risk Tolerance Assessment
Investor risk tolerance drives portfolio decisions, yet many financial advisors are rightly concerned about the accuracy of risk tolerance assessments. Why is it so hard? How can we get it right?
Personalized Managed Accounts: The Next Level of Customization in SMAs
Investors increasingly want more control and customization of their portfolios. Personalized managed accounts give them the opportunity to do that.
Investing For Retirement III: Understanding And Dealing With Sequence Risk
As one of us points out relentlessly, risk isn’t a number, rather it is a notion or a concept.
Inflation's Winners and Losers
I explore consumer staple and discretionary companies to see how they are navigating the inflation storm.
Powell Pivot
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s hawkish comments dominated the markets on Friday, with the major indices all seeing a drop of over 3%.
Let’s Not Get Carried Away
With the recent increases in interest rates, the carry trade has had a sudden resurgence in performance, which could make it a tempting strategy for investors.