There’s a fallacy among advisors that selecting a platform partner is an either/or proposition: a TAMP or an open-architecture solution. There is a middle ground. Some describe it as a “full-service portfolio management platform.” The team at SEI calls it a Techstodian^SM.

The active/passive debate frequently focuses on equities, where active approaches have historically underperformed passive strategies. The story is decidedly different in the world of fixed income, where active managers can more easily exploit mispricing and other inefficiencies.

Amid the deluge of headlines in the past few days about congressional proposals to boost taxes on companies and the wealthy is one that would affect regular investors -- and potentially alter the entire U.S. fund landscape.

If I was still a wealth advisor, I’d consider another career.

Dimensional Fund Advisors converted two more of its equity mutual funds into exchange-traded vehicles, further boosting the quant giant’s heft in the $6.8 trillion arena.

Is this new socially aware investment strategy all it’s cracked up to be?

New research confirms that institutional investors, such as mutual funds, outperform the market before fees, and they do so at the expense of retail investors. That is bad news for retail investors and for investors in active mutual funds, who underperform after fees.

While robos are beneficial as they often invest in low-cost funds and ETFs, ideally, they should also include quality SPIAs and DIAs to simplify investment planning and allow retirees to spend more.

The First Eagle Credit Opportunities Fund (FECRX) takes an intensive, research-driven approach to income-oriented opportunities available across the alternative credit spectrum—including both private and public investments—in an effort to deliver current income while providing long-term risk-adjusted returns through a focus on senior-secured assets. I spoke with its managers, Andrew Park and Christian Champ.

Mark Mobius, the legendary emerging markets investor, says that 10% of investors’ portfolios should be in gold in anticipation of currency devaluation as a result of unprecedented stimulus measures.

The retainer fee model is the perfect option to ensure that financial advisors and their clients are working towards a common goal for a successful investment strategy with no conflict of interest.

New research shows that the ESG portions of mutual funds underperformed the remainder of the funds and did so with higher risk. But the magnitude of those differences was small.

There are many potential advantages to investing in tax-exempt municipal bonds, but not all advisors are aware of additional strategies and investment vehicles that can help them meet muni-focused client needs.

Wall Street’s passive revolution is turning out to be anything but, with active investing alive and kicking in even the sleepiest corners of the ETF world, according to the latest research.

The predominant approach to classifying securities geographically is based on domicile, the legal home of a company. But that approach is losing its relevance. Investors should consider foreign revenue to understand the international risks of investments and portfolios.

New research shows that funds that with an ESG mandate have factor exposures that differ significantly from the market, creating a challenge for investors who seek a specific factor loading for their overall allocations.

You’ve probably heard of Ron Baron, founder of Baron Funds which has grown to a stable of not just mutual funds but a variety of private investments and Ron’s own capital—something like $50 billion in total. We were thrilled to have him on the SIC virtual stage, where my good friend David Bahnsen ably interviewed him. I’ll give you some extensive quotes from that session’s transcript, interspersed with comments from me.

Insurance-backed investments, or annuities, offer unique benefits not available in other asset management or investment strategies. And RIAs are starting to see the light, according to a recent survey from RetireOne and Protective Life Insurance. David Stone, RetireOne’s CEO, is my guest today, and will outline the results of its recent survey, how insurance products have changed in recent years, and the upcoming innovations in annuity products that financial advisors should keep an eye on.

News about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, much like hearing about a neighbor who won the lottery, have been impossible to ignore lately.

“Past Performance Is no guarantee of future of results.” Such is the disclaimer below every performance chart produce by the financial marketplace.

For almost three decades the acronym TAMP, for turnkey asset management program, has stuck. It’s time to kill it.

Tax proposals and changes to the tax code are a near daily story right now.

Frank Pape is the senior director, portfolio consulting for Russell Investments’ advisor and intermediary solutions business. In this interview, he discusses the latest research on how advisors can maximize the after-tax income for their clients.

New research documents the abject failure of the vast majority of municipal bond funds to outperform a passive benchmark.

Tweedy Browne is one of the most respected value managers in the world, with a legacy that includes having Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett as clients. In this interview, members of its investment committee explain why value investing is on the cusp of a resurgence.

Two months. That’s how long the pandemic-triggered recession lasted, from February to April 2020, making it the shortest economic downturn in U.S. history, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Business Cycle Dating Committee.

Rising interest rates generated negative year-to-date returns for investment grade bonds in 2021, but the second half of the year looks more promising. We believe the combination of reduced supply and strong demand will create attractive opportunities, and we are constructive on corporate credit and asset backed securities (ABS).

Form CRS is under greater SEC scrutiny by the Biden administration. How advisors and broker-dealer representatives are compared matters. A review of a few major firms’ CRS is illustrative.

The most torrid Treasuries rally in a year is likely set for a breather as traders reassess their rush to abandon reflation bets with some potentially decisive events looming in the coming days.

For years, David Horowitz at Agilon Capital was a rare breed in the bond market: a quant in a notoriously old-school business where prices were a call rather than a click away.

TINA has been applied to investing. You must buy stocks because TINA. You can’t make money any other way. Just close your eyes, buy and hold forever. Or at least through a full market cycle. Frankly, I think that’s stupid.

With respect to managing portfolios in an inflationary environment, we have taken great care to emphasize companies that we believe have pricing power due to the mission-critical or value-add nature of their products and services.

Legendary global investor John Templeton once said that the best time to buy was when there was “maximum pessimism,” and the best time to sell was when there was “maximum optimism.”

Here are the components of a succession communications plan and the steps to take to put them together.

Inflation continues to be a concern these days, and many investors are looking for investments that can keep pace with, or hopefully beat, the rate of inflation

Buying shares trading at 40 times earnings may not sound like a good deal. But that’s exactly what Maneesh Deshpande is telling clients to do.

Growth stocks have lagged cyclicals so far in 2021, but we remain steadfast in our belief that secular growth is the key to generating long-term returns. In this piece, we discuss how we find attractive opportunities in the small cap universe.

A proposal by the Biden administration would remove the preferential tax considerations for long-term holders of stocks. In so doing, it will cause investors to favor active ETFs over traditional actively managed mutual funds.

Dimensional Fund Advisors just became one of the biggest players in the $6.5 trillion exchange-traded fund arena.

Millions of people – many of whom are excellent financial planning prospects – may not realize that they have to deal with cross-border planning complications which, if handled clumsily or not at all, will significantly reduce their wealth.

Past studies found some evidence of persistence of outperformance in private equity and venture capital. But new research challenges those findings and makes a compelling case that advisors and their clients should proceed with caution in those assets classes, investing only when they are confident they have identified a compelling strategic advantage.

The strength of the municipal-bond market shows no sign of fading in the next few months, sustaining the securities’ historic valuations with investors plowing money into funds that buy tax-exempt debt.

Treasury yields fell again in May and credit spreads approached recent tights as the virus continued to recede, allowing the reopening of the economy to progress. Economic data was noisy this month, largely due to base effects, but confirms the ongoing trend of renewed growth and signs of inflation.

Proponents of the fiduciary standard claim that it will lead to better financial outcomes for clients. But a new study of Canadian advisors, who resemble U.S.-based RIAs but do not adhere to a fiduciary standard, casts doubt on this assertion.

In 2021, municipal (“muni”) bonds have been a tough asset class to manage due to overwhelming demand and limited supply in the market.

One of the most asked questions I receive is; how do I evaluate ETFs?

In good news for high-yield bonds, recovery rates on defaults are also improving from the concerningly low levels of recent months, as energy-sector defaults have worked through the system. However, recovery rates are still well below their historical level, which indicates weak bond covenants.

In a November 1789 letter addressed to his good friend, Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin shared that America was off to a great start and the recently established U.S. Constitution showed much promise but immediately added, “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”

Custodians, technology vendors, compliance firms, service platforms, TAMPs, etc., all make for a wonderful ecosystem of solutions from which advisors can choose. But it also makes for a complex and intimidating review and selection process. It doesn’t have to be.