Wealth Management
As 2025 wraps up, investors are reassessing portfolios for tax-loss harvesting opportunities, and covered call ETFs present unique advantages in this process. Because these ETFs can distribute more income than their total return, they may show negative price returns, even when overall performance is positive, creating tax-loss opportunities.
Investors holding traditional monthly covered call ETFs can use harvested losses to upgrade into daily covered call strategies that aim to capture more upside while maintaining high income. Monthly covered call funds often miss market gains once underlying stocks exceed strike prices early in the month, leaving many investors disappointed during strong rallies.
Daily covered call ETFs, such as the ProShares S&P 500 High Income ETF (ISPY), seek to improve the balance between income and return by resetting options each day.
Finsum: Daily covered call strategies are increasingly compelling for investors looking to reduce taxes and enhance performance.
Total return reflects both price appreciation and reinvested dividends, and over time, reinvesting those dividends can dramatically boost wealth. A comparison of two SPY investors from 2023 to 2025 shows that reinvesting dividends produced a 10.12% annualized return versus just 8.14% without reinvestment.
While that difference seems small, compounding turns $10,000 into $223,691 over decades—versus only $124,424 for the non-reinvestor. Dividend growth accelerates this compounding effect, as rising payouts generate more shares, more dividends, and stronger long-term momentum.
Dividend growth ETFs specifically target companies with consistent and sustainable dividend increases, setting them apart from high-yield or dividend-quality funds that use different selection criteria.
Finsum: After screening for dividend growth opportunities, low costs, strong liquidity, and meaningful scale are some of the most important factors
Portfolio income remains a priority for investors, especially with rate cuts and shifting macroeconomic conditions creating uncertainty.
Closed-end funds (CEFs) offer an alternative income approach, since they issue a fixed number of shares at launch and then trade on exchanges, often providing higher yields than traditional bond strategies.
Because CEFs behave differently from standard fixed income, they can also enhance diversification at a time when bond markets remain unpredictable. The Calamos CEF Income & Arbitrage ETF (CCEF) simplifies access to this space by actively investing in discounted closed-end funds to capture both income and potential capital appreciation.
Finsum: CEFs could be a nice opportunity to gain exposure to alternative income streams
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The Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Investor Fund (VBMFX), launched in 1986, gives investors broad exposure to the U.S. investment-grade bond market and is managed by Joshua Barrickman since 2013.
Despite its long history, recent performance has been modest, with a 5-year annualized return of -0.62% and a 3-year return of 4.8%, both ranking in the bottom third of its category. However, the fund’s appeal lies in its low volatility, showing a 3-year standard deviation of 6.41% compared to the category average of 12.85%.
Cost efficiency is a major strength, as VBMFX’s expense ratio of 0.15% is far below the 0.93% category average, making it one of the cheapest options in its class.
Finsum: This fund could offer steady exposure to the bond market with minimal cost and volatility, for the right investor.
In an increasingly commoditized wealth management industry, broker-dealers must find smarter ways to grow, and that starts with helping advisors meet clients’ full financial needs. Clients today want holistic guidance that covers retirement income, wealth transfer, and protection against life’s risks, making insurance and annuities essential complements to traditional investments.
Yet, many advisors hesitate to offer these solutions due to product complexity, fragmented systems, and time-consuming compliance requirements. Modern technology can solve these challenges by creating integrated, end-to-end workflows that simplify quoting, applications, and compliance, freeing advisors to focus on clients instead of paperwork.
A unified digital platform can enhance accuracy, streamline documentation, and reduce operational risk, all while supporting scalability as regulations and client expectations evolve.
Finsum: Firms that embrace connected technology empower advisors to deliver comprehensive advice, deepen client relationships, and drive sustainable long-term growth.
Private infrastructure, once limited to institutions and ultra-wealthy investors, is quickly becoming more accessible as new funds open to individuals through financial advisors. A recent BlackRock survey found that nearly a third of wealthy family offices plan to expand or begin infrastructure allocations, reflecting growing confidence in the sector’s stability and income potential.
Demand is fueled by themes like artificial intelligence, which drives the need for more data centers and energy capacity, alongside global investment in essential assets like transportation and communications networks.
These strategies contrast with infrastructure ETFs and mutual funds, which focus on public equities tied to the sector and tend to prioritize growth over income.
Finsum: While private funds offer higher potential yields through the “illiquidity premium,” investors must weigh their limited liquidity and longer investment horizons.