Displaying items by tag: active management

LPL Financial recently announced that it has appointed Garrett Fish as Senior Vice President and head of Model Portfolio Management to the firm’s investment research team. In this new role, Fish will lead LPL’s investment model portfolio function, leveraging his years of active portfolio management experience to guide the firm’s model management, which includes directing the investment process and communicating with advisors. Fish will also sit on the firm’s Strategic & Tactical Asset Allocation Committee, a body responsible for the multi-asset, capital market view of LPL. He comes to LPL from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, where he spent nearly two decades as an industry-recognized fund manager leading a variety of investment vehicles for institutional and wealth management. He has managed against large-cap equity, multi-asset, and sustainable mandates during his career. LPL’s Chief Investment Officer Marc Zabicki, had this to say as part of the announcement. “Garrett’s extensive active portfolio management experience, including his international purview, will deepen our investment model management capabilities for the benefit of LPL advisors and their clients. As he joins LPL’s seasoned team of research professionals, his background and experience will also be brought to bear across our entire organization as we work collectively to provide the expertise, rigorous analysis, and valued insights on which advisors and their clients can rely.”

Finsum:LPL bolstered its research team with the appointment of Garrett Fish as Head of Model Portfolio Management.

According to a post-viewer poll following a VettaFi active fixed-income webcast, financial advisors seemed to be warming up to having more actively managed bond ETFs in their client’s portfolios. After viewing the webcast Active Fixed-Income Answers to Tight Monetary Policy, half of the respondents said that they are very likely to increase their exposure to active ETF strategies in the future, while 37.5% said they are somewhat likely to do so. The poll also found that "56% said they were concerned that owning passive index-only ETFs left them too exposed to market conditions without forward-looking risk controls or the ability to pivot to make changes, with 44% saying they were ‘very concerned’.” Todd Rosenbluth, head of research at VettaFi had this to say about the results, “With the heightened market volatility of 2022 likely to persist into the new year, advisors are increasingly interested in ETFs where, rather than shifting to a more offensive or defensive stance, they can take advantage of the expertise of managers who can shift exposure based on the latest developments.” With ETF firms launching more actively managed funds amid market volatility and inflation, investors are looking to active management to help guide their portfolios.

Finsum:A recent poll by VettaFi found that more advisors are seeing the importance of active fixed income in their client portfolios.

Invesco continues to expand its ETF lineup with the launch of four new actively managed ETFs. The new fund offerings include the Invesco AAA CLO Floating Rate Note ETF (ICLO), the Invesco High Yield Select ETF (HIYS), the Invesco Municipal Strategic Income ETF (IMSI), and the Invesco Short Duration Bond ETF (ISDB). All four funds were launched last Friday and trade on the CBOE. ICLO, which has an expense ratio of 0.26%, invests in floating-rate note securities issued by collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) that are rated AAA or equivalent. HIYS invests in higher quality below investment grade fixed income securities, such as corporate bonds and convertible securities. The fund charges 0.48%. IMSI has an expense ratio of 0.39% and invests in municipal securities exempt from federal income taxes and in other instruments that have similar economic characteristics. ISDB invests in fixed-income securities such as high-yield bonds and other similar instruments and aims to maintain a portfolio maturity and duration between one and three years. The ETF charges 0.35%.

Finsum:Invesco bolsters its active stable of ETFs with the launch of four fixed-income ETFs that invest in CLOs, high-yield bonds, munis, and short-duration bonds.

According to research from JPMorgan, the shift from actively managed funds to passive index-tracking funds has accelerated this year. The move has been boosted by a jump in flows to bond and mixed-asset funds. The share of assets under management held in U.S. passive bond and hybrid funds rose from 23% of all equivalent U.S. fund assets at the end of 2019 to 28.5 % by August 2022. Peter Sleep, senior portfolio manager at 7 Investment Management told Financial Times that “Bond exchange-traded funds were now catching up with their more broadly adopted equity ETF counterparts as the offering had broadened and become more cost competitive.” Jane Sloan, head of iShares and index investing Emea at BlackRock, added that “Half of all inflows into global ETFs this year had been into bond ETFs.” She also noted that “More people are using ETFs to trade bonds as they move within fixed-income asset classes.” This explains why trading volumes in bond ETFs are up 35% since 2020 and 2021. Tax loss harvesting is another reason for the shift as it provides an incentive for investors to sell out of their actively managed fixed-income funds.

Finsum:Due to a combination of tax loss harvesting, ETFs becoming more cost competitive, and an increase in bond ETF trading, the shift from active to passive bond funds is accelerating.

Location..location…location?

Well, active management fits the bill in any environment, according to Nuveen.com, according to whom actively managed bond strategies can play a part in managing portfolio risk while abetting returns. Not a bad thing, it pointed out, especially these days, with percolating interest rates.

Mike Gitlin, head of Fixed Income for Capital Group, said: “Now is a good time for financial professionals and investors alike to consider active fixed income ETFs. We’ve deliberately built our three new active ETFs in categories that have historically been underserved by active ETF managers. We believe these will help investors manage short-term cash needs, generate tax-exempt income, and benefit from some of the best starting yields we’ve seen in credit in years.”

You might say today’s market conditions have been less than idyllic for fixed income investors. Might you? Anyway, at the same time, investors in equities are on the hunt for bonds to offset stock prices headed the wrong way, according to thestreet.com. Still, with planning and a grasp of available options, investors can find traction in bond markets that are transitioning.