Potomac Fund Management’s model portfolios are reaching a larger audience as its strategies are now available on the FMAX and Amplify platforms. FMAX stands for Fidelity’s Managed Account Xchange, which is an investment platform that connects advisors to portfolio construction solutions. Amplify is another wealth management platform that provides advisors with portfolio and client solutions. This follows a recent announcement by the company that its strategies had launched on the Orion Portfolio Solutions platform. The demand for strategy diversification has skyrocketed as advisors deal with the current bear market. The downturn has led advisors to embrace multiple strategies to build and preserve wealth for their clients. Potomac’s strategies are designed to “win by losing less” which may help financial advisors build portfolios to help protect against market risk. The company’s suite of model portfolios allows advisors to match the right strategy to each investor’s needs.

Finsum: Potomac Fund Management’s model portfolios, which help advisors diversify against market risk, are now available on more platforms.

The rumble for a trend called direct indexing seems to be accelerating, as a burgeoning number of investors are displaying a demand for specialized portfolios, according to markettradingessentials.com.

The upshot: eschewing ownership of a mutual or exchange traded fund, direct indexing’s flashing the wallet on stocks of an index, the site continued. The idea’s to hit to hit paydirt on, for example, tax efficiency, diversification or values-based investing.

“It says a lot that these large fund providers are leaning into direct indexing,” said Adam Grealish, head of investments at Altruist, an advisor platform with a direct indexing product.

So, in light of the ascension of direct indexing, investors might be asking, pre tell, how to build a portfolio in which this strategy’s incorporated, according to corporate.vanguard.com.

Well, presto, investors can cull ways to meet that goal through a framework available in Personalized indexing: A portfolio construction plan, a Vanguard research paper recently published. 

“Our research represents a sensible starting point for potential direct indexing investors who want to include this strategy in their portfolios,” said Vanguard senior investment strategist Kevin Khang, Ph.D., one of the paper’s authors.

With apparent eroding client interest, ESGs might be losing some of their bang, according to thinkadvisor.com. In the past several months, 31% of advisors reported taking questions about ESG or socially responsible investing from clients. That’s down from 39% who indicated as much last year and in 2020.

Thirty four percent of advisors were found to tap or recommend these strategies to clients this year,  according to the survey. While that’s an uptick of 2 percentage points from 2021, it receded from a high of 38% in 2020.

Investmentnews.com reported in June that, in recent years, while a burgeoning percentage of financial advisors folded ESG investments options into their business, more now indicated they intend shore back on suggesting such investments, according to a survey.

While financial advisor use or recommendation of environmental, social and governance or ESG investing strategies have moved consistently along over the past four years, according to prnewswire.com. However, during the next  12 months, it could slip in use, according to the 2022 Trends in Investing Survey, conducted by the Journal of Financial Planning and the Financial Planning Association, as provided to prnewswire.com by the Financial Planning Association.

Made up of a diversified group of assets built to generate an expected return, model portfolios also come with risk, according to smartasset.com.

With your financial goals squarely in the cross hairs, a host of portfolios typically are offered by financial advisors or investment managers. With these portfolios, investors can leverage simple and effective investment methods under minimal management, the site continued. 

Certainly, it seems, the popularity of model portfolios is hardly lukewarm. Within the landscape of the financial product distribution landscape, among advisors, their burgeoning use carries formidable power, according to brainbridge.com.

These portfolios, over time, are automatically rebalanced based on evolving market conditions or client needs. According to MMI, these models always have been a linchpin of the $6.5 trillion advisory solutions industry. Most prominently, they’ve played a big role in packaged mutual fund advisory programs, the site stated. That’s where discretionary investment management is outsourced by an advisor to an internal investment committee/research team at a distributor.

Creating the portfolio evolves around a plethora of decisions, according to forbes.com.

Through diversification, a model portfolio positions you to hedge your risks.  

In an ideal world, the brains behind the portfolios are financial advisors. Their role’s to oversee the portfolios daily, allowing you, the customer, to be hands off.

PIMCO saw the second quarter sell-off in bond funds as investors pulled nearly $30 billion in the last three months. The biggest cause for the sell-off is the rising rate hikes and inflation which may be causing yields to rise and bond prices to fall. Still, analysts say that if interest hikes begin to stabilize then the bond outflows will seize and even reverse into inflows. 

This is the largest sell-off since the start of the pandemic, and investors are concerned a recession is around the corner. PIMCOs shining light are the few funds that it has that are doing okay despite macro headwinds and could prove to be a driving force for inflows when markets stabilize.

Finsum: Bond prices are just too low right now and yields will fall with inflation easing and the fed tightening, but its a matter of it happening soon enough. 

Wealthy investors are hitting a pandemic low in terms of optimism around the market as concerns flare up surrounding volatility. The latest survey by UBS shows that inflation and geopolitics are weighing down investor sentiment regarding optimism. The majority of investors are concerned most regarding inflation and are shifting into cash holdings and the inflation concerns have them weary about where to invest. Under a third said they would increase market holdings if there was a 10% blow-off. Still, investors show a desire to invest in long-term assets such as renewables and smart mobility.

Finsum: Keeping a long eye is a smart play right now but older investors are in a difficult position regarding the market. 

According to a Bank of America analyst, the cybersecurity industry is in the midst of a spending slowdown. The slowdown has mostly affected small and mid-sized businesses. While large enterprises haven’t shown signs of a slowdown just yet, this might change as larger firms may need to reduce budgets, likely starting next year. While the demand for cybersecurity solutions has been surging as war rages on in Ukraine, uncertainties from the global economic slowdown are starting to have an effect. Distributors are expected to see slowdowns in Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Virtual Machine (VM), while areas such as endpoint solutions, cloud security, and privileged access management are seen as more resilient. Companies such as Microsoft with its bundle offerings, and SentinelOne and CrowdStrike that provide endpoint security should benefit, at least initially. Cloud security providers Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks are expected to benefit as well.

Finsum: Uncertainties arising from the global economic slowdown have triggered a slowdown in spending on some cybersecurity solutions.

Active bond giant Pimco saw clients pull their money for a second straight quarter amid the global bond selloff. The firm saw outflows of $29.4 billion during the second quarter as investors fled bonds due to Fed rate hikes triggered by sky-high inflation. High-interest rates make bonds less attractive. This was after the California-based company saw $14.3 billion drawn by investors in the first quarter. Analysts at Citigroup noted that the outflows during the second quarter were much higher than expected. The fund company has been trying to navigate a less than ideal fixed income environment where high levels of inflation not seen in a generation are eroding the value of their bond holdings. Overall, Pimco’s parent company, Allianz, saw its third-party assets under management fall to $1.83 billion.

Finsum: Amid the global bond selloff, active bond manager PIMCO saw massive outflows for the second straight quarter.

According to a July survey conducted by VettaFi and State Street Global Advisors, high yield credit strategies were the bond style most appealing for advisors to add to client portfolios. With treasury yields narrowing and the Federal Reserve aggressively hiking rates to tackle inflation, investors are looking to take on more credit risk to receive higher yields. This is evident as three top high yield corporate bond ETFs, that collectively manage $44 billion, pulled in $4.7 billion in flows during July. The iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) brought $1.9 billion in new assets during July, while the SPDR Bloomberg High Yield Bond ETF (JNK) and the iShares Broad USD High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (USHY) brought in $1.7 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively. It appears that investors currently prefer high yield bond ETFs with higher risk profiles to funds that offer more protection against rising rates.

Finsum: Due to the Fed’s rising rates policy and narrowing yields, investors flocked to high-yield bond ETFs last month. 

First Republic Bank’s wealth management unit added two wealth management teams to its ranks last week. The firm announced on Wednesday that a Merrill Lynch Private Wealth Management team that manages over $1 billion in assets left the wirehouse after 15 years to join First Republic in Palo Alto. Theresa Rutledge and Anthony Custodio, the lead advisors, each produce $4.3 million in annual revenue. Both have a $10 million account minimum. Then on Friday, the Silicon Valley bank announced that it lured another top producer to the bank, this time from J.P. Morgan Advisors. David J. Loeb generates $1.8 million in annual revenue and manages $250 million in assets. The advisor is located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where First Republic is looking to expand. The company, which has over 200 brokers, has hired around five teams this year, which puts it on pace with its annual average of 10.

Finsum: First Republic Bank continues its advisor recruitment program by luring two wealth management teams to its ranks last week.