Displaying items by tag: advisors

According to the new InspereX 2023 Advisor Outlook Survey, 74% of financial advisors said they expect the inverted yield curve between the 2-year and 10-year Treasuries to continue into the second quarter of 2023. This includes 40% who expect it to last beyond the third quarter. An inverted yield curve occurs when short-term yields are higher than long-term yields. It is also often considered a signal for a recession. InspereX provides advisors, institutional investors, issuers, and risk managers deep access to fixed-income market data across asset classes. The survey was conducted between November 8th and 21st, 2022, among 270 financial advisors by Red Zone Marketing. The respondents represented advisors from independent and regional broker-dealers, banks, and RIAs. InspereX President David Rudd stated, “While many advisors are bullish on stocks in 2023 and optimistic about moderating inflation, their views on a continuation of the inverted Treasury yield curve indicate that the first half of the year could be bumpy.” However, advisors also believe that rising inflation is over, with 75% saying it has peaked. While many advisors say their clients are concerned about fixed-income volatility, they were not too scared to invest in fixed-income right now. In fact, the survey found that 68% of advisors are using individual bonds with their clients, mainly for income (56%) and diversification (23%).

Finsum:A recent survey revealed that advisors are concerned that the inverted yield will continue into next year, indicating the possibility of a recession.

Once you walk out the door for the last time – after, of course, knocking out the lights – as a financial advisor, you know your job isn’t really done.

After all, succession planning is a mucho factor to ensure your brand, not to mention your clients, continue to thrive, according to figmarketing.com.

Along those lines, a few important questions to mull toward laying a foundation:

What valuation do you attach to your firm?

An ongoing revenue stream or lump sum payment. Which floats your boat?

Do you envision partnering with your successor to train and guide them, or do you prefer an outright sale?

When it comes to your firm, any heirs whom might be interested in it?

Of course, your departure is among a gaggle of them looking your profession in the rearview mirror. In the next five years, according to a study by Schwab of RIAs and recruitment, 70,000 new advisors will be needed in the financial planning industry – just to keep pace with the burgeoning number of those in the market for input in areas like the purchase of a home and retirement, reported financial-planning.com.

And, hey, the additional planners needed to replace those who retire or leave for other industries aren’t even accounted for in the study.

Morningstar recently announced that it has launched an Annuity Intelligence Center for advisors to compare and manage annuities for their clients. Sales of annuities have been booming due to higher interest rates and increased demand for retirement income. The Annuity Intelligence Center aims to simplify annuity sales and management for advisors by offering a comparison tool, educational material, and product accessibility. The platform is a partnership between Morningstar and Luma Financial Technologies, an Ohio-based fintech company with a platform for broker-dealer firms to buy and sell annuities, long-term investment options issued by insurance companies, and alternative investments. The Annuity Intelligence Center is designed for retail annuity sales and management but does not include in-plan annuities for workplace-sponsored plans. While retail annuity sales have been flourishing, in-plan annuity sales have been lagging. Jeff Schwantz, global head of channel partnerships at Morningstar, said the following in a press release, “Assets in annuities are climbing, and while these vehicles are growing in popularity, the annuity marketplace remains opaque, and advisers serving investors have difficulty evaluating their options.”

Finsum:Morningstar is looking to take advantage of a booming retail annuity market with the launch of a platform for advisors to compare and manage annuities for their clients.

CAIS, a leading alternative investment platform, recently announced that global private equity firm Warburg Pincus selected CAIS to help expand its reach to independent advisors. CAIS provides financial advisors with a broad selection of alternative investment strategies, including hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real estate, digital assets, and structured notes. Warburg Pincus has more than $85 billion in assets under management and an active portfolio of more than 255 companies. Through the collaboration, CAIS will onboard a selection of Warburg Pincus funds to its platform, where they will be accessible to its vast independent advisory firms and teams. The private equity firm is looking to benefit from CAIS’ data-rich dashboard, which helps measure product interest and engagement from wealth management professionals using the platform. Chip Kaye, CEO of Warburg Pincus had this to say about the collaboration between the two firms, "This partnership helps us introduce our fund strategies to a wider audience of financial advisors and their clients. Having already served the independent wealth management ecosystem for more than a decade, CAIS provides the reach, knowledge, and technology stack required to bridge the gap between alternative asset managers and fiduciary professionals."

Finsum:Warburg Pincus is looking to expand the reach of its private equity funds to independent financial advisors through the CAIS investment platform.

Merrill Lynch recently announced that a $1 million plus producer from Ameriprise Financial has joined its private wealth unit team. Alex Miller, who was part of an Ameriprise Financial team with a billion-dollar book in Houston, joined Merrill’s Massey Schmidt Harper Group in Houston. The team is led by managing director Craig Lambert Massey and has $2.1 billion in team assets. At Ameriprise, Miller was part of Pennington Wealth Management, led by Darrell Pennington. The announcement follows several other new hires at Merrill in recent months, including producers in community markets that are outside its parent Bank of America’s branch footprint and junior brokers with fewer than 12 years of experience. The firm has also expanded its search to include higher offers for veteran brokers. For instance, last month it hired a team of private bankers managing around $1 billion from Citigroup in New York. They also nabbed a million-dollar producer from Morgan Stanley in Huntsville, Alabama, who joined through the firm’s community markets initiative. However, the firm is still seeing several high-producing teams heading for the door.

Finsum:As Merrill Lynchcontinues to lose several high-producing teams, the firm is making a recruiting push with the addition of a $1 million plus producer from Ameriprise Financial.