An informed consumer is an…. Yep; you get the idea

That brings us to direct indexing, which yields a host of benefits for investors, according to avaloninvest.com. By toting a firm grasp of directing indexing’s concept, what can investors do? Why, make informed decisions about their portfolios and the most of their returns, that’s what.

Meantime, preferences and goals are always nice and with direct indexing, investors can customize their investments based on both of those elements. Not only that, investors can leverage direct indexing to generate exposure to specific companies within an index. That can come in especially handy among investors who believe deeply in specific companies or sectors.

Investors are opting more and more for direct indexing to spark customized portfolios, according to etftrends.com.

Delving a bit deeper, with direct indexing accounts, such as, for example, Vanguard Personalized Indexing, which offers screens and tilts. They allow advisors to customize the portfolios of their clients, not to mention positions advisors – on the behalf of their clients -- to request custom options.

“You can help clients express environmental, social, and governance (ESG) or socially responsible investing (SRI) preferences,” according to Vanguard. “You can tilt their portfolios toward stocks with certain characteristics like momentum or value, known as factors.”

In the wealth management arena, direct indexing is one of the fastest growing areas and presents a unique opportunity for investors and advisors. Demand for these services is likely to grow due to more awareness of the benefits, desire to lower tax bills, lower costs, and easier implementation.

According to Cerulli Associates, direct indexing assets under management (AUM) are likely to grow at a faster rate than traditional categories like ETFs, mutual funds, and SMAs over the next five years and reach over $1 trillion by the end of the decade. Despite these bullish trends, less than 20% of advisors are familiar with the strategy and recommend it to clients. 

For investors, the biggest appeal of direct indexing is the potential to lower the tax bill and use harvested losses to offset gains in other parts of the portfolio. Continued adoption and awareness at the investor and advisor level are likely to be the biggest growth drivers over the next few years.

Direct indexing is a form of passive investing except investors are able to access the increased customization and tax loss harvesting benefits of active investing. This is done by recreating an index in a personal portfolio with appropriate adjustments to account for an individual’s situation or financial goals. 

Finsum: Direct indexing assets under management is on pace to exceed $1 trillion by the end of the decade. Here are some of the major growth drivers.

Picking the right niche can really help an advisor differentiate themselves in a crowded market to create a unique brand. Typically, a niche means that an advisor is focusing on a particular demographic such as a particular profession or demographic. But, it can also refer to advisors who specialize in specific areas such as financial planning or alternative investing.

Specialization can lead to more knowledge and expertise. It’s also likely that prospects will seek an advisor out who has more experience in their area of interest or need. In terms of the best niches, one strategy is to specialize in a particular stage of the planning process.

Nearly everyone’s most important financial goal is to prepare for retirement. Therefore, retirement planning is an evergreen niche for advisors and also where they can be most impactful. This involves becoming well-versed about various retirement plans and options. Ultimately, it’s about helping retirees and prospective retirees have the best quality of life. 

Another possible niche is to focus on younger clients. This would involve being digitally savvy and understanding their needs and goals with a major emphasis on education around personal finances and investing. Many younger clients also stand to inherit money from older generations given the country’s demographic realities.

Finsum: Picking the right niche is an important decision for every advisor. Here are some tips on picking the right niche and some examples.

Risk adverse?

Well, perhaps you’ve pulled up to the right window. After all, a big upside of active fixed income management: risk mitigation, according to npifund-com.

Possible problems – before they damage client portfolios – can be traded out of by alert active fixed income managers. What’s more, the site states: “We believe the next problem to address with active management is the leverage bubble in corporate debt. The disproportionately large BBB market, in   particular, “poses a risk to the markets in the event of a wave of downgrades under the right recessionary scenario.”

Meantime, it seems investment strategy and fixed income teams at Vanguard have been burning a little midnight oil.

According to corpaemdisp.essp.c1.vanguard.com, new research from the company’s teams taken a close look into how the growth of a diverse coupon stack in the municipal bond market, followed by, down the line, “aggressive Fed rate hikes put negative convexity front and center in active muni investing.”

Those active managers steering through this environment of souped up rates are gaining leverage. Why? Because they’ve been able to wrap their heads around how to manage negative convexity risk – and they’ve been prudent while they’re at it.  

The retiring type?

Yeah, well, not if you’re the retiree who created the Retiree Portfolio Model – an Excel spreadsheet that can be downloaded -- for retirees, according to bobleheads.org.

Seems as if Forum member BigFoot48, who developed the model, was onto something.

Homing in on a retiree and the lives of their spouse’s, it models their most common financial aspects. That includes pensions, Social Security benefits and living expenses. With that data, a model of their accounts over a period of one to 40 years is used.

With a feature of this model, the user can compare their normal portfolio results with that one includes alternative choices, like performing Roth IRA conversions and selecting alternative Social Security starting ages and benefits, not to mention buying a Single Premium Immediate Annuity.

And talk about visibility. Formulas and results – and that means all of them – can be viewed completely – not to mention the fact that they can be unprotected; paving the way to user customization.

Meantime, monitor the markets, you say? 

Um, among a good chunk of advisors, apparently not.

According to capitalgroup.com, in the U.S., some of the highest growth advisors are 40% more likely to leverage model portfolios in their practice. And that’s at the cost of monitoring the markets, into which they’re sinking less time.