Wealth Management
According to a new research survey by Stanford University, investor support for ESG and their willingness to potentially lose money on ESG causes varied by age, wealth, and specific ESG issues. The survey found that investors 58 years old and over were the least likely to support ESG objectives in general, while investors between the ages of 18 and 41 were the most likely to put their savings at risk to support various ESG initiatives. More than one-third of younger investors said they would be willing to lose 11% to 15% of their retirement if that meant encouraging companies to have gender and racial diversity mirroring the general population. Only 3% of the older investors said they would forfeit the same amount for those goals. Two-thirds of older investors said they were unwilling to lose any money to support diversity. Stanford also found that wealthier young investors were the biggest ESG champions. Young investors with at least $250,000 would be willing to lose about 14% of their retirement savings, while young investors with savings less than $50,000 said they would only be willing to lose 6%. In terms of specific ESG issues, the survey found that investors cared more about environmental issues than social issues and governance.
Finsum:A recent ESG survey conducted by Stanford found that wealthy younger investors are more willing to potentially lose money on ESG initiatives than older or less wealthy individuals.
F.L.Putnam Investment Management Company recently announced the launch of a new platform that will allow advisors to execute direct investments in alternatives. The platform is designed for registered investment advisors and features proprietary investment manager research on a curated list of hedge funds, private equity, private real estate, private credit, and venture capital from Atrato, F.L.Putnam's consulting practice. Advisors will be able to access the research with +SUBSCRIBE, an alternative investment order management system for non-traditional product transactions. Through +SUBSCRIBE, RIAs will be able to review Atrato's manager due diligence, the manager's data room of fund materials, and execute transactions into a tailored menu of alternative investments. Tom Manning, CEO of F.L.Putnam had this to say about the launch, "As RIAs grow and scale, the need for sophisticated investment advice, tools, and capabilities increases exponentially. With our platform, advisors will have access to a fully customizable, state-of-the-art solution that allows them to research and confidently allocate to alternative investments on behalf of their clients."
Finsum:RIAs can now access manager research and execute direct investments in alternative assets through F.L.Putnam’s new investment platform.
Morningstar recently announced the launch of Direct Indexing. The new offering will draw from industry-leading research, technology, and insights from Morningstar to help deliver greater personalization, automation, and tax efficiency for advisors and their investors. It will utilize many of the firm’s in-house capabilities, including Morningstar's Investment Management, Morningstar Indexes, Morningstar Sustainalytics, and Morningstar Equity Research to create and manage personalized investment strategies. Initially, the direct Indexing portfolios will be made available through the Morningstar Wealth Platform. This is one of the firm's first major product launches from Morningstar Wealth, a new group combining managed portfolios from Morningstar's Investment Management group, portfolio management software Morningstar Offices, investment data aggregator ByAllAccounts, and the individual investor experience across Morningstar.com. Morningstar Wealth is expected to introduce additional functionality and capabilities to advisors and firms in the coming year. According to Morningstar, approximately 61 percent of advisors indicate they are using or are considering using direct indexing.
Finsum:With a majority of advisors using or planning on using direct indexing, Morningstar has launched its own Direct Indexing offering.
Category: Wealth Management
Keywords: direct indexing, advisors, clients, tax efficiency
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While hundreds of mutual funds are expected to lose their ESG designations under new EU rules, money continues to flow into these funds. The fund class is called Article 9, which is Europe’s top environmental, social, and governance disclosure designation. Analysts and industry lawyers say a large number of Article 9 funds don’t currently meet the EU’s strict sustainability requirements, with dozens of funds having already lost their Article 9 tag. Hortense Bioy, Morningstar’s global director of sustainability research, said in an email to Bloomberg, “There could be hundreds of Article 9 downgrades in the next six months.” However, the fund class brought almost €13 billion ($13 billion) in inflows last quarter. This brings the total amount over the first nine months of this year to €29 billion, according to Morningstar data. But industry experts don’t know why. Hugo Gallagher, senior policy adviser at the European Sustainable Investment Forum told Bloomberg, “I am somewhat mystified at the continuing inflows. I can only suspect that it’s due to many end-investors not being entirely cognizant of the ambiguities around Article 9.”
Finsum: Billions continue to flow into sustainable funds that are likely going to lose their EU ESG designation and industry experts don’t know why.
Independent wealth management firm Private Advisor Group recently introduced WealthSuite, its new investment management platform. The multi-custodian platform, which is exclusive to its network of over 750 financial advisors, offers bespoke mutual fund, ETF, and blended mutual fund/ETF model portfolios. The platform also provides custom indexing and tax-optimized solutions delivered through an SMA structure. The portfolios are managed by investment strategists including BlackRock, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Adviser LLC, Orion Advisor Solutions, and WisdomTree. Private Advisor Group partnered with Orion Advisor Solutions to handle the technology powering account opening, management, and servicing of the platform, while Private Advisor Group's internal portfolio administration team will manage the day-to-day. The company has plans to continually evaluate and expand its lineup of available strategists with a focus on providing differentiated solutions for advisors and their clients. Verne Marble, Private Advisor Group's Director of Business Development had this to say about the platform, “On average, investment management accounts for 19% of an advisor's time, and WealthSuite is structured to free up capacity so advisors can focus more of their time with investors.”
Finsum:Private Advisor Group launched its new model portfolio platform WealthSuite to help free up time for its network of financial advisors.
According to a poll of over 355 financial services IT and business leaders, financial services firms feel more confident that they're protected from cyber risk than firms in any other sector. However, they still face significant third-party cyber risks. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro Incorporated commissioned Sapio Research to perform the survey. The poll found that 75% of financial firms believe they're adequately protected from ransomware. This is far higher than the average of 63% across all sectors. This confidence is attributed to the actions being performed by cybersecurity professionals. According to the survey, 99% say they regularly patch servers, 92% secure remote desktop protocol (RDP) endpoints, and 94% have rules in place to mitigate risks from email attachments. But 72% of respondents also admitted that their organization had been compromised by ransomware in the past, and 79% see their sector as a more attractive target for cyber-attacks. In fact, Trend Micro found that 56% have had suppliers compromised by ransomware, 54% believe their suppliers make them a more attractive target, and 52% say a significant number of their suppliers are Server Message Blocks (SMBs), who may have less resource to spend on security.
Finsum:While financial services firms are more confident in their cybersecurity protection than other sectors, they often face more threats.