Wealth Management
Raymond James is addressing a quieter challenge in the wealth management sector: helping independent advisors scale their teams amid growing client demands. This week, the firm introduced Talent Sourcing, a new in-house recruitment service that offers personalized hiring support, including candidate outreach and screening tailored to each advisory team's needs.
The service aims to bridge the talent gap across roles ranging from junior advisors to specialized support staff, allowing advisors to focus on growth without sacrificing service quality. It arrives as competition for top advisory talent intensifies, especially following LPL's $2.7 billion acquisition of Commonwealth Financial.
By providing a vetted shortlist of candidates, Talent Sourcing complements Raymond James’s broader suite of advisor tools, including its Paraplanning Services launched last year.
Finsum: Ultimately, this initiative not only strengthens internal practices but also positions the firm to meet evolving client expectations for more comprehensive, value-added financial services.
Meta is quietly re-entering the crypto landscape, years after shelving its high-profile Libra project amid intense political pushback. The company is now exploring the use of stablecoins—cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional currencies—for global payouts, especially to creators, and has hired fintech veteran Ginger Baker to guide the effort.
Discussions with crypto infrastructure firms remain in the early stages, but the focus is on leveraging stablecoins to reduce cross-border payment costs and eliminate wire transfer fees.
Meta’s renewed interest follows a wave of stablecoin momentum across the financial industry, including moves by Stripe, Visa, and Fidelity, and a regulatory environment that may soon offer clearer rules. Unlike its earlier crypto attempt, Meta appears more cautious and flexible this time, showing openness to different stablecoin providers without tying itself to a single issuer.
While Libra ended in failure, Meta’s second try reflects a broader industry shift—and the company’s ongoing drive to stay competitive in digital payments and fintech innovation.
Dodge & Cox Emerging Markets Stock earned a Medalist Rating upgrade to Silver from Morningstar, thanks to increased confidence in its disciplined mix of qualitative judgment and quantitative screening, particularly valuable in navigating under-researched segments of emerging markets.
This hybrid approach, while unusual for the firm, uses a valuation-weighted model to flag potential opportunities, especially among smaller-cap names, before handing decisions over to the fundamental research team. Since its 2021 inception, the fund has delivered solid performance, outperforming a majority of its peers and its benchmark. Its portfolio, broader than other Dodge & Cox offerings, includes over 200 holdings with considerable overlap in top names with the firm's international strategy.
The JPMorgan US Research Enhanced Equity fund also saw a Morningstar upgrade, thanks to a highly stable and experienced 19-person analyst team that has consistently driven strong stock selection within a benchmark-aware framework.
Finsum: Now, could be a good opportunity to capitalize on certain EM as trade disrupts markets.
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Structured notes can offer attractive returns, but they come with notable risks that investors should carefully consider. One of the primary concerns is liquidity risk, as these products often lack a secondary market, making it difficult to sell before maturity without potentially accepting a steep discount.
Market risk is also a factor, since structured notes are tied to the performance of underlying assets that may be volatile, especially when linked to speculative markets. Even if a note includes downside protection, extreme fluctuations can still lead to losses.
Default risk is another major issue, as the investor’s return ultimately depends on the solvency of the issuing institution. In the event of a bankruptcy—such as Lehman Brothers’ collapse—investors may lose their entire principal regardless of market performance.
Finsum: However, when structured thoughtfully, these notes can offer enhanced yields, downside buffers, or tailored exposure to specific markets not easily accessed through traditional investments.
Apex Fintech Solutions has introduced a new Direct Indexing platform designed to help advisors and fintechs create tailored, tax-smart portfolios for their clients. The solution enables investors to directly hold the individual stocks within an index, allowing for fine-tuned adjustments based on personal goals or values like ESG preferences.
With a minimum investment of $10,000, it opens access to advanced portfolio customization for a broader range of users. The platform offers built-in benchmarks for large, mid, and small-cap equities, and incorporates automated tax-loss harvesting to improve efficiency and returns.
Seamlessly integrated into Apex’s Augmented Advice™ suite, it simplifies portfolio management while supporting deep personalization. Future upgrades will further enhance customization, including user-defined indices and more precise portfolio adjustments.
Finsum: ESG is a great spot for custom indexing because it is ripe for picking companies that align with investor value.
Annuities offer retirees a steady income stream, with fixed annuities providing guaranteed interest rates during the accumulation phase and predictable payouts in retirement.
April 2025’s top fixed annuities include: Gainbridge’s SteadyPace at 5.80% over five years, Reliance Standard’s 5.00% option, and higher-premium offerings like MassMutual’s Premier Voyage 5, which reaches up to 4.90% for $1M+ investments.
Rates generally vary by premium size and contract length, with most products requiring $10,000–$100,000 minimums and terms of three to five years. Fixed annuities also offer tax-deferred growth and can be customized with features like survivor or death benefits. However, higher returns often require larger upfront investments, and early withdrawals can trigger penalties.
Despite their complexity, fixed annuities remain a useful tool for generating reliable retirement income, particularly for those seeking stability, tax deferral, and no contribution limits.