This fall has been a challenging season for equities. In October, the S&P 500 Index declined approximately 9%, while volatility, as represented by the VIX Index, more than doubled. And November hasn’t been much better, with some stock indexes approaching double-digit losses for the year as we enter December.
In this issue, we explore the burgeoning realm of strategic model portfolios as well as other topics, including trading, index transitions, and the importance of currency hedging in global bond portfolios.
October’s market volatility showed us signs that we may be in the late stages of the current bull market. Help your clients keep their emotions in check and prepare for more market uncertainty with these six steps.
Are you confident you are choosing the best managers for your clients? The data from this Envestat report may surprise you.
Despite recent volatility, the technology sector has meaningfully outperformed the market in 2018. Investors are now wondering whether the gains can continue. We discuss why technology stocks have the potential to withstand near-term volatility and deliver long-term returns.
Even though we all know market fluctuations are a normal part of equity investing, large market declines are scary to most investors because they often happen rapidly and feel random.
We have no idea what will happen today, very little notion of what next week holds, a slight inkling as to potential one-year returns but could take a pretty solid stab at 30 years from now.
Should investors be overweight to both growth and value? Is it even possible? The stock market is at an interesting point today, currently enjoying one of its longest expansions on record. As history has all-too well demonstrated, though, the good times won’t last forever.
Helping investors reach their goals by focusing on outcomes, we believe, is the only measurement of success.
Climate change is big news—both bad and good—for long-term investors. The bad news? The longer your time horizon, the more climate change risk is compounding. The good news? In our view, effectively managing your exposure can add alpha and reduce risk in every asset class.
There is evidence that stock picking works in certain markets while not in others. Learn the relevant metrics and how paying attention to them could improve portfolio results.
Checklists are excellent tools for delivering results and optimizing your team’s time. Stoplists are even better for providing focus and helping your team work smarter. Here’s our list of 10 things to stop doing.
Join Sophie Antal Gilbert, a Consulting Director at Russell Investments and Jon Eggins a Senior Portfolio Manager for Global Equities at Russell Investments, as they explore some of the potential benefits and challenges of international tax-smart investing.
Capital gain distributions are something that investors often don’t pay attention to until late in the fourth quarter. But several events are coming together to make the tracking and monitoring of capital gain distributions a year-round exercise.
The behavioral wealth advisor takes a holistic and proactive approach to wealth management, creating a behavioral discipline throughout the client service model. They increase client confidence and minimize behavioral biases while improving retention and acquisition.
We believe that possessing the discipline to stay invested through the ups and downs of the market gives a diversified portfolio the best probability of meeting its goals.
Most investors end up with over-diversified portfolios that are costly and deliver poor performance. The typical asset allocation model and subsequent investment in a group of diversified funds often results in a portfolio of “Global Mush” with literally thousands of tiny positions.
ESG, SRI, and impact investing: A primer for decision-making helps investors establish specific goals, evaluate potential options, and decide on an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing approach.
When it comes to active management, believing that active managers generally perform better in certain market segments is a myth, not a reality.
Past performance may not be predictive of future performance but fund manager behavior, in terms of strategy consistency and conviction, is predictive. How do you measure that behavior to find active equity funds with high performance potential?
How does a proven tactical strategy work when the market signal is driven by behavioral crowds? In this interview, C. Thomas Howard, PhD of AthenaInvest reveals how their global tactical portfolio outperforms with a unique behavioral approach.
This Vanguard Research Insight piece explains why, when adding value is the goal, advisors may be better served by changing their performance benchmark from the market’s return to the returns that investors might achieve on their own, without professional guidance.
A strategy-based approach to creating a portfolio provides superior diversification relative to style boxes. Start by evaluating funds based on their self-declared strategy.
Over the past 20+ years, ETFs have grown tremendously in terms of AUM and number of products. They now span virtually every asset class. This guide from Invesco provides an thorough overview of exchange traded funds and insight into ETF liquidity and execution.
Recently, the markets have gotten a lot noisier with the return of volatility and amplified rhetoric around trade concerns and monetary policy. For the average investor it can be overwhelming and hard to know when to be concerned and when to tune out the noise.
This Envestat report finds that the composition of inflows has indeed begun to shift, consistent with a more cautious mindset.
On the fence about the potential benefits of tax-smart investing? These three charts may help you decide.
The investment world is abuzz these days with impact investing, which enables investors to sync their portfolios with their values and principles. But, does this hold true with advisors who use Envestnet's platform?
A Vanguard overview of how to implement behavioral coaching, including four timeless investing truths you can use to support client discussions.
Move over Style Grid. The question of how to group and evaluate active equity fund managers has evolved into a powerful alternative using actual investment strategies.
While stocks deliver unpredictable returns in the short-run, stocks are the least risky choice to build wealth over longer time periods. As the investment horizon increases, loss of purchasing power becomes the main risk.
Impact investing shouldn’t be thought of as substitute for philanthropy. Ideally, investors are turning to impact investing as a tool to be deployed alongside traditional philanthropy.
Richard Turnill explains what sustainable investing could bring to a portfolio, and why the strategy is gaining traction.
Jim Patrick provides his insights on the future of impact investing at the Envestnet Advisor Summit.
Brett Wayman of Envestnet and Doug Classen of DANA Investment Advisors answer questions about impact investing and manager selection in the ESG space.
One of the easiest and most direct ways for advisors to give back to their communities is to provide pro bono financial planning services, and the Foundation for Financial Planning is set up to help them do exactly that.
After last year’s tranquil environment, markets experienced a sharp pullback in February and have returned to a more normal level of volatility. As a result, many investors are wondering, where are we now and what’s next? The chart below highlights how recent events compare to the prior 11 corrections.
Volatility makes clients uneasy, often prompting impulsive investment decisions that can make for choppy returns. Advisors can seize this opportunity to demonstrate their value by structuring portfolios with professional managers who can both slash volatility and also smooth investment returns.
Join Sophie Antal Gilbert, a Consulting Director at Russell Investments and Rob Kuharic an Investment Strategist for Tax-Managed, at Russell Investments, as they explore the 6 most common questions we hear from advisors about tax-smart investing.
Volatility isn't the villain some investors think it is. This article explains why and offers tips for helping clients stay focused on their long-term goals.
BlackRock shows how it is possible to build sustainable investing portfolios - while meeting traditional return goals.
If you’re an investor or advisor and not worrying about the tax drag on your taxable investments, you’re almost certainly paying the price. And you’re almost certainly paying a lot— almost two percent in lost performance, annually.
If history has shown us anything, it’s that the stock market is destined to go through another sustained down period. Are you and your clients prepared for a potentially more challenging investment environment ahead?
Manager selection is a question that all investors face, of course, but it’s especially critical for investors in alternatives because these managers have greater freedom in their investment strategies. This freedom leads to a wide dispersion between the top-performing and below-average alt managers, and that dispersion is typically greater than what is found in traditional equity investments.
The rapid growth of impact investing suggests more investors are seeking to align their investment dollars with their values. Understanding your clients’ values and guiding them to making investment decisions reflective of those values can be key to deepening your client relationships.
One consideration advisors must weigh when contemplating outsourcing is the impact it may have on fees. With this in mind, we examined the economics of APM and FSP programs to help advisors determine which approach makes sense for their practice.
With the surging economy and the recent shift in monetary policy, many investors are worried about rising interest rates and potential inflation. A little historical information can provide valuable perspective.
Not too long ago, responsible investing opportunities for individuals were focused almost exclusively within the equity securities of publicly listed companies with strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance records. As the concept of responsible investing has evolved, so too, have opportunities for investors.
Join Sophie Antal Gilbert, a Consulting Director at Russell Investments and Jon Eggins a Senior Portfolio Manager for Global Equities at Russell Investments, as they explore the potential benefits and challenges of tax-smart investing.
Indeed, we have to distance ourselves from the presumption that financial markets always work well and that price changes always reflect genuine information…The challenge for economists is to make this reality a better part of their models.