Desperately Seeking Alpha (and Getting Caught)
Low rates, demand for yield, financial alchemy, gaudy incentives and a black swan event provided the ingredients for the cataclysm at AGI US. Pictured: SEC chief Gary Gensler.
Asset managers
Goldman Sachs acquires NextCapital
NextCapital, based in Chicago, is an open-architecture digital retirement advice provider that partners with US financial institutions. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Why bonds fit awkwardly in the separate account space
'The bond market is structured around the trading habits of large institutions,' said a Cerulli director. 'With rare exceptions, fixed-income separately managed accounts are likely to continue to be...
Reaching HNW clients in the pandemic era: Cerulli
'Many asset managers have shifted to a channel-agnostic approach distribution model from a channel-specific model,' said Cerulli analyst Asher Cheses.
Life Insurers’ Bermuda Triangle, Part II
The humble fixed indexed annuity is at the center of the restructuring hurricane that has swept through the life insurance industry in recent years. We bring you the second...
COVID-19 Will Cause a Drop in AUM: Cerulli
'Around the world, investments into private markets slowed in the first half of 2020, with only US$433.7 billion of capital raised,' said an analyst at the global analytics and...
BlackRock Makes a Bundle (with Annuities)
BlackRock, the giant asset manager, is adding a lifetime income dimension to its LifePath target date funds by partnering with Brighthouse, Equitable and Voya on a service that will...
Project LIMA Aims to Solve the Annuity Puzzle
Milliman, the actuarial consulting firm, envisions putting a multi-premium deferred income annuity inside a 401(k) managed account as a way to turn tax-deferred savings into lifetime income. It seeks...
Size matters, Cerulli tells plan providers
With estimates that the 10-largest recordkeepers will represent more than 75% of recordkept 401(k) assets by year-end 2019, current market dynamics point to an 'oligarchy' of retirement plan providers,...
‘Top of Mind’ Wealth Management Platforms
Fidelity, Charles Schwab and Vanguard were the three firms most often named by investors without hints, according to Cerulli Associates. (Forty years of brand-building never hurts.)
Fidelity’s brokerage claims industry price leadership
New commission changes take effect on October 10, 2019 for individual investors and will be available on November 4, 2019 for registered investment advisors, a Fidelity release said.
Asset managers need to design ‘vehicle-agnostic’ products: Cerulli
'Mutual fund providers feel pressure to prioritize development and distribution of other vehicles over the mutual fund,' said a report from the Boston-based global consulting firm.
The Seeds of Inflation are Beginning to Sprout
'Trump’s inconsistent trade policies and persistent badgering of Fed Chair Powell and his colleagues has undermined business confidence,' writes our guest columnist, an economist.
What active funds must do to survive: Cerulli
'Active fund families that have grown organically have shown that there is, in fact, a viable path to success,' said Ed Louis, senior analyst at Cerulli.
Flight from active to passive funds and ETFs slowed in September: Morningstar
Among all U.S. open-end mutual funds and ETFs, Fidelity Advisor Growth & Income saw the most inflows of all active strategies at $1.8 billion, the fund's highest inflows in a...
Transparency, low-cost will guarantee a market for clean-shares: Cerulli
Despite the death of the DoL Conflict of Interest Rule and lack of clarity around the inclusion of sub-transfer agent (sub-TA) fees, clean-share mutual funds will likely have a...
Asset managers focus on advisor behavior: Cerulli
'Just 53% of practices with assets under management (AUM) between $50 million and $100 million in-source their investment decision making,' said Ed Louis, a senior analyst at Cerulli, in...
Asset managers tweak their value proposition: Cerulli
'Asset managers are dropping fees on asset management products to near zero, instead choosing to charge for asset allocation,' says Cerulli analyst Bing Waldert.
