News Mentions & Press Releases
OMAHA, NE–(Marketwired – September 14, 2016) – NorthStar Financial Services Group, LLC (NorthStar), a holding company for several subsidiaries which offer unique services within the financial industry, has added a National Accounts team to support the firm’s rapid growth in assets and relationships among its subsidiaries, including The Gemini Companies (Gemini), Orion Advisor Services (Orion) and CLS Investments (CLS). The National Accounts and Marketing teams will be led by Todd Clarke, formerly the CEO of CLS. Ryan Beach, formerly president of CLS, will assume the role of CEO effective immediately.
NorthStar, which currently services nearly $430 billion in assets, has organized two new sales and distribution groups at the NorthStar level which will be led by Clarke and Bill Wostoupal, executive vice president. Wostoupal will lead the Institutional Sales team, focused on servicing institutional clients such as 529 plans, state retirement platforms and institutional mandates. In addition, Clarke and Wostoupal will continue to help drive strategic direction for all NorthStar subsidiaries through their roles as senior executives.
“These changes mark an exciting new time for NorthStar,” said Clarke. “We feel that we have the proven ability to accelerate each subsidiary’s growth by maintaining focus on product innovation and providing the best possible service to our clients. I’ve been at the helm of CLS for a long time – and I will continue to work with the amazing team we have assembled there- but as NorthStar collectively grows and our group of subsidiaries continues to integrate services, my new post will allow me to be more effective in servicing the entire NorthStar client base.”
Some professional investors say exchange-traded funds allow them to provide better retirement solutions for their clients than mutual funds traditionally have.
Morningstar’s Christine Benz moderated a panel at the Morningstar ETF Conference addressing this topic. Panelists Will McGough from Stadion, Bob Smith from Sage Advisory, and Scott Kubie from CLS Investments agreed that ETFs allow them to more effectively manage risk.
ETFs also provide investors with access to markets that were heretofore unavailable, he noted. For instance, Kubie can now deliver currency-hedging strategies to clients thanks to ETFs.
CLS Investments, LLC (“CLS“), a third party money manager and one of the leading managers of exchange traded fund (“ETF”) portfolios has announced…
Tackling debt isn’t always easy, but it is a necessary step toward financial empowerment.
And Jocelyn Wright, managing partner of Ascension Wealth Management in Jenkintown, Pa., has a solution. In an interview with WSJ Wealth Adviser, Ms. Wright talks about how she created a debt boot camp to help people manage their debts and learn more about money management. Think of it as a support group for overburdened borrowers.
She says the program, comprised of three 90-minute sessions over three weeks, covers understanding debt and credit, creating a repayment plan, and establishing healthy spending habits. It’s also interactive, with attendees bringing accounts, balance statements and budgets.
As the adviser, she warns, you have to be mindful to not seem as if you’re being judgmental, but the results can be rewarding: The more comfortable clients get, the more they’ll reveal so you can help them put the right plan together.
With the Department of Labor’s fiduciary standard bringing to the fore clients’ best interests, advisors shouldn’t forget about their own best interests when it comes to picking their clients, one commentator writes on WealthManagement.com
It’s essential advisors work with clients who fit their way of doing business for the sake of their practice, Todd Clarke, CEO of CLS Investments, an ETF strategist, writes in the web publication.
Zeroing in on the ideal client can help guide modifications to the business, he writes. To find who that client is, Clarke suggests first determining whether all of an advisor’s current clients are in the best interest of the firm and whether they fit with its business model. It’s also important to look at individual clients and decide whether the resources spent on them contribute to the running of the firm and serving an advisor’s best clients, he writes.
An honest discussion among an advisor’s team members can suss out who this ideal client is based on who is essential to the firm and who the team prefers working with, according to Clarke.
I’m a big fan of the original Winnie the Pooh stories. One of my favorites is when Pooh gets too much of a good thing, in his case honey, and gets stuck trying to exit Rabbit’s house. While most of us understand the idea of “too much of a good thing” when it comes to food, we don’t apply the same lessons when evaluating monetary policy. Yet there is solid evidence central banks aren’t delivering higher growth and may be undercutting their own mission by cutting rates too far.
Success (Or Lack Thereof)
Since the financial crisis of 2008, investors have welcomed rate cut after rate cut. The cuts were welcomed when the goal was to lower the cost of borrowing, when it was to decrease savings, and when it was to depreciate the currency.
But the results of all those rate cuts have been found wanting. The United States, Japan and Europe continue to struggle with low rates of growth. The U.S. hasn’t achieved 3% growth since 2004. The European Union seems stuck below 2%, and Japan is even lower. Emerging market economies aren’t picking up the slack, and the world still lacks sufficient growth.
The Department of Labor’s fiduciary rule has poured kerosene on a long smoldering campfire that we, in the advisory industry, have been encircled around for quite some time — a campfire that represents how we define the meaning of a “true fiduciary.” This is an important debate, and in my opinion, it is absolutely imperative that financial advisors work in the best interest of their clients. There are many ways to ensure that this standard is being met. But, one can get so caught up in this concept that you then fail to take into account a very important consideration: As fiduciaries, you deserve clients and service providers that understand what you pour into your business every day, and at minimum reciprocate by working with you in accordance with your service model.
Now, there are some who prefer the stoic, humble, Navy SEAL-esque approach: “I am a fiduciary advisor for my clients; I do whatever it takes for them and I expect nothing in return.” That’s understandable, and noble. But what does a doctor do when a patient with emphysema refuses to stop smoking? What does an attorney do when their client can’t hold their tongue during a jury trial? It is fair to expect a certain modicum of respect for your expertise and the sheer amount of hard work and professionalism you put forth into your craft each and every day. Although it may be challenging, it is absolutely imperative you, as advisors and potentially as business owners, assess your clients and proactively work to assemble those who fit the way you, the advisor, do business.
ETFs have seen explosive growth, in part due to lower overall costs and with some assistance from active managers underperforming for a number of years.
Now, don’t get me wrong – low fees are great for investors, particularly long term (which most, if not all, investors should be).
However, in some cases, fees have become the only thing analyzed. When, in reality, there are many considerations beyond simply analyzing the stated expense ratio, including tradability and tracking, access, and exposure.
The ability to trade an ETF, and the ability for an ETF to accurately track its underlying index are huge – and often forgotten – elements to ETF investment. Looking at the ETF universe, on an equally-weighted basis the average bid-ask spread is a whopping 0.90%, and on an asset-weighted basis a reasonable 0.07%. Without proper trading, investors could effectively double their expense ratios just by purchasing the product!
When it comes to investing in Asia, investors often focus on China and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest economies, respectively. Fortunately, there are plenty of ETFs that can help investors access Asia without a heavy focus on China.
That is a positive at a time when China stocks are lagging while other emerging markets are rebounding. For example, the iShares China Large-Cap ETF (NYSEArca:FXI) is trailing the MSCI Emerging Markets index in a big way this year. Due to the recent economic weakness, investors have been selling Chinese equities, which are among the emerging world’s worst performers in 2016. The iShares MSCI Hong Kong ETF (NYSEArca: EWH), which recently started perking up, has also been ditched by investors.
At the mid-year checkpoint, income-oriented ETF portfolios are ripping it up. With a tailwind of lower interest rates and tighter credit spreads, most income-oriented asset classes have handily outperformed the broad market indices.
The risk for many investors now is the desire to chase recent returns. Chasing performance is never a healthy investment strategy. With that in mind, which investors are best suited for high-income strategies? Do they understand the risks involved? When do income strategies perform best? When do they perform worst? How should income strategies be benchmarked? Lastly, what’s our outlook?