News Mentions & Press Releases
Exchange traded funds are exceptional tools for allocating client portfolios, but they can lose their effectiveness if implemented incorrectly. The “T” in ETF is often neglected by both new and long-time users of ETFs. A simple review of the often mystical world that underpins ETF trading can be helpful.
To start, ETFs essentially trade in two distinct markets.
Let’s start with the secondary market — what is referred to as the “on-screen” market. The quotes we all see on the screen when we punch in an ETF ticker is the price one would pay in the secondary market. Trading in the secondary market is very similar to trading a stock.
The low cost of ownership, high diversification, high liquidity and other general attributes of Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s) are well known and have helped drive their growth and popularity. So how can a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) take advantage of ETF’s to build diversified investment strategies for their clients?
A panel discussion at the Money Management Institute’s 2014 Fall Solutions Conferenceattempted to answer this and a number of other questions about ETF’s.
Are ETFs Good for RIAs?
Robbie Cannon, CEO, Horizon Investments described ETF’s as “a great building block” which could be used to surgically allocate client funds. Brendan Clark, President, Clark Capital Management Group proposed that ETF’s “make advisors look good”.
The affirmations are true because ETF’s have grown in variety and complexity over time. As alluded to by Brendan Clark, ETF’s now are available in a wide range of strategies: active, passive, leveraged, quant, sector, geographical, tactical, etc.- this last one being the latest to emerge as a dominant force in the industry and the principal focus of the panel discussion. (See The Wizards of ETFs – Behind the Curtain)
Financial technology firms have been at the center of attention in recent weeks, with a flurry of transactions involving financial technology providers. Private equity firm TA Associates bought a majority stake in NorthStar, parent company to CLS Investments, Gemini Fund Services and Orion Advisor Services. Fidelity moved to fill a data aggregation and financial planning hole in its offering, buying eMoney Advisor. SS&C continued its acquisitive ways, buying Advent Software after prior purchases of GlobeOp, DST Global Solutions and Portia. Prior deals in the financial technology arena included Morningstar’s purchase of By All Accounts, Actua’s acquisition of FolioDynamix and the acquisition of Placemark by serial acquirer Envestnet. Financial technology firms left out of the merger frenzy must be starting to feel like guests wearing sweat pants to a black tie event.
With recent high profile acquisitions of some of the biggest names in the RIA technology industry over the past couple of weeks—notably Advent Software being acquired by SS&C for $2.8 billion, Orion Advisor Services being acquired by TA Associates and eMoney Advisor being acquired by Fidelity for $250 million—there is no question that advisor tech is hot. This year’s Technology Tools for Today (T3) conference is definitely a barometer of that buzz, as a record crowd of advisors, tech vendors and other industry participants gathered at the Anatole Hilton in downtown Dallas, for three days of non-stop tech this week. With its humble beginnings 10 years ago in the basement of the Ft. Lauderdale Hilton, Joel Bruckenstein and his partner David Drucker have created a powerhouse event franchise that has grown in lock step with the success of the RIA industry.
CLS Investments and Riskalyze are joining forces to offer financial advisers access to a new robo-adviser. The platform, which will be known as AutoPilot, will allow users to measure investment risks inherent in the portfolio. AutoPilot is slated to go live in early April, according to CLS chief executive Todd Clarke and Riskalyze chief executive Aaron Klein. The platform, created jointly by CLS, an exchange-traded fund strategist, and Riskalyze, which offers a risk assessment and analysis tool, is intended to give advisers access to technology to better serve clients. It was unveiled Wednesday at Technology Tools for Today, a three-day gathering of advisers and technology vendors in Dallas.
CLS Investments, a third-party money manager, has joined forces with Riskalyze to launch “AutoPilot,” an automated asset management platform for financial advisors. The moves comes amid the emergence of “robo” advisors, a term for online financial advice typically delivered at a lower cost than more traditional methods. Through Autopilot, clients can capture their “risk number,” sync their outside assets, open a new account and e-sign the documents.
CLS Investments and Riskalyze teamed up Thursday to launch an automated asset management platform to help financial advisors scale their services for lower-end clients. Advisors can plug the new platform, called AutoPilot, right into their websites. The tool will then allow online clients to access the Riskalyze software to determine risk tolerance, sync outside assets, open a new account, and e-sign all necessary documents. Once a client account is opened, CLS is instantly added as the co-advisor and acts as the asset manager, trading the portfolio, handling all the account transfers, rebalancing the account and providing a service team to answer client phone calls.
Advisors must cringe now and then when contemplating an iPad-wielding young executive logging on to an online investment site, opening a new account and e-signing documents while the advisor is working hard the old-fashioned way, his business seemingly falling by the wayside. Well, cringe no longer. A new offering called AutoPilot aims to provide advisors with their own private-labeled automated asset management engine to neutralize the robo-advisor threat. A joint venture of CLS Investments, a third-party money manager and ETF strategist, and Riskalyze, which advisors use to generate a “risk number” and align portfolios with risk tolerance, AutoPilot will combine the two companies’ money management and analytics expertise to level the playing field between advisors and their high-tech competition.
CLS Investments, LLC (“CLS”), a third party money manager and a leading manager of exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), has joined forces with Riskalyze, the company that invented the Risk Number™, the first-ever quantitative way to capture client risk tolerance, align portfolios to client expectations, and quantify the suitability of investments. Together, the two companies will launch “AutoPilot”, a first of its kind automated asset management platform for financial advisors. With the emergence of the “robo” advisor (a popular term for an online financial advice offering delivered at low cost to the consumer), financial advisors who are not providing a next-generation technology experience to their clients are at a real disadvantage. AutoPilot is designed to give any advisor a significant edge in an era of rapidly evolving technology.
U.S. News evaluated 97 Tactical Allocation Funds. Our list highlights the top-rated funds for long-term investors based on the ratings of leading fund industry researchers. Summary The investment seeks to limit the impact of large equity market declines, and the secondary investment objective is growth of capital. The fund invests primarily in U.S. Treasury bills, individual equity securities, exchange traded funds (“ETFs”), open-end mutual funds and closed-end funds that each invest primarily in equity securities (common stock and securities convertible into common stock). This group of ETFs and funds is referred to as “underlying funds.” Equity securities, whether purchased directly or indirectly through underlying funds, are not restricted by issuer capitalization or country.