News Mentions & Press Releases
Todd Clarke of CLS Investments believes advisers have a responsibility to lay out their continuity and succession plans for clients who are probably unsure of what would happen if something unexpected happened to their adviser.
Advisers considering diving into smart beta may want to read the fine print before taking the plunge. Industry observers are warning investors to be cautious before adopting the hottest trend in index investing, which Morningstar Inc. estimates accounted for $1 of every $5 that moved into exchange-traded funds last year. The definition — and even appropriateness — of the term smart beta is highly contested.
At CLS Investments LLC, we have a team approach to managing our various portfolios and strategies. To help unify and guide our investment methodology, we come up with key themes on a yearly basis. These themes represent areas of the market (both equity and fixed income) where we see potential for outperformance over a forward-looking, 12-month period. Therefore, we position our portfolios to take advantage of these themes. With that in mind, here are the themes for 2015: high-quality focus; emerging market opportunities; technology innovation; and tactical fixed income.
Currency hedging is one of the key emerging trends in exchange-traded funds, one that has seen an explosion over the past year and can help provide clients with a new, flexible option to manage risk in their portfolio. While a small number of currency-hedged ETFs have been around for some time, the number of currency-hedged ETFs doubled in 2014. Their increasing popularity and importance is partly due to the economic environment and partly to the ongoing expansion of ETFs into new parts of the investment spectrum. To really maximize this sort of ETF, it is important to review the basics of currency hedging.
ANY day now, financial advisers will start sending clients their annual reviews and outlooks along with year-end account statements. Both will probably look pretty good. With the 11.4 percent rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in 2014, chances are most investors saw their portfolios rise in 2014. But does that mean their advisers did a good job for them? Answering that may be more difficult. “Returns are a piece of the puzzle,” said Tom Robinson, managing director for the Americas at the CFA Institute, which administers the chartered financial analyst designation. “But I’d probably look at those last.”
For the ETF industry, 2014 went out with a bang. On Dec. 22, total assets in roughly 1,600 U.S. exchange traded funds reportedly topped $2 trillion. That milestone confirmed a stock market rally that saw SPDR S&P 500 (ARCA:SPY) rise 13.5% last year. But out with the old and in with the new. We asked investment pros to provide their outlook for 2015 and top picks for ETF investing. J.J. Schenkelberg, senior portfolio manager with CLS Investments in Omaha, Neb.; assets under management: $6.6 billion: We are cautiously optimistic regarding stock performance in 2015. While the U.S. economy continues to move forward, valuations are stretched. Relative price opportunities are more attractive internationally; however, we need to see a turnaround in economic growth. Increased volatility is likely. Read More At Investor’s Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/investing-etfs/010515-733221-positive-views-reign-on-stock-market-outlook.htm#ixzz3O5PnYfjS Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook
Rusty Vanneman shares how advisers can make #ETF transparency work for themselves and clients alike.
The upgraded (k)Star program from CLS Investments allows plan sponsors to build 401(k) plans from the ground up with multiple service providers—instead of taking a prepackaged, bundled offering. According to Todd Clarke, chief executive of CLS, advisers and plan sponsors used to have to rely on a single plan provider to be the best at everything, a feat he termed impossible. The new (k)Star platform addresses this issue, he says, adding that the platform offers active investment strategies specializing in risk budgeting.
CLS Investments, LLC (“CLS”), a third party money manager in the U.S., and a leading manager of exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) within individual investor portfolios, in collaboration with Professional Capital Services, LLC (“PCS”), a state-of-the-art retirement plan record-keeper, is pleased to announce the unveiling of the latest upgrade to (k)Star, an open-architecture solution allowing plan sponsors to build their 401(k) plans by service provider as opposed to taking a pre-packaged, bundled offering. With over 1500 ETFs and tens of thousands of Mutual Funds, (k)Star offers a comprehensive menu of active investment strategies specializing in risk budgeting, and provides plan sponsors a modular approach to service providers. This enables them to choose those with the greatest competency, which can help decrease and provide greater transparency to fees. (k)Star also provides the ability to incorporate ETFs based on a plan’s needs, either through managed or target date portfolios, or as part of the plan’s core fund lineup.
Many investors are going to feel the pain from changes in the tax code on capital gains this year, after a 2013 that left mutual fund investors with unwelcome capital gains payouts to begin with. The best way to end these unpleasant surprises is to avoid unnecessary taxation in the first place. While exchange-traded funds have long been sold as a more efficient investment vehicle than traditional mutual funds, a major — and potentially misunderstood — facet of that efficiency has to do with taxes. Advisers often ask me what makes ETFs more tax efficient, and while the mechanics of these efficiencies can be onerous, it is worthwhile to break down some key differences of these two popular product categories.