In an article for Dividend.com, Aaron Levitt discussed why active fixed income funds have outperformed passive fixed income funds. 

The majority of active equity funds underperform their industry benchmarks. Therefore, it’s not surprising that these have dominated in terms of inflows. 

But, it’s a different story in fixed income. Recent research from JPMorgan shows that active fixed income has outperformed passive. Some of the reasons for this is that passive funds are overweight with firms and entities that have the most debt. 

Active funds have wider latitude and can find opportunities in various parts of the market. They also are able to take positions in different parts of the capital structure. The absence of passive funds in these spaces also leads to more favorable valuations. Many active funds are also able to take advantage of foreign debt and high-yield fixed income. 

As a result, inflows into active fixed income have been growing at a faster pace than inflows into passive fixed income. More inflows into active fixed income should also lead to increased liquidity in many parts of the fixed income space.

Overall, active funds have failed to outperform passive ones in the equity space but have done so in fixed income.

Finsum: Recent research shows that active fixed income has outperformed passive fixed income. This is contrary to many investors’ expectations given the outperformance of passive equity funds vs active equity funds.

Fixed income ETFs are seeing a surge of inflows over the past year given higher rates and an uncertain economic and monetary outlook. Blackrock is a pioneer in the space and has $800 billion in assets under management in its fixed income ETFs as of the end of the first quarter.

Now, the asset manager is setting a goal of $2.5 trillion by the end of the decade in assets in its fixed income ETFs. These comments were made by Salim Ramji, Blackrock’s global head of ETFs and Index Investments at its Investor Day earlier this week and were covered by Shanny Basar for Markets Media Group. 

He sees the line between passive and active continuing to blur as investors demand more customization and scale. Currently, Blackrock manages $5.9 trillion in assets. Its ETF division, iShares, has $3.1 trillion in assets but accounts for more than 90% of revenue growth. In total, it offers 1,300 ETFs which is more than double that of any other company. Overall, Ramji sees annual ETF asset growth in the double-digits and revenue growth of single-digits to continue as well. 

Finsum: Fixed income ETFs are booming due to an uncertain economic outlook and the highest yields in decades. Blackrock is targeting a tripling of its assets in its fixed income ETFs by the end of the decade.

For RIAIntel, Holly Deaton discussed the findings of a research study which showed that often advisors are getting in their own way when it comes to growing their practice and effectively serving their clients.

In 2022, about 20% of financial advisors saw a decline in assets under management according to a study from Janus Henderson. The research also showed that many advisors are not being aggressive enough when it comes to asking existing or potential clients for new business due to the fear of being seen as too pushy. 

However, advisors need to move past these fears if they want to successfully grow their business. And, most advisors struggle with adding new clients and growing assets under management. In contrast, successful firms have a culture of growth and consistently take proactive steps to ensure a robust pipeline of future clients. 

In addition to these factors holding back advisors, only 30% of advisors have a business plan in place, while only 25% have marketing material that is targeted towards their ideal client. This is despite 93% of advisors agreeing that a business and marketing plan are essential to growth. 

Overall, advisors need to do a better job of aligning their actions with their goals. And, the key to accomplish this is overcoming psychological hurdles of appearing too pushy and spending less time on client service and portfolio management.

Finsum: Many financial advisors are falling short of reaching their business goals due to some psychological hurdles. For instance, advisors agree that it’s important to have a business plan but only a minority actually do.

Unless you can score a gig on, oh, say, MSNBC, as did a certain Donnie, developing a brand as a financial advisor isn’t exactly as simple as snapping your fingers. In fact, it can seem like the motherlode, according to lpl.com.

After all, there are myriad things that need to be nailed down, like choosing a name and landing on a brand logo. Compounding matters, if initiatives like these aren’t quite in your wheelhouse, well, it can be all the more daunting.

To find your mojo, below are a handful of basic steps:

1. Define your value proposition
2. Pick your DBA name
3. Develop a logo
4. Develop a Website
5. Execute with Consistency

Meantime, did someone say social media platforms? They can be leveraged by financial advisors to expand their business, according to mediaboom.com.

Advisors can share content that not only forges a community but can abet your ability to build trust with your audience. The trust of current and potential clients is gold to financial advisors, which is a good idea to foster considering you’re behind the wheel of the finances of others as well as their long term wealth.

Nickel and diming it? Not the global ESG Reporting Software Market. Uh uh. The bottom line tells the story: from burgeoning 0.7 billion last year, it’s expected to jump 1.5 billion by 2027, according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets, reported esgnews.com.

Among other factors, a leapfrog in the adoption of cloud-based solutions and services across verticals, as well as a spike in corporate data volume, are the most significant aspects fueling the acceleration of the ESG Reporting Software Market.

Meantime, not quite hitting the mark, you say?

While sorely needed transparency will emerge from a proposed European Union shake up of the ESSG ratings, it will fail to address the standardization indispensable in eliminating the scores causing confusion among investors and companies, according to some in the market, reported reuters.com.

The market for evaluating the ESG performance of companies? Its exploded. That’s because of the money socked into products marketed as sustainable by investors.

"By opting for transparency over standardisation, the EU's proposals are a promising blueprint, but they must go all the way," said Daniel Klier, CEO of data provider ESG Book.