The Carson Group recently announced several new developments during a Partner Summit, including a new model portfolio hub. The company, which was founded in 1983, is made up of three related businesses including a wealth management firm, a coaching network, and a partnership established in 2012 with approximately 120 affiliated firms. The firm’s announcements included updates and additions to its rapidly growing platform, including a lead generation program, a new investment research portal, additional alternative investment options, and a “model hub” to let advisors administer multiple accounts simultaneously. Burt White, Chief Strategy Office of Carson said this of the new model portfolio hub, “What it allows you to do is to create a model and tie multiple clients to that model. One, two, 15, or a hundred. And then every time you change the model, it goes through and does it for all 100 of those clients that are tied to the model, as opposed to today, where you have to go into every single one.” The model portfolio hub is expected to launch early next year.

Finsum:Carson Group announced several new additions to its platform, including a model portfolio hub that lets advisors administer multiple accounts simultaneously.

The Department of Labor has asked a Texas federal judge to toss a fiduciary rule lawsuit brought by a group of licensed independent insurance agents and the trade group Federation of Americans for Consumer Choice Inc. The agents and the trade group had sued the agency in February arguing that a December 2020 DOL regulation advances policies that the Fifth Circuit invalidated in 2016. Their complaint alleges that the 2020 rule illegally expands the definition of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act fiduciary. The plaintiffs moved for summary judgment in July asking the court to vacate the new interpretation of the law. They reasoned that the rule allows the DOL to "rewrite and expand" the definition of a fiduciary, much in the same way that the Fifth Circuit had ruled against it. The DOL, in a recent memorandum, said the plaintiffs adopted "several extreme positions" to conflate a 2016 agency rule with a newer version from 2020 and that they distorted Fifth Circuit precedent.

Finsum:The DOL asked a federal judge in Texas to toss a fiduciary rule lawsuit against the agency that claims its 2020 regulation advances the same policies that the Fifth Circuit invalidated in 2016.

According to an analysis by ESG specialist Elisabeth Steyn, U.S. equity funds that are classified as ESG, have on average 29% of their holdings in tech stocks. Steyn told Alice Ross of Financial Times that the figure is well above the 23% average for general equity funds. Ross used the iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF as an example. The fund’s top holdings include Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, and Alphabet. This may help explain why many ESG funds are seeing heavy losses this year. Ross attributed the reason to two factors. First, ESG funds are exclusionary. Once certain areas of the market are stripped out, tech is typically over -represented. The second reason is that ESG rating agencies can differ greatly on which companies are sustainable. That reason alone can help explain why the SEC is going after ESG labeling. Ross also noted that ESG funds outside the U.S. are not typically overweight in tech stocks.

Finsum:U.S. ESG funds are heavily overweight in tech stocks due to differing ESG labels and exclusionary factors.

AllianceBernstein recently announced the launch of its first set of active exchange-traded funds. The funds, which trade on the NYSE, include the AB Ultra-Short Income ETF (YEAR) and the AB Tax-Aware Short Duration Municipal ETF (TAFI). YEAR is an actively managed ETF that aims to deliver higher levels of yield relative to cash or cash-like investments while aiming for capital preservation in all market cycles. TAFI is an actively managed municipal bond strategy that offers municipal bond investors a distinct complement to their core allocations providing the opportunity to help maximize after-tax income and returns using shorter maturity bonds and opportunistic exposure to treasuries and taxable bonds. The launch comes only seven months after the firm announced plans to build a global ETF business under Noel Archard, who joined the company in February as global head of ETFs and portfolio solutions. Archard commented on the launch, "Today's ETF launch is an exciting achievement for our firm. ETFs have evolved into an important execution tool across asset classes, and amidst the recent market volatility, we feel it is critical to offer our clients diversity and efficiency.”

Finsum:AllianceBernstein launched two active fixed ETFs as part of its plans to build a global ETF business.

BondBloxx Investment Management recently announced the launch of eight duration-specific U.S. Treasury ETFs. The funds, which trade on the NYSE Arca, offer investors a more precise, lower-cost way to get exposure to U.S. Treasury Securities. The ETFs track a series of indices developed by Bloomberg Index Services that include duration-constrained subsets of U.S. Treasury bonds with over $300 billion outstanding. The funds add to BondBloxx’s existing eleven products launched this year, including seven industry sector-specific high yield bond ETFs, three ratings-specific high yield bond ETFs, and one short-duration emerging market bond ETF. The new ETFs include the BondBloxx Bloomberg Six Month Target Duration US Treasury ETF (XHLF), the BondBloxx Bloomberg One Year Target Duration US Treasury ETF (XONE), the BondBloxx Bloomberg Two Year Target Duration US Treasury ETF (XTWO), the BondBloxx Bloomberg Three Year Target Duration US Treasury ETF (XTRE), the BondBloxx Bloomberg Five Year Target Duration US Treasury ETF (XFIV), the BondBloxx Bloomberg Seven Year Target Duration US Treasury ETF (XSVN), the BondBloxx Bloomberg Ten Year Target Duration US Treasury ETF (XTEN), and the BondBloxx Bloomberg Twenty Year Target Duration US Treasury ETF (XTWY).

Finsum:BondBloxx adds to its existing suite of ETFs with eight duration-specific U.S. Treasury ETFs giving investors lower cost exposure to U.S. Treasury Securities.