(Washington)

Any advisor has likely read about Biden’s new tax proposals on the “wealthy”…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(New York)

Lots of information is trading that has investors skittish for the upcoming horizon…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(New York)

ESG has already taken the financial world, nearly dominating every other headline over the past couple of years…see the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

In the face of record inflation, the Virtus Real Assets Income ETF (VRAI) has done extraordinarily well, up 19% year-to-date, and significantly beating the S&P 500, which is up 14%. On top of this, the ETF generates compelling income of 3%, well above the 10 Year US Treasuries at 1.5%.

Investing in real assets is a winning strategy in an inflationary environment because tangible assets such as real estate, natural resources and infrastructure have intrinsic value. VRAI is the first ETF focused on real assets. Additionally, because of VRAI’s focus on income-generating real assets, VRAI also generates attractive income.

In terms of ETF construction, VRAI is designed to be one-stop solution for real asset exposure. VRAI consists of 90 US-traded companies, equally divided between real assets, natural resources, and infrastructure. Companies are filtered based upon market capitalization and selected based upon dividend yield. All stocks are equally weighted to ensure portfolio diversification.

Finally, in terms of costs, VRAI is very competitively priced at 55 bps (0.55%). This stands stark contrast to most energy and real estate ETFs and mutual funds, which typically cost over 100 bps (or 1%).

For more information on the investment case, check out this research piece produced by Virtus

n.b. This is sponsored content and not FINSUM editorial

(Washington)

Earlier this month the DOL took a major step. On June 11th, as part of its annual regulatory agenda, the DOL announced that it would be broadening the scope of its fiduciary rule. In particular, the DOL is planning to broaden the ERISA definition of who counts as a fiduciary under the rule, which would mean more advisors are covered. According to leading industry lawyer Josh Lichtenstein, “There are a lot of career people at the DOL still working there and it's not clear to me that their views would have necessarily changed just because of the 5th Circuit's action … So I am expecting to see a pretty fulsome rewrite of the definition of who is a fiduciary”.

FINSUM: That is a pretty substantial comment from Mr. Lichtenstein, and not one most advisors want to hear. Stay tuned.