In an article for Kiplinger, Martin Nuss discussed the benefits of owning annuities. First, it’s important to distinguish between the many types of annuities. For example, savings-oriented deferred annuities offer tax benefits and guaranteed principal. In contrast, income-based annuities function similar to private pensions and provide guaranteed retirement income. 

A pressing concern for future retirees is that social security benefits are not going to be sufficient to meet most people’s retirement needs. And, this is before accounting for the aging population and shortfall between revenue and expenditures. 

Annuities are a great solution, because it lets you save and grow money without worrying about taxes. While younger investors have risk tolerance and are willing to stomach the risk required to generate strong returns, older investors have to be more mindful of risk. Therefore, there is more demand for less volatile investments like annuities. 

For investors with less risk tolerance, fixed-rate annuities are a good choice. They function like tax-deferred bank CDs, albeit with higher returns. Annuities aren’t federally insured but tend to be offered through reputable insurance companies. Fixed-indexed annuities are ideal for retirees who are looking for short-term cash flow, while they wait for their pension or social security payments to begin. 

Finsum: Annuities can offer so much value to investors to help them reach their financial goals. Yet, it can be difficult given the variety of offerings. 

With the waters of volatility in the banking sector taking five – or, perhaps, 10 – the market’s turning its sights to some incomplete biz: disinflation, according to swissre.com.

Due to “decisive government and central bank actions,” what might have ballooned into a systemic financial sector crises – on both sides of the Atlantic, at that -- which would have put a damper on merging markets, was sidestepped. But stemming from stubborn core inflation pressures and tight labor markets within advanced economies, in May, the Fed and European Central Bank’s expected to hike policy rates.

Meantime, call it a game of adjustments.

In the first quarter, Gateway, which is focused on low-volatility equity investments, made adjustments in its portfolio, according to barrons.com.

The low down: it wielded the scissors, shoring its stake Apple stock and putting the old slash on its General Electric investment. At the same time, it purchased Altria Group stock (MO). The stock trades – as well as others -- were disclosed by Gateway in a form it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The financial industry’s not just casually tweaking its monthly expense reports and watching things unfold.

 Nah uh. As it sachets toward holistic wealth management and “goal based” planning, the industry recognizes the importance of acquiescing asset management to third party strategists has mounted, according to wealthmanagement.com.

In two step with that escalating need is spiraling opportunities to accomplish that mission. While within the largest firms, already advisors can access model portfolios, now, their counterparts have more options.

And, hey, model portfolios tout more than a few advantages.

For example, there’s ease of use. “Model portfolios can be used as a complete solution for investors that prefer a hands-off approach to achieving their investing objectives,” said Colby McFadden, CEO of Quiver Financial, an Investment Advisory Firm in San Clemente California, according to forbes.com.

“Model portfolios can be used as a complete solution for investors that prefer a hands-off approach to achieving their investing objectives,” said McFadden.

Another: diversification. The need for a thick wad of money to pluck down on multiple asset classes? No need, noted Mark Kennedy, president of Kennedy Wealth Management in Calabasas, Calf. Some can have a minimum as low as $10,000 to start.”

Last month, investors must have spent more than a little time at their neighborhood ATM. After all, during that period, they poured $62.1 billion into ETFs, according to zacks.com.

That’s setting some pace, at that, considering it’s almost tripled February inflows, according to the BlackRock report. The first quarter net inflows as a result: $148.5 billion.

Fixed income ETFs fueled most of the inflows. Marking the largest gain since October, it hauled in approximately $38 billion.

Meantime, the Innovator, an outcome-based ETF issuer, recently was more than a little busy. It launched a unique suite of barrier ETFs that extends protection by scooping up U.S. Treasurys and selling equity options, according to cnbc.com.

“Advisors are realizing that bonds aren’t the safe haven that many thought they would be,” the firm’s CIO, Graham Day, told CNBC’s “ETF Edge.”  “If you can pair [a barrier ETF] with the fixed income, it offers a tremendous amount of diversification benefits.”

And talk about two birds with one stone. These ETFs nip credit risk in the bud and yield liquidity every day, Day explained.

According to research from WisdomTree Investments and shared in an article by Nick Peters-Golden on VettaFi’s Modern Alpha Channel, the volatile markets and uncertainty about the economy in 2020 yielded some insights and lessons that can be applied today.

2020 was particularly challenging for advisors given the outbreak of the coronavirus and aggressive policies to deal with it, including massive amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus. There were other practical challenges, such as maintaining communication with clients virtually. 

The research results in some surprising takeaways. For one, investors didn’t seem more panicked despite the steep drop in stock prices amid the initial lockdowns. Additionally, surveys showed that investors were satisfied with their advisors’ performance over this period. 

WisdomTree attributes this satisfaction due to constant communication with clients and reassurance about their long-term plans. Most advisors increased communication with clients and were able to increase confidence by using model portfolios. 

As a result, the number of investors who said advisors using third-party model portfolios was ‘absolutely acceptable’ rose to 86% from 90%. Additionally, advisors got high marks from clients about their accessibility and responsiveness than prior to the crisis. 

Finsum: Research from WisdomTree Investments shows that clients were satisfied with advisors’ performance in 2020 despite a challenging environment.