Dan Egan, VP of behavioral finance at Betterment, suggests that personality types play a critical role in invstmet decisions such as tax-loss harvesting. Investors' neuroticism and emotional intelligence are linked to the strategies they pursue and their behavior can be predictable. For example, investors with low neuroticism may not care too much about the day-to-day movements in their portfolio they don’t take advantage of tax-loss strategies for their accounts. Betterment offers robo-advisors that will offset these types of forecastable decisions in a portfolio.

Finsum: Investors' own bias can lead them to shut the doors on opportunities that could save them lots of money.

Annuities have been one of the hottest topics since the Secure Act 1.0, allowing them to be a part of retirement plans, and that could be ramping up. The House of Representatives has approved the Secure Act 2.0 with an overwhelming majority of 414-5. Provision 201 would allow the minimum requirements distribution age to be increased from 72 to 75. Another key part of the bill is the automatic enrollment in 401(k)s with a very high contribution percentage. Life insurers are ecstatic about the bill and many believe this will drastically increase the demand and supply of annuities.

Finsum: Most investors underate these small changes to legislation that really open the gates for investments and spur lots of interest.

BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Vanguard, Morningstar, and many others are swooping in to purchase direct/custom indexing firms in order to capitalize on this fast-growing market segment. While the most appealing factor is tax advantages ESG-customization is driving faster than ETF growth in the US. The rampant greenwashing problem in ETFs gives custom indexing a leg up by allowing more de-selection of these companies. It also allows a weighting that could be advantageous to different market cycles. Investors could more easily de-select their own companies' stock from an index to reduce exposure.

Finsum: Direct indexing can mirror and even enhance ETFs role while still giving tax advantages!

Global X ETFs is launching a new model portfolio concentrating its theme on tech disruption and other global structural changes. The models were developed by CIO Jon Maier at Global X and hope to capture the disruptive growth that many tech companies have benefited from in the last two decades. This comes as part of a larger trend in Global X and other US-based ETF companies to capture the Euro area markets. The Euro area has been dominated by low return high fee funds and has been a ripe market for higher returning lower fee ETFs. These thematic funds can capture areas of the economy that are poised for rapid growth.

Finsum: Rising interest rates could make it tough on growth funds over the next 3-5 years.

Goldman Sachs is acquiring NextCapital, a quickly growing fintech company that provides digital advice targeting corporate retirement plans. This is one of Goldman’s five largest asset management acquisitions and will aim to develop relationships with corporate employees. This will also provide a stable source of revenue which plays nicely with its more traditional trading activities. Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are both ratcheting up acquisitions in fintech that offer better relationships with corporate employees. Next Capital is a little over eight years old and has raised $85 million in its most recent funding round.

Finsum: This could form the foundation of a relationship between many employees in the US and GS providing an avenue for future clients.