Eric Henderson, the president of Nationwide Financial’s annuity division, recently shared some thoughts on annuities and how it can help reduce financial stress for retirees. Henderson has been with the company for nearly 40 years and been instrumental in helping Nationwide’s annuity business grow to over $100 billion in assets. 

He believes that this is a great time for annuities given that short-term rates are above 5% in many instances. It’s been benefiting from volatility in fixed income and equities in addition to a cascade of uncertainties including inflation, monetary policy, recession risk, geopolitics, etc. 

Annuities can help investors side-step these risks while also taking advantage of historically high rates. So far, fixed annuities have seen the biggest increase in sales, but there has been strength in other types of annuities as interest and awareness grows.  

In terms of trends, Feldman sees more shorter-term, annuity products being introduced given the combination of uncertainty and increasing demand. Additionally, he sees the potential for ‘customized’ annuities that are created to fit an individual’s specific needs.   

Overall, he believes that at some point investors evolve from a ‘wealth accumulation mindset’ to focusing more on maximizing income. He believes this is the best time in decades for investors to build healthy income streams, and it also provides needed diversification given a shaky economic outlook. 

Finsum: Nationwide’s head of annuities, Eric Henderson, shared his thoughts on the category’s increase in popularity and some interesting trends. 

The power of – expansion.

That’s what Dimensional Fund Advisors is doing, expanding its exchange traded fund offerings with seven new ETFs, according to thinkadvisor.com.

They come onboard with the US Core Equity 1 ETF and upcoming launches of three global fixed income ETFs and a U.S. Large Cap Vector ETF, which were launched not long ago.

“We continue to evolve our investment offering to meet demand from financial professionals and add value,” Co-CEO and Chief Investment Officer Gerard O’Reilly said in a release. “These ETFs are another set of tools in Dimensional’s growing lineup, which we expect will meet diverse investor needs across asset classes and geographies.”

To build your own ETF portfolio – or discover a one ticket option – you might consider the MoneySense ETF finder tool, according to moneysense.ca.

For jacking up growth, investors can build a core portfolio and delve into other investing options. You can, say, pluck an investment in ETFs with themes. They might range from electric vehicles to artificial intelligence.

It can seem daunting, of course, to develop a brand from scratch, according to lpl.com. Whether it’s choosing a name to developing a personal logo, the reverberations of doing so endures. And that can be pretty intimidating.

When it comes to your financial practice -- your powers of creativity aside – methodical’s the name of the game. A few simple starter steps:

1. Define your value proposition

2. Pick your DBA name

3. Develop a logo

4. Develop a Website

5. Execute with Consistency

Then there’s the power of persuasion.

Want others to pick up on your professional and personal success? Well, you need to convince them to see your value, according to hbr.org.

These days, everyone – every where’s – a brand, and it’s paramount for your to develop yours and market it like doing so comes natural.

Personal branding’s intentional. It’s also a strategic practice where you define and spell out your personal value proposition. Now, there’s nothing new able carefully cultivating your public persona and reputation, the potential audience has significantly been expanded by online research and social media.

Model portfolios have been growing at a consistent rate for decades due to increasing adoption by younger advisors and more awareness among investors. Now, they have reached a size at which they are starting to affect markets especially when dealing with more illiquid securities. Currently, they collectively manage $3 trillion in assets under management (AUM).

It’s natural to consider the risks and opportunities as these ripple effects will only grow with model portfolios forecast to exceed $10 trillion in AUM over the next decade. In fact, recent unusual flows into various ETFs are often due to changes in the holdings of model portfolios.

Most model portfolios are constructed with ETFs. They are managed by investment teams of asset managers and can enable advisors to spend less time on portfolio management or security selection and more time on building their business and managing client relations. 

Since 2018, more than 400 model portfolio offerings have been launched. Most research shows that model portfolios tend to outperform advisor-managed portfolios. Ultimately, it’s an acknowledgement that beating the market is nearly impossible and that an advisors’ job is increasingly about financial planning rather than investing. 

Finsum: Model portfolio AUM is already in excess of $3 trillion. Here’s why the category is forecast to exceed $10 trillion over the next decade. 

Fixed income posted its worst quarterly performance in over a year as the market has been reducing odds of rate cuts, while increasing odds of additional hikes and extending its estimate of the duration of tight policy. This also led to the first quarterly decline in equities this year.

Yields on long-duration Treasuries are now at their highest level since 2007. Fed hawkishness is even neutering positive reactions to benign economic data as evidenced by the recent low PCE print. Fixed income was initially bid up, however this strength was sold into as most bonds finished the day unchanged. Some additional reasons may be the recent rise in oil which could handcuff the Fed from pivoting, huge supply of Treasuries hitting the market over the next couple of quarters, and uncertainty over the government shutdown. 

In terms of fixed income performance, short-duration assets are outperforming, while long-duration assets are hitting new lows. Many strategists are now saying that yields will rise further with the 10Y going past 5%. 

The contrarian case is that the Fed is close to the end of its tightening cycle and that the economy is finally starting to show signs of contraction. Thus, investors should buy on the dip to take advantage of these elevated yields.

Finsum: Fixed income and equities both performed poorly in Q3. For fixed income, here are some of the factors behind the weakness.