Model portfolios simplify portfolio management, allowing financial advisors to deliver customized investment strategies without starting from scratch. Leveraging technology, advisors can access high-quality, ready-made models that can be adjusted to meet specific client needs. 

Customizing these portfolios provides a balance between using institutional expertise and offering personalized service. Advanced analytics tools are seamlessly integrated, enabling advisors to filter, screen, and select the best-performing assets based on millions of data points.

Tracking performance over time with precision ensures that clients see accurate, realistic outcomes. This approach gives advisors a competitive edge, allowing them to scale their practice while maintaining individualized attention.

Finsum: Having the analytics at your fingertips can really aid in distilling complex information to clients.

The financial volatility of recent years has made it clear that traditional retirement strategies may no longer suffice. The old 60/40 portfolio split between stocks and bonds has proven inadequate, as demonstrated in 2022 when both asset classes declined significantly.

 Retirees now face unique challenges such as sequence of return risk and inflation, which require a more adaptive investment strategy. Alternative investments, like private equity and venture capital, can offer opportunities for diversification and potential outperformance over traditional assets. Meanwhile, alternative strategies, such as long/short equity and merger arbitrage, provide potential protection during market downturns. 

Despite their complexity and potential downsides, incorporating alternatives can help retirees achieve a more resilient portfolio that balances growth, income, and capital preservation.

Finsum: Moreover, stocks and bonds are experiencing increasingly high correlation in returns compared to the last four decades, which should draw more inflow into alternatives. 

Major U.S. banks have continued to reduce their holdings in state and local government debt, decreasing their exposure by $3 billion in the third quarter. This trend was led by JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, which together accounted for over half of the reduction. 

Other institutions, including State Street, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley, also cut back on their municipal bond investments. This marks the third consecutive quarter of declining investments, the longest such retreat since 1996, driven largely by the reduced tax benefits following the corporate tax cuts. 

The banks' diminished demand has negatively impacted long-term municipal bonds, which have underperformed other maturities. However, the third-quarter reduction indicates a slower pace of the overall pullback compared to earlier in the year.

Finsum: Now might be an opportunity for those seeking value to consider munis as they are getting such little attention. 

In recent months, the stock market has been extremely volatile, prompting increased interest in low-volatility low-cost ETFs. While the market has seen gains this year due to a growing appetite for riskier investments, uncertainties like the Federal Reserve's future actions, geopolitical tensions, and the upcoming U.S. presidential election still loom large. 

Low-volatility ETFs offer investors a way to participate in the market with potentially less risk, although they are not immune to sharp downturns. These funds may underperform compared to more dynamic portfolios, especially during market surges. However, they can be attractive for those prioritizing capital preservation over high returns.

 Examples of popular low-volatility ETFs include the Invesco S&P 500 Low Volatility ETF, which focuses on the least volatile stocks in the S&P 500, and the iShares MSCI EAFE Min Vol Factor ETF, which targets lower-risk companies in developed markets outside the U.S.

Finsum: Be mindful of what thematic ETFs you want to integrate into your portfolios, because there will be a chance to capitalize in the coming months. 

National elections in the United States rely on over 774,000 poll workers to operate smoothly, alongside countless other volunteers who support activities like voter registration, transportation, and canvassing. Voting is central to democracy, but it is the dedication of these volunteers that makes free and fair elections possible.

 Changing how we view volunteering—from a casual choice to a vital civic duty—can strengthen communities and inspire broader participation in democratic processes. Volunteers are more likely to vote and feel deeply connected to their communities, yet the U.S. faces a decline in volunteerism that threatens its civic engagement. 

To reverse this trend, organizations and governments are working to make volunteering more accessible, such as by offering paid volunteer leave or organizing voter registration drives. 

Finsum: This is a great opportunity to for both community and civic engagement, and a less party centric way to engage with elections.