Financial advisors? The bulk of them have the horizon over their shoulder. Nice setting, but you get the drift. Over the next decade, reported advisorperspectves.com last year, about one third of advisors will call it a day. While that’s not exactly raise red flags, what does stand out is that no one’s stepping into their shoes.

The load down: On average, each year, 30,000 people sat for the series 7 examination to become a financial advisor. Now, not is it only closer to 5,000, most applicants are taking it with an eye not on becoming financial advisors, but registered assistants. You read that right.

You don’t need Wikipedia to get the meaning: among clients of advisors who lack a formal succession plan in place, the best clients can do is gird themselves to restart with a new advisor. Problem is, that advisor knows neither them or their goals. Double whammy.

That said, last year, Avantax announced 66 recruits in the fourth quarter, according to thinkadvisor.com.

The company was a regular magnet for the year, attracting 258 recruits, Todd Mackay, president of Avantax Wealth Management, the firm’s independent broker-dealer division, stated.

Kestra Investment Management recently announced that it has launched two new model portfolio series, expanding its offerings for advisors and their clients. The new multi-manager strategies follow the team’s first two model portfolio series, launched in June. The first series is the Active Income Series, which is a new addition to Kestra’s core portfolio offerings. The Active Income Portfolio is a diversified, multi-asset portfolio that incorporates actively managed funds. The portfolio is designed to maximize risk-adjusted total returns while providing additional yield and is available in seven different risk profiles. The second series, the Satellite Series, includes three distinct model portfolios designed to be paired with a core portfolio to address nuanced client needs for income and risk management. The first Satellite Series model portfolio is the Multi-Asset Income Portfolio, which aims to generate higher income than the broad U.S. bond market through a diversified mix of fixed income, equity, and nontraditional assets and strategies such as equity derivatives. The next portfolio, the Tax-Aware Income Portfolio is a diversified fixed-income portfolio designed to generate higher after-tax income than the broad U.S. bond market through a focus on tax-exempt bonds. The third portfolio, the Liquid Alternatives Portfolio aims to diversify sources of risk and return beyond long-only equity and fixed-income exposure by combining a mix of low- and high-volatility alternative strategies that can invest opportunistically in changing market conditions.

Finsum: Kestra expanded its model portfolio offering with two new model portfolio series, including the core Active Income Series and the Satellite Series.

According to a recent announcement, Sanctuary Wealth lured a team with $1.5 billion in assets away from Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in The Woodlands, Texas outside Houston. According to Sanctuary, the seven-person group, which generated about $11 million in annual revenue, is the largest group by assets to join Sanctuary since its 2018 launch. The Merrill team is led by brothers Brent R. and Bradley C. Chappell who inherited the practice from their father, Robert D. Chappell, who retired from Merrill Lynch in 2019. The Chappells have known Sanctuary President Vince Fertitta “for many years” from his days working as a divisional manager at Merrill in Texas before his joining Sanctuary in 2019. Brent Chappell started on his father’s team in 2003 after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, and Brad joined three years later after graduating from the same school. The group also includes advisors Michael Mills and Spencer Carlson as well as support staff Chel Larkin, Jaymie Wendt, and Brianna Warren. As part of the announcement, Brad Chappell said the following, “By partnering with Sanctuary, we see real opportunities to grow our business that weren’t available to us previously and wouldn’t exist in a lateral move to another wirehouse.”

Finsum:A seven-person team with $1.5 billion in assets jumped from Merrill Lynch to Sanctuary Wealth due to opportunities to grow the business that weren’t previously available to them.

With clients pulling an estimated $130 billion in assets from Janus Henderson since 2017, the fund firm’s new boss is looking to revive the company by leaning into active management and pushing into alternative investments such as hedge funds and private credit. Ali Dibadj, who took over as CEO in June, acknowledged the firm’s difficulties and laid out a turnaround strategy, which includes pushing into some of the most competitive areas of the market to stop the bleeding. A committee of 40 senior staff members met for months to understand what clients want and then created a revival strategy. At the root of the plan is a bet on active management. The firm believes that active management can bring the best returns to investors. In addition to active funds, Janus is looking to focus on liquid alternatives, for which it currently has $20 billion under management. While the division hasn't received much attention, it houses several hedge funds. Last year, the unit had net inflows of $2 billion into products including multi-strategy hedge funds and equity- and commodity-enhanced index funds. Dibadj is also looking into illiquid alternatives. The firm is considering using private credit to augment its fixed-income unit and products tied to mortgage-backed and high-yield securities. Dibadj said the “move stems from client demand for such products.”

Finsum:After seeing $130 billion pulled from its funds, new Janus Henderson CEO Ali Dibadj is looking to stem the bleeding by betting on active management and moving into alternatives such as liquid alternatives and private credit.

Realized Financial recently announced a series of enhancements to its real estate solutions. The company provides real estate wealth solutions to individuals and families that own legacy investment properties and other appreciated financial and capital assets. The new features, which include predictive statistical analysis, rely on expanded levels of commercial-grade data and technology to help create more informed decisions when constructing customized portfolios of commercial real estate (CRE) investments. While alternative investments such as commercial real estate are projected to reach $23 trillion by 2026, technology has been slow to provide the transparency or customization. The new platform enhancements include customizable portfolio inputs like property types, location, or deal length, a partnership structure that can help investors’ accounts actively reflect their ongoing portfolio goals and objectives, a Confidence Score that provides an analysis of the likelihood a Sponsor will reach the projected income distributions outlined in their Private Placement Memorandum (PPM), and White Labeled Investment Plans and Investor Portals that allow advisors to apply their unique information and company branding to both Realized investment plans and the client portal. As part of the announcement, Stephanie Elliott, president at Realized Financial, stated, "Our guiding principle is enabling individuals and their advisors to manage investment property wealth with the same discipline as other traditional asset classes. These latest enhancements seek to deliver new levels of insight, control, and assurance when constructing and managing passive CRE investments."

Finsum:Realized Financial, which provides real estate wealth solutions to individuals and families recently announced a series of enhancements amid increased demand for alternative investments.