Word had spread weeks ago that Franklin was in a position to acquire O’Shaughnessy Asset Management (OSAM), but that deal has finalized this week. OSAM will be a bolster an already growing separately managed accounts segment which stands at $130 billion AUM already. However, the big headline is the value-based investing and custom indexing that OSAM provides. The custom indexing platform OSAM owns known as Canvas has grown rapidly and doubled its aum in the last year hitting $2 billion.

FINSUM: This is another headliner deal in direct-indexing. What’s most notable is that many of the deals are coming through acquisitions rather than newer ones originating within the firms themselves.

Annuities have been criticized for their lack of a national advertising campaign that could really rally interest, but that will change in 2022. A large number of retirees should give companies enough desire to boost their annuities exposure. In addition to this many of the fundamental changes in regulation such as the secure act are paving the way for annuities to be introduced in new ways. Finally, the stock market has performed better than anyone could expect coming out of the pandemic, and bonds provided now yield and little security. Investors will need to protect their gains and retirement and expect big companies to pitch to these investors more frequently.

FINSUM: Protecting existing stock gains is a great argument for individuals to consider annuities in 2022.

JPMorgan Chase & Co issued a statement for investors to remain bullish about global equities moving forward. They believe the largest sources of risk are hawkish central banks, slowing growth in China, and global covid restrictions, but most of these threats are already priced in. Even if they aren’t quite priced in the chances of them really materializing is minimal. They remain positive as benchmark indices remain at near all-time highs. This sentiment is shared by lots on Wallstreet, like Credit Suisse. Moreover, to best take advantage of this growth, they advise to overweight Euro stocks, financial, commodity miners, and automobile manufactures.

FINSUM: The bears haven’t stopped barking but equities remain high and P/E ratios aren’t crazy, there’s room to run. 

ETFs saw a record performance in 2022 as inflows almost reached 1 trillion dollars, and while equity brought in over 60% of the inflows the second half was dominated by the fixed income market. This momentum in fixed income is expected to swell in 2022, particularly for the active ETF funds. Driving that those trending figures are the outperformance of active funds over passive funds, and an almost peak interest rate and inflation uncertainty. This sort of bourgeoning inflation and constricting Fed is unprecedented for the post-Volcker era. Active Issuers like T. Rowe price are very bullish on their prospects in the upcoming year.

FINSUM: While active funds haven’t brought home major returns they are getting better yield than passive funds and more diversity rather than piling on U.S. government securities.

Christopher Giancarlo is a former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and he spoke out against the Biden Admin’s crackdown on crypto. Biden’s Administration has made it clear that he wants tighter controls on stable coins, which peg to the existing government currencies, and crypto more broadly speaking of the systematic risk. Giancarlo says these regulations are short sited and they fail to see how crypto could improve economic growth and efficiency. He also said that a new regulation bureau should be created to manage crypto and that the government should create its own digital dollar. Giancarlo was a republican appointed by the Obama administration, and this criticism could be very important.

FINSUM: Don’t overlook the ability of stable coins to improve economic effectiveness in allowing for more efficient global financial flows.