(New York)

Even before the pandemic and subsequent crisis, the high-yield Muni market failed to deliver the returns after taxes that the corporate bond market…view the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(New York)

Bond market investing hasn’t seemed so attractive recently as rates on even long-term government debt such as the 10-year Treasury hit lows…view the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(New York)

The Premier of the state council of China, Li Keqqiang, announced plans to increase oversight and regulation in the country’s financial and fintech sectors…view the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site

(Washington)
Every year around this time, advisors can get a special look at what the SEC’s policy priorities are likely to be for the rest of the year. This takes on special significance this year since we have a new administration in place. The way to get the insight is to look at what focus the SEC applies to their regulatory exams, and this year they are quite interesting. SEC exams for 2021 will focus on Reg BI (not such a surprise), but also climate, ESG, and Crypto, among other topics.

FINSUM: Quite an interesting list, but one very notable absence: meme stocks/social media. This is important because some think the SEC will turn its gaze to that area, which might have delayed focus on Reg BI.

(New York)

Annuities have been doing very well ever since the pandemic began, and the reasons make total sense: high volatility and ultra-low rates which have rendered bonds a very poor source for retirement income. With that in mind, it is no wonder that protection-focused annuities have been seeing heightened sales. 2020 actually saw a significantly higher volume of protection-focused annuities sales than 2019, despite the fact that overall wealth and liquidity fell considerably at the start of the pandemic. The big driver of demand was the huge fall stock indexes experienced early in the pandemic.

FINSUM: This makes a lot of sense as a huge percentage of Americans are approaching retirement and 2020’s market gave them a terrible fright. We expect this trend to continue.