You’ve heard of breakout seasons. Professional athletes have an affinity for them – especially as they’re about to become free agents.

Well, they just might want to scootch over. The FINRA 2022 Annual Conference session, “Regulation Best Interest: Lessons Learned” ranked as one of the most highly attended breakouts of the three-day conference, according to questce.com.

Someone; sign ‘em up.

Okay, then, in the world of putting Reg Bi into place, what was learned?

FINRA said it would soon review – and deeper – Reg Bi and Form CRS. In particular, they will put a magnifying glass on Care Obligation and the compliance among firms.

Meantime, some things don’t change.

Next year, Richard Best, head of the Division of Exams, Reg Bi and the Advisers Act fiduciary duty “remains a top priority” for Securities and Exchange Commission exams in an address to the SEC’s National Compliance Seminar, reported thinkadvisor.com.

Speaking to compliance officers, Best said: The exam division is “focused on how broker-dealers and investment advisors satisfy their obligations under the Reg BI and the Advisers Act fiduciary standard to act in the best interest of retail investors and not to place their own interests ahead of retail investors’ interest."

Good things come in…..fives?

Fives, undoubtedly, would second that.

Heading into the year, the following, you’re on it, five trends, impacted the asset allocation decisions of financial advisors in the decision they reached pertaining to their moderate model portfolios, according to Natixis Investment Managers Solutions, stated natixisimsolutuons.com.

Working both in real time and from a historical point of view, Natixis Investment Managers Solutions portfolio consultants monitor asset classes, investment products and market action

In any event, those top trends include:

• Enthusiasm for Growth Stocks Is Fading. Moderate risk portfolios continued to reduce the …
• Fixed Income Duration and Credit Quality Decreased. Over the course of 2021, duration in the …
• Preference for Bank Loans Over High Yield Bonds. One of the more interesting trends in fixed …
• Allocation to Inflation Protection Assets Starting to Rise. In 2021, as rising headline inflation …
• Allocations to Alternative Investments Resumed Upward Trend

On another note, with the idea of tapping them as building blocks, ETFs are leveraged by model portfolios to oversee various investment companies, according to alphaprofit.com.

iShares, SPDR, and Vanguard ETFs as well as ETFs provided by Invesco PowerShares, Market Vectors, WisdomTree and other investment companies and among the ETF universe.

Those darn liberals seem to burning energy on something again – at least according to the Republican staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, stated mondaq.com.

The recently released report, entitled "The New Emperors: Responding to the Growing Influence of the Big Three Asset Managers," delved into the nuts and bolts of their concerns; namely that large asset managers are leveraging their proxy voting power in the name of "liberal social goals." They’re described in the report as more broadly including diversity and inclusion and ESG considerations.

Claims lodged by the report: the application of power, in the form of significant voting influence on corporate policy rather than making the most of getting the most of investor profits by the “Big Three,” BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard.

A regulation entitled “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights” (the “Final Rule”), was published by the U.S. Department of Labor, according to usbenefits.law.

The Final Rule didn’t leave much to the imagination. Numerous times. the DOL, stressed the regulation was focused mainly on extracting and fixing the impact of ESG investing by plan fiduciaries.

It looks like alternative asset classes are writing a story of their own.

Someone say Kurt Vonnegut’s name written all over them? After all, he always seems to have one trick or another up his literary sleeve.

Its been a never before seen year in the equity and fixed income markets, according to fa-mag.com. Global equities receded close to 20% as of June 30. Meantime, high quality fixed income jetted backwards by around 10%. Historically? Well, it was the darkest start to a year in the bond market since, get this, 1842. Just keeps getting better, eh? 

Well, it’s a different ballgame for those asset classes. During the year, the cocktail of real estate, real assets, hedge funds, private equity and private debt nudged aside both equities and fixed income.

Okay, sure, alternative asset classes have caught a little heat for their fees, minimums and illiquidity. This year, however? Well, they’ve larded on a great deal of value. The question: will this trend sustain itself?

A release of its findings earlier this month of its most current Selling Retail Investment Products through Intermediaries Report, based on 810 confidential interviews of U.S.-based financial advisors in September, found a three point jump in the use of alternatives, according to insights.issgovernance.com. It was 39% in Q4 of 2021 to 42% in June of this year.

Inflation? Well, here’s some breaking news – even if CNN’s come to frown upon them lately: it’s still hitting nosebleed levels, according to gsam.com. What’s more, the wider economic environment, and the labor market, especially, has strutted its mettle.

Yeah; wow. Maybe – just maybe – the network will reconsider its spanking new policy.

In any event, it means the central banks will continue to rachet up rates. The question then becomes that since monetary policy impacts the economy with a lag, will they head north too far and quickly. From GSAM’s perspective, market stabilization will demand signs of inflation topping out, not to mention hawkishness and real yields.

”Higher inflation and higher growth volatility are propelling us into a higher yield environment, marking a departure from the post-financial crisis era,’ said Whitney Watson, global head of Fixed Income Portfolio Management, Construction & Risk at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “Ultimately, we think this presents opportunities in high-quality fixed income assets, such as investment grade corporate bonds and agency MBS.”

Meantime, it seems bonds will be back in vogue with investors next year, according to schwab.com.

And it’s a real change of pace. Following subpar yields stretching years, and in the aftermath of the extremely hard knocks endured by prices in 2022, a bounce back appears to be in store in the fixed income markets.