Goldman Sachs Asset Management recently launched the Goldman Sachs Community Municipal Bond ETF (GMUN). The ETF, which trades on the NYSE Arca, seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Community Municipal Index, a rules-based index designed to track the municipal securities market with remaining maturities between one and 15 years. The ETF also has screens that consider certain social or environmental factors. By focusing on 1-to-15-year maturities within the investment grade municipal bond universe, the portfolio will seek to deliver diversified market exposure with lower duration and higher credit quality than the broader municipal market. The ETF is managed by Goldman’s Municipal Fixed Income team which brings decades of experience with an active and disciplined approach to investing in a market that is vast and fragmented. The fund has an expense ratio of 0.25%. According to Goldman, targeted allocation into municipalities and projects with positive impact will provide the opportunity to invest in education, healthcare, clean energy, and more community-related initiatives.

Finsum:Goldman recently launched its first muni ETF, the Goldman Sachs Community Municipal Bond ETF (GMUN), which provides exposure to tax-exempt municipal securities with remaining maturities between one and 15 years.

According to analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence, U.S. equity REITs have little direct exposure to Silicon Valley Bank, which had the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Office REIT Cousins Properties Inc. reported Silicon Valley Bank as its ninth-largest tenant by annualized rent as of 2022 year-end at just over $8.4 million, or roughly 1.2% of the REIT's total rental portfolio. The REIT leases 204,751 square feet of office space to the bank at its Hayden Ferry property in Tempe, Arizona. Boston Properties Inc. houses Silicon Valley Bank's Seattle office in its recently acquired Madison Centre property. In addition, Paramount Group Inc. leases office space to SVB Securities LLC, an entity under the SVB Financial Group umbrella, at 1301 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, N.Y. Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. reported in a March 13th news release that it has one lease with an affiliate of Silicon Valley Bank in the Greater Boston area market totaling 32,152 rentable square feet. The lease's annual rental revenue as of Dec. 31st, 2022, was $1.7 million, or 0.08% of the REIT's total annual rental revenue.

Finsum:According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, U.S. REITs had limited exposure to Silicon Valley Bank, with some REITS reporting that SVB made up a small percentage of their rental portfolios.

Concerns over the banking sector are currently making things rough in the $8 trillion agency mortgage bond market. Agency mortgage bonds are widely held by banks, bond funds, and insurers as they are backed by mortgage loans from government-controlled lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They are far less likely to default than most debt. They are also easy to buy and sell quickly, which is why they were Silicon Valley Bank’s biggest investment before its troubles. However, agency mortgage bonds are vulnerable to rising interest rates like all long-term bonds. This pushed their prices down last year and also saddled banks such as Silicon Valley Bank. In fact, the risk premium on a widely followed Bloomberg index of agency MBS hit its highest level since October last week, as climbing interest rates led to volatile global markets. According to bond fund managers, this certainly reflected fears that other regional banks might have to sell their holdings. When benchmark interest rates rise, bonds that were sold at times of lower rates lose value. For instance, prices of low-coupon agency mortgage bonds started dropping about a year ago, when the Fed raised interest rates to tame inflation and also indicated that it might start selling the mortgage bonds that it owned.

Finsum:With faltering banks such as Silicon Valley Bank holding large amounts of agency mortgage bonds, the turmoil in the banking industry is roiling the $8 trillion agency mortgage bond market.

There are numerous ways for an advisor to expand his or her client list, but approaching people you know might be one of the lowest-hanging fruit. However, approaching them in the wrong way will only end up in rejection. Bryce Sanders, President of Perceptive Business Solutions Inc. recently wrote an article for ThinkAdvisor on how best to approach people you know for business. According to Sanders, the first step is to identify their need and research the issue. For instance, if you’re talking with someone, listen carefully when they speak. You may realize they have a problem on their mind. The next step is to discuss the issue and demonstrate an understanding of it. You know there is something on their mind and as a friend, you are concerned. Try to “tactfully” draw it out. Next, assess their level of comfort or unease. They might be thrilled you spoke up or ask you to back off. The fourth step is to view the situation as a third party. Make a list of all the potential solutions or approaches to their issue. Then offer to do something for free. You could say it’s not the first time you heard about the problem and then connect your friend with a specialist at your firm. After you meet with the specialist, present your friend with a turnkey solution. If they say no, gently follow up.

Finsum:Bryce Sanders, President of Perceptive Business Solutions Inc. recently wrote an article for ThinkAdvisor on the best steps for approaching your friends for business, including identifying their needs, demonstrating an understanding, offering them free advice, and gently following up.

A financial advisor succession plan? It’s a component, of course, of a strategy to pass the baton of a practice to another advisor. Long and short term planning’s typically is part of the plan, according to assetmark.com.

It could be that one component of the plan is the outright sale – internally or externally -- of the business. Or you might add a junior advisor as your successor down the road or pass it to a family member.

Face it: a retirement plan’s a big time consideration for independent financial professionals and, often, comes down to them establishing a succession plan for their business. 

A trio of benefits stemming from proactive succession planning include: 

Peace of Mind

A succession plan to add to the value of your business and enhance its marketability and:

Provide you an opportunity to prepare next generation advisors

Organizations; yes, they get it. Succession planning’s nothing to poo poo at. That said, when it comes to pulling it off well, it’s a different story, according to delotitte.com.

It takes having the right leaders doing the right jobs at, you’ve got it, the right time, as most organizations recognized years ago. Even so, not many of those very companies have managed to be  proactive, not to mention, disciplined, about carrying out succession planning processes that strike gold, the site continued.

By the end of the year, a goal of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is to examine 1,000 broker-dealers for Reg bi compliance, according to Bill St. Louis, head of Finra’s National Cause and Financial Crimes Detection Program, reported advisorhub.com.

That’s no small potatoes, considering that the total would account for about a third of the organization’s approximately 3,000 member firms. Compliance flaws in half of its exams were linked to the rule, which is more than two years old, last year.

An update of an annuity sales standard was adopted by Georgia, Illinois and Tennessee, according to thinkadvisor.com. It was developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

The update was designed by the NAIC to abet the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation Best Interest sales standard. Its been adopted by a minimum of 33 states.

Failure by enough states to uniformly adopt the update might mean that the SEC could lasso the ability to oversee some aspects – at the minimum -- of sales and fixed annuities, some regulators think.

Jonathan Foster, president, and CEO of Angeles Wealth Management, recently penned an article on MarketWatch where he listed the benefits of direct indexing for retail investors. Foster noted that while direct indexing is primarily used by high-net-worth investors that are seeking to optimize their after-tax returns, the widespread elimination of brokerage trading fees and the growing availability of fractional share trading have led to greater adoption of direct indexing. According to Foster, the advantages that direct indexing can bring to a portfolio include ‘dirty money,’ outmoded mutual funds, and personalization. Foster says that ‘dirty money’ refers to investors expressing concern about how the companies they invest in make money. For instance, direct indexing offers advisors the ability to craft portfolios that exclude what their clients believe to be “dirty money.” Foster uses tobacco as an example. In this instance, direct indexing can help an investor craft a tobacco-free portfolio. Outmoded mutual funds refer to investors using mutual funds in taxable accounts and not having the benefit of starting with their own individualized cost basis, which can lead to distributable annual taxable gains. With direct indexing, investors can take advantage of tax-loss harvesting. Direct indexing can also offer investors an opportunity to customize portfolios with strategies such as ESG.

Finsum:A wealth management executive recently wrote an article on MarketWatch advocating for direct indexing due to benefits such as excluding certain securities, employing tax-loss harvesting, and customizing a portfolio for certain strategies.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s brokerage unit recently lured a Miami team from UBS Wealth Management USA with $4.8 million in revenue, while also picking up a solo advisor from Goldman Sachs who produced $2.3 million in Boston. The Fernandez Cabrera Group, which is led by Pedro Fernandez and Jesus (J.C.) Cabrera joined J.P. Morgan Advisors on Friday and had overseen $700 million in assets as of year-end at UBS. Fernandez and Cabrera moved along with client associate Charlene Meizoso. They report to Rick Penafiel, regional director for Boston, Miami, and Palm Beach Gardens. Fernandez started his financial career at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in 2004 and joined UBS in 2014. Cabrera started as a broker in 1984 at First Investors Corporation and only stayed at the company for a year. He registered again in 2012 when he joined Bernstein. In addition, Brent Herbert joined J.P. Morgan in February after overseeing around $445 million in assets at Goldman. He has 13 years of experience and joined Goldman in 2017 from Mizuho Securities. Herbert also reports to Penafiel. JPMorgan is close to two years into a campaign to double its headcount from the roughly 450 at its traditional brokerage.

Finsum:J.P. Morgan lured away a $4.8 million duo from Miami, while also adding a $2.3 million solo advisor from Goldman Sachs.

Category: Wealth Management

Keywords: JPMorgan, UBS, Goldman Sachs, recruiting

Fixed-income professionals at Franklin Templeton and its affiliates expect fixed-income investments to be a safe haven from equities volatility since the financial markets are showing signs of stress. Tracy Chen, a portfolio manager at Brandywine Global, stated that “We believed something would break, even before this banking crisis happened. Now bonds provide safe haven protection for people’s portfolios because our timeline for recession is pulled forward because of this banking stress.” She recently spoke at a webinar on fixed-income mega-trends, entitled “Navigating Rates and Risk.” She was also joined by Jennifer Johnston, senior vice president and director of municipal bond research at Franklin Templeton, and Annabel Rudebeck, head of non-US corporate credit at Western Asset. Currently, yields are around 5% for corporates, which is considered attractive when compared to the longer-term history and government issuances. Johnston added that the tax-free attributes of municipal bonds provide an extra boost, while the muni market tends to be of higher quality than the corporate market. She stated, “We do see some opportunities, particularly out long, where munis are still relatively cheaper than where they’ve been in the past.” Chen also added that “This banking stress is very unique. It’s not driven by credit risk, but by mismanagement of duration.”

Finsum:With the financial markets showing stress, bond professionals at Franklin Templeton and its affiliates believe that fixed-income instruments provide a safe haven for the current stock volatility.

On March 15th, the International Energy Agency raised its estimate for global oil demand in 2023 by another 100,000 b/d as rebounding air traffic and pent-up Chinese demand push consumption to record highs. In its latest monthly oil report, the energy watchdog said it now sees global oil demand averaging 102.02 million b/d in 2023. That’s 2 million b/d higher than in 2022. The IEA estimates that gains will accelerate over the year, rising to 2.6 million b/d year on year in the fourth quarter, from 710,000 b/d in the current quarter. In the report, IEA stated, "Global oil demand growth started 2023 with a whimper but is projected to end the year with a bang .... Rebounding jet fuel use and a resurgent China will see an overall Q1-Q4 ramp-up of 3.2 million b/d, the largest relative in-year increase since 2010 with oil use surging to 103.2 million b/d in second-half 2023." The agency attributes the rise in demand to China's economic momentum, with rebounding February Purchasing Managers' Index data and robust air traffic demand. The IEA said Chinese mobility mostly stabilized after January's "remarkable bounce." It also added that Chinese air traffic with domestic flights is now well above pre-pandemic levels. Due to this, the IEA raised its estimate for Chinese jet/kerosene demand by 60,000 b/d.

Finsum:In its recent monthly oil market report, the International Energy Agency raised its estimate for global oil demand this year by another 100,000 b/d as rebounding air traffic and pent-up Chinese demand push consumption to record highs.