A slam dunk of a fixed income stream can sound pretty appetizing to any consumer -- including retirees. Consequently, guaranteed rate annuities can be just the ticket for them, according to  annuityexpertadvice.com.

That said, before John Hancocking the dotted line, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the contract terms. After all, you want to circumvent locking into an investment that yields less than satisfactory returns, the site continued.

The sales of multi year guaranteed annuities have surged this year, according to lifehealth.com. First quarter sales chimed in at $14.5 billion, a hike of 30.1% compared to the quarter before.

According to industry surveys, seeing the money well run dry’s the top fear among most retirees, stated winkintel.com.

“Annuities play a critical role as a safe money alternative for so many seniors, especially in our current environment of market volatility,” said Chris Conroy, IAMS’ executive vice president and general counsel.

The idea of new companies with capitating ideas and a high ceiling for growth wet your whistle? Small cap ETFs might be just your ticket, according to benzinga.com.

Opposed to large cap companies, the likelihood of exponential gains among small cap stocks is greater. On top of that, many smaller cap companies aren’t yet in the wheelhouse of institutional investors, the site continued. Plucking down cash on only a firm or two probably isn’t a sage move since smaller firms experience a certain rate of hitting the skids

Make way for small cap ETFs.

Best Small Cap ETFs:

The Best Overall: iShares Russell 2000 ETF

The Best for Active Traders: iShares Core S&P Small Cap ETF

The Best International Fund: Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-U.S. Small Cap ETF

The Best Growth Fund: SPDR S&P 600 Small Cap Growth ETF

The Best Value Fund: Vanguard Small Cap Value ETF

The Best Fund for Income: WisdomTree U.S. Small Cap Dividend ETF

According to thestreet.com, the Schwab U.S. Small Cap ETF is the top small cap ETF to add to your portfolio. While it tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Total Stock Market Index, it's not the S&P 600 Small Cap index or the Russell 2000. However, when it comes to exposure, it’s essentially the same.

The American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) has put its support behind a lawsuit challenging the Labor Department’s subsequent guidance on the fiduciary rule. The ACLI is the nation’s largest life insurance trade association. The group added an amicus brief to an ongoing lawsuit by the Federation of Americans for Consumer Choices against the DOL. The suit, which was filed in March, claimed that agents “oftentimes make rollover recommendations for purchase of annuities to IRA owners and participants in employer-sponsored 401k and similar benefit plans, for which they receive commissions or other compensation from annuity issuers.” The concern is that these agents will be adversely affected by the DOL’s new interpretation of the Fiduciary Rule that categorizes their status as investment advice fiduciaries under ERISA. ACLI believes that the new interpretation would achieve the same outcome as the 2016 Fiduciary Rule, which was rejected in the Fifth Circuit court. ACLI was one of the lead plaintiffs in that decision.

Finsum:The American Council of Life Insurers has put its support behind an ongoing lawsuit against the DOL and their new interpretation of the Fiduciary Rule.

Anyone notice that stocks, lately, have been a bit, well, prickly?

Of course, for awhile there, it segued they’d found their mojo and watching cable shows like CNBC also was a popcorn worthy occasion. Now, that viewing experience likely would give you indigestion.

In other words, yes: vo-la-ti-li-ty.

Now, could this be hitting the gas pedal on an even steeper decline.

Let’s count the possible dividends. In the short term, the wraps are on the corporate earnings season, according to ally.com, and summer? Ready to wave buh-bye. In the eye of an obvious lack of direction, it’s all but an invitation for percolating volatility, the site continued.

Meantime, investors are sliding their attention from the probabilities of a recession and how the markets will react to the Fed.

Against that less than appealing backdrop, Jesmond Mizzi Financial Advisors’ Head of Wealth Management Colin Vella, said that rather than ruing the circumstances surrounding the volatility, investors can make the best of it, according to jesmondmizzi.com.

The global initiative – unlike the war – to get a handle on COVID 19 reassured markets that bouncing back to more normal conditions could be on the short term horizon. 

As the virus started to escalate worldwide, at the dawn of 2020, markets began their descent. However, the downturn didn’t have staying power and bounced back prior to the initial lockdowns.

How often does opportunity knock? Well, financial advisors could be hand wringing if they allow a chance to further buck up their business with model portfolio strategies and step up the client experience slip through their fingers, according to etftrends.com.

Shucking aside, simply put, a model’s a framework for a financial advisor, explained Brad Shepard, head of Advisor Innovation, WisdomTree Asset Management, said in a webcast, How to Build a Better Business with Model Portfolios. It enables the advisor to structure asset allocation and fund selection in their practice on behalf of a client, the continued.

Leveraging model portfolios to outsource the management of portfolios can help abet a greater degree of a client centric model and enhance the competitiveness of a business model, noted investmentnews.com.

According to Investment News, four examples of outsourcing options upon which advisors are implement that can rachet up firm operations and, possibly, culminate in ideal results:

1.Virtual administration services
2. HR assistance
3. An outsourced CFO
4.Portfolio management

Anyone see the copy desk? It appears the definition of the fiduciary might be in for a rewrite, according to winkintel.com.

At this point, the Department of Labor needs to rewrite its fiduciary definition to all but make all first time advice fiduciary is just about the lone thing still on the table, analysts concur.

In that event, the alternation would pull weight and basically revert the DOL back to its maiden 2016 fiduciary rule, said Brad Campbell, partner at Faegre Drinker law firm. As it stands, the DOL’s package known as the investment advice rule makes rollover advice fiduciary, the site continued.

Valuable investment advice consists of two primary elements. One evolves around a new prohibited transaction exemption. Here, advisors can provide conflicted advice for commissions. The other is a reinstatement of the 1975 “live part test” in order to ascertain that which constitutes advice on investments.

Campbell noted the initiative’s “likely to be a very substantial proposal that will harken back to legal fights of 2016, which the DOL ultimately lost,” according to fa-mag.com.

The DOL, he continued, “is taking the position that fiduciary starts with the initial or rollover conversation. That's a pretty aggressive reinterpretation of what they historically had said, which frankly was ... that most rollovers were not fiduciary,”.

There is no question ESG strategies have seen their fair share of negative press lately, but a new deterrent for investors may lead to more pressure for some asset managers. According to a paper by André Wattø Sjuve, a scholar from the Norwegian School of Economics, ESG funds that charge higher fees are seeing outflows, while ESG funds that charge lower fees are seeing inflows. The study looked at the capital flow data of over 16,000 mutual funds during a period between August 2018 and September 2021. These findings indicate that investors are just as concerned over high fees with ESG funds as they are with other strategies. This doesn’t bode well for asset managers charging higher fees based on the massive demand for sustainable investing strategies. Sjuve believes a possible explanation for outflows out of expensive funds is that prices of ESG assets have risen substantially over the past few years and investors could be concerned about the prospects of future returns.

Finsum:As theprices of ESG assets skyrocket, investors are leaving higher fee ESG strategies for lower-cost funds.

Touchstone Investments, which is known for its Distinctively Active® funds, recently announced the launch of its fourth actively managed ETF, the Touchstone Ultra Short Income ETF (TUSI). The fund, which started trading on the Cboe BZX, seeks maximum total return consistent with the preservation of capital by primarily investing in a diversified portfolio of investment grade fixed income securities. Its portfolio is managed to maintain an effective duration of one year or less under normal market conditions. Managers for TUSI buy fixed-income securities believed to be attractively priced relative to the market or similar securities. The launch follows three actively managed ETFs launched during the summer including the Touchstone Strategic Income Opportunities ETF (SIO), the Touchstone US Large Cap Focused ETF (BZX), and the Touchstone Dividend Select ETF (DVND). Each ETF has a corresponding mutual fund that shares a similar investment strategy. All four ETFs are sub-advised by Fort Washington Investment Advisors. 

Finsum:Touchstone Investments recently launched the Touchstone Ultra Short Income ETF, its fourth actively managed ETF launch this summer.

According to Refinitiv Lipper’s fund flows, fixed income ETFs saw a net $4.5 billion in weekly outflows for the week ending on August 24th, 2022. This marked the group’s first weekly outflows in nine weeks. This also corresponded with bond ETF’s third straight week of average negative returns. The bond types with the largest outflows included corporate high yield ETFs with $3.0 billion in outflows, corporate investment grade ETFs with $733 million in outflows, and government Treasury ETFs with $570 million in weekly outflows. Corporate high yield ETFs had their eighth largest weekly outflows to date, while corporate investment grade ETFs saw their first week of outflows in eight weeks. However, not all fixed-income ETFs saw outflows. International & global debt ETFs saw $101 million in inflows and government mortgage ETFs saw $15 million in weekly inflows. Those were the only two fixed-income groups to report inflows.

Finsum:With fixed income ETFs seeing their third straight week of negative average returns, bond ETFs see their first outflows in nine weeks. 

Few probably are pounding away for a repeat performance of the bond markets in the first half of the year. But an upbeat perspective among investors is warranted, according to corporate.vanguard.com. And, why, pre tell, is that? Bonds are on the precipice to dispense a spike in real income and restart their role of diversifying portfolios.

Even so, however, the road ahead is sprinkled with a plethora uncertainties and variables. The upshot: among other things, for another season, inflation seems bound to remain abnormally high.

At the same time, unlike the recent past, corporates, municipals, high yield, and emerging markets pose plenty of chances for growth.

Bloomberg Barclay’s US Aggregate Bond Index plunged 8.8% since January, according to fidelity.com. That was its steepest drop off in 40 years. What’s up? Investor trepidations over rising interest rates and the fear it could put a dent in the price tag on bonds. That usually translates into a drop in bond prices and rising bond yields.

However, it also could be where opportunity knocks. The Fed’s plan to revert rates to “more historically normal levels” could tee up a chance in bonds for may of those with an eye on income, principle protection and diversification in the second half of the year and more.