Before the pandemic, advisors and their staff were enjoying elevated compensation levels. But once the pandemic occurred, advisors suddenly needed to take stock of the financial health of their businesses. While the market downturn in 2020 didn’t last long, its effects led firms to become more conservative with their expenses. The continued volatility in the market resulted in firms looking to increase profit margins and aggressively cut costs. Rent and office expenses were the first to be cut, however, the largest expense by a considerable margin was non-owner compensation. According to an article in City Wire USA written by Damian Lo Basso, managing partner, and CFO at Journey Strategic Wealth, the years 2020 and 2021 were the first years since the financial crisis that many firms kept salaries and bonuses flat. In addition, some firms are now tying up to 50% of team members’ bonuses to overall firm performance.

Finsum: Due to the effects of the pandemic and ongoing uncertainty in the market, advisor teams are seeing their compensation being tied to firm performance.

Franklin Templeton has partnered with Futu Securities International, a Hong Kong-regulated operation of digital brokerage Futu, to offer three risk-based model portfolios. The two companies have worked together since 2019 when Futu rolled out its mutual fund business to help expand its client base. The new model portfolios will help the China-based company strengthen its strategic relationship with Franklin Templeton. The model portfolios will have various risk levels to fulfill the client's needs and risk appetites. Futu is leading the brokerage industry in Hong Kong with a high market penetration rate. According to the company, its average user spends 1.5 hours per day on the Futubull app. The company also claims that its Hong Kong users accounted for more than 40% of Hong Kong’s adult population.

Finsum:Franklin Templeton is renewing its partnership with Hong Kong-based Futu Securities with the launch of three risk-based model portfolios.

When it comes to September, stocks have a track record of not exactly rocking – much less rolling. For the 30 year period, average returns chime in at -0.34% and -0.26% for the 15-year period, according to forbes.com. The five year period: -0.92%.

And it just keeps getting better with the month in a category of its own as a period when the market held down the rear, drooping on average in every time period.

Now, consider that along with the fact that, already, the year, stoked by factors such as flaming inflation, bulging interest rates and a recession keeping nearly everyone on edge has, you might say, been crackling with volatility. So, how could investors react? Why, they might go shopping for a placeholder for their considerable assets.

Fed chair Jerome Powell, addressing this year’s Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, acknowledged that to stave off growth, it’s probable rates will remain on the high side, not exactly comforting to households and businesses, according to talkmarkets.com.

Trying to read the tea leaves, there are market watchers who believe Powell means he’s no longer homed in on a soft landing. Rather, his focus might on a “growth recession,” as economists characterize it. A growth recession, of course, loosely is marked as a period when the economy’s headed north, yet so slowly that it’s putting a crimp in the volume of available jobs.

Creating a model portfolio isn’t exactly like twisting open a water faucet, you know. The old noggin comes in plenty handy. After all, effective investing’s means committing to the choices among a range of investment tools that will yield results, according to forbes.com.

And they’re made of strong stuff, with the gravitas to turn a financial future rife with uncertainty into a secure one. A great starting point: putting together a model portfolio, the site continued.

Substantial discussion’s weaved into creating the portfolio, which consists of a gaggle of diverse assets. It also dispenses the opportunity to leverage diversification as a hedge against your risks.

You’re not only homing in on your financial objectives down the road but must be positioned to address any important immediate needs. Not only that, when it comes to your expenses, it’s essential to have enough liquidity to abet your ability to manage it.  

Well managed stock or “equity” funds pave the way to the best chance for a long term stock market experience on a sustained basis for most people, according to yourarticlelibrary.com. A generally embraced idea: the younger you are the more sprinkled with to equity stocks your portfolio should be.

ESGs? So called Active driven agendas? Two peas in a pod? Um, yep; that is, if you ask Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, according to foxnews.com.

Rokita contended that state law places a roadblock in the ability of ESG to impact investments by state government employee pension funds. He furthermore states that BlackRock, one of the world’s largest investment funds, potentially has “run afoul: of state and federal antitrust laws. How? By leveraging ESG in its investments decisions. The company also promotes its "firm-wide commitment to integrate ESG."

He argued that the Indiana Public Retirement System is required to invest the pensions of citizens "with care, skill, prudence and diligence," in an advisory opinion late last month. He also went on to allege that since ESG investments stem from political instead of financial interests, it’s a legal no no for the INPRS to make investments with ESG guidelines in mind.

Looking ahead to future ESSH campaigns, boards would be savvy to expect a settlement – or for activists to prevail – and not withdraw or a failed activist initiative, based on research from diligent.com.

While there was a drop off in the volume of activism activity between 2020 and last year, 13% of the campaigns last year struck gold. In 2020, it stood at 11%. It was indicative of a shift in corporate commitments to ESG, the site continued.