Displaying items by tag: diversification

Alternative investments have captured the attention of institutional investors for decades, with private equity making up the lion's share of the alts category. Today, however, private credit is making waves and grabbing its piece of the investment pie.

As recently noted by Institutional Investor, "private credit has arguably become the most powerful transformational force in the financial world since the 2008 economic crisis." This rise to prominence can be attributed to a confluence of factors. Traditional lenders, reeling from the recent banking crisis, have become more risk-averse, leaving a gap in credit availability. Stepping into this void are alternative investment managers, offering much-needed capital to businesses.

With some investment managers now packaging their private credit holdings into vehicles accessible through financial advisors, an entirely new world of opportunity has opened to individual investors, allowing them to diversify their portfolios with this exciting asset class.

Private credit presents a compelling option for advisors seeking to enhance portfolio diversification and reduce correlation. While the credit crunch of early 2023 has eased, private credit firms remain active, diligently finding new markets to deploy their capital. If this trend continues, it ensures a steady supply of investment opportunities for both institutional and individual investors.

Finsum: Learn how the surge in private credit is creating portfolio diversification options for both institutional and individual investors.

Alternative investments can add value to portfolios by boosting returns and leading to increased diversification according to a recent UBS white paper on the subject. Within the category, it favors specialist credit hedge funds, macro hedge funds, secondaries in private equity, and specific types of private debt. However, it does note that investors should be aware that there is a tradeoff in terms of reduced liquidity. 

The firm recommends a 20% allocation and believes that it could lead to an annual increase of 50 basis points in the long term. It’s increasingly of interest given the asset class’s strong performance in 2022 when stocks and bonds both delivered double-digit, negative returns. In contrast, most diversified alternatives’ indices saw performance between -6% and +17%. In terms of forward returns, the bank forecasts return between 6% and 11% over a full business cycle.

In terms of specific strategies, UBS recommends specialist credit hedge funds which focus on differences between strong and weak companies. It also favors secondaries in private equities and notes some attractive discounts in the space. The bank also sees upside to private debt given that yields are around 12% with lower default risk than high-yield credit. 

Finsum: UBS is bullish on alternative assets. It believes that the asset class can boost returns while also increasing diversification. 

VettaFi announced that it would be acquiring EQM Indexes, a provider of custom thematic indexing specialists. It marks VettaFi’s second acquisition in the space as the indexing and ETF data provider continues increasing the amount and quality of offerings for asset managers. In April, it acquired ROBO Global Index suites.

EQM uses a quantitative approach to construct customized, niche indices for industries like e-commerce, rare earths, block chain technology, etc. Most of its customers are advisors and wealth managers who are based in North America, Europe, or Asia. 

Following the completion of the deal, VettaFi will have more than 300 indexes that comprise $19 billion in assets including ETFs and direct indexing products. The firm was founded in 2022 through a merger of various entities in the ETF data and indexing space.

Clearly, the firm believes that direct indexing has more room for growth. According to Brian Coco, VettaFi’s head of Index Products, “A great investment idea can often remain just that: an idea. But with a well-constructed index, great investment ideas can become great investments. Building custom indexes is something at which EQM has long excelled, and we are very excited to add EQM’s expertise to our index offerings.”

Finsum: VettaFi announced the acquisition of EQM Indexes, a provider of custom indexing solutions. It marks a continuation of the firm’s investment in the direct indexing space.

For Vettafi’s ETFTrends, James Comtois discusses some of the key advantages of direct indexing for investors, and why the category is expected to continue growing at a healthy clip over the next decade. In essence, it’s become increasingly evident over the past decade that investing passively and consistently in low-cost, diversified funds is the key to outperformance. Currently, there is $260 billion in assets managed via direct indexing with this figure expected to exceed $500 billion over the next decade. 

At the same time, society continues to evolve in a manner that serves consumers with content, products, and services that are customized to their taste. Concurrently, there has been technological innovation in the financial space that has resulted in drastic declines in the cost of stock trading and money management. 

Direct indexing is at the intersection of all these trends. It captures the best parts of passive index investing as it recreates an index in an investors’ account with some tweaks if necessary to reflect one’s personal values and beliefs or unique financial situation. It utilizes technological innovations to scan for tax loss harvesting opportunities which then can be used to lower an investors’ tax bill. Due to this factor, direct indexing strategies outperform especially in more volatile environments. 

Finsum: Direct indexing is one of the fastest growing areas in wealth management. Here are some factors behind its increasing popularity. 

For Vettafi’s ETFTrends, James Comtois shares his thoughts on the major differentiator for direct indexing vs the traditional strategy of investing in index funds. Over the last couple of decades, it’s become accepted wisdom that investing in passive funds is the best path to retirement given their diversification, history of long-term gains, and low costs and fees. 

However, there is one drawback to this strategy. Investors are unable to capitalize on tax losses to offset gains to lower their year-end tax bill. Direct indexing addresses this weakness while still retaining the major benefits of passive index investing. In addition, it also enables investors to customize their holdings to reflect their personal values and beliefs.

Still, the key advantage for direct indexing is the boost in returns due to tax-loss harvesting. This can result in additional performance between 1 and 2% and is more potent in years with greater volatility. It can be particularly beneficial for investors who have gains in other parts of their portfolio. 

With direct indexing, the portfolio is scanned regularly to sell losing positions. These are replaced with stocks that have similar factor scores to continue tracking the benchmark. 

Finsum: Direct indexing has several benefits for investors but its key advantage is that it can help them reduce their tax bills and boost performance in more volatile years.