When it comes to making clients happy, there is no substitute for a wide variety of offerings given that everyone has their own unique circumstances, priorities, risk tolerance levels, and goals. Ironically, the recent trend in wealth management over the past couple of decades has been the opposite with the rise of ubiquitous 60/40 portfolios and passive strategies.

However, the introduction and ongoing proliferation of direct indexing is an antidote and presents an opportunity for savvy advisors. In essence, direct indexing allows investors to recreate an index within a separately managed account by owning the actual individual stocks. This is now possible due to technology, lower commissions, and fractionalization of shares. 

The major benefit for clients and advisors is that these indexes can be customized as little or as much as clients desire. Thus, it retains the pros of passive investing, while allowing for personalization and the potential to harvest tax losses. 

For example, investors who have strong beliefs about climate change may look to eschew companies who are responsible for emissions or the production of fossil fuels. Instead, they may want to overweight stocks with high ESG scores. With direct indexing, an advisor can theoretically create custom products for each client, leading to greater satisfaction and success for both parties.

Finsum: Advisors should get comfortable with direct indexing given that it allows for personalized products that are more likely to appeal to an investor. 

One of the consequences of tighter monetary policy is that traditional sources of funding such as banks and public markets have dried up. This void has created an opportunity for private financing.

Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMCO) is seeking to capitalize on these circumstances. Typically, PIMCO is known as a bond powerhouse but in recent years, its alternative segment has made some impressive strides. It sees opportunities to extend credit to companies in need of capital and has been coming up with creative strategies to facilitate this. This includes lending against assets and across the capital structure in addition to offering equity stakes for investors.

The firm is also increasing the number of portfolio managers who are dedicated to private credit and believes it can achieve private equity-like returns in the current environment. It also sees opportunity in the loan books of banks that are looking to shed risk and are focused on strengthening their balance sheets. 

It sees upside opportunity in segments like tourism, airlines, gaming, concerts, theme parks and rental properties. However, it’s looking to reduce exposure to banks given the combination of a slowing economy and an inverted yield curve. 

Finsum: PIMCO sees opportunity in private credit given that traditional sources of financing have become more difficult to access.

Within asset management, active fixed income is in a growth boom based on a surge of inflows and new issuances to meet this demand. There are two secular components as ETFs continue to displace mutual funds as preferred vehicles for fixed income investing, and institutions and advisors become more aware and comfortable with the category. 

And, a cyclical factor is the current market environment given the combination of attractive yields and uncertainty about the trajectory of monetary policy. These environments tend to favor active over passive strategies since active managers have more latitude in terms of credit quality and duration.

In recent months, we’ve seen a frenzy in terms of new issues with Vanguard and Blackrock introducing active ETFs that mirror their own active fixed income mutual funds. Now, Capital Group is joining the fray with the launches of the Capital Group Core Bond ETF (CGCB) and the Capital Group Short Duration Municipal Income ETF (CGSM). Asset managers are responding to demand for these products, or otherwise would lose market share to firms who provide ETF versions of popular mutual funds. 

CGCB invests across the entire fixed income spectrum with a focus on capital preservation and generating income. CGSM invests in municipal debt that is exempt from federal taxes and typically short-duration. 

Finsum: Capital Group is launching two new active fixed income ETFs which is a major trend in the asset management world.