Making sense of the complex global economic environment is essential for advisors, at least for the very important reason of being able to intelligently answer their clients’ questions. Today, the greatest uncertainties are in Fed policy, China and Brexit. We hear from Gene Tannuzzo, whose job it is to make sense of those issues for advisors and their clients.

Beginning with the launch of SPY over 26 years ago, the ETF industry has dramatically reduced the cost of investing for countless advisors and their clients. I will hear from Sue Thompson of State Street Global Advisors about the competitive pressures in the ETF industry.
She oversees the distribution of the SPDR ETFs, which have over $620 billion in assets. She discussed what State Street is doing to ensure the SPDR product line is priced competitively.

You’re wrong if you believe that China will be an economic superpower, Mexico is on the decline, or that President Trump will run for a second term. Pippa Malmgren laid out those contrarian views in a provocative address last week.

A roster of top economists and strategists highlighted a day of in-depth analysis of the key trends in the global markets.

A compelling feature that draws investors to ETFs is “thematic investing.” We’ll discuss how it allows investors to target companies that are poised to benefit from structural shifts in technology, people, demographics and infrastructure development.

Vanessa Oligino is director of business performance solutions at TD Ameritrade. In this interview, she discusses what her research shows are the key traits among advisors who make successful transitions to CEOs of an RIA.

According to research from Cerulli, nearly half of advisors use a model portfolio to manage $2.7 trillion in assets. We’ll discuss how those models are permeating all aspects of investment management in the financial advisory industry.

Robo advisors suffer from a common flaw, according to Zvi Bodie. They don’t use a “safety first” methodology and are exposing users to unnecessary risks.

We’ve collected the following tributes to Jack Bogle from among the authors who contribute to Advisor Perspectives and other prominent individuals in the investment industry.

We did a careful analysis of two fixed-indexed annuities (FIAs) that were the basis of a recent research study by Roger Ibbotson. Our conclusion is that these products are not a bad choice for an investor who is extremely sensitive to loss of capital. But a simpler, do-it-yourself alternative is better.

2018 may have been the toughest year for investors insofar as federal regulations are concerned. That goes back to when the SEC began reviewing conduct standards in 1995. We’ll look at what changed in the fiduciary landscape in 2018 and the outlook for 2019.

The chief goal of society should be to maximize wealth, according to Tyler Cowen. Pursuing that goal has delivered everything from nutritious and abundant food to air conditioning and smartphones in the developed world, and those benefits are spreading rapidly to the developing world. We’ll look at whether Cowen’s single-minded focus on growth make sense and what it means for investors.

One of the most remarkable developments in the financial markets over the last 25 years is that the number of publicly traded companies has declined by half. We’ll look at the reasons for that decline and what it means for investors.

Expect a recession in the next 18 months, said Albert Edwards. Bond yields will converge with those in Germany and will go negative. The economy will be in deflation – or at least face a significant deflationary “scare.” Those factors, he said, will create a terrific opportunity for fixed-income investors.

We're very pleased to invite you to join us for Portfolio Construction Forum Markets Summit 2019 (February 19) and Finology Summit 2019 (February 20-21), in Sydney, Australia.

Jeffrey Gundlach said that 2019 will mark the start of a period when bond markets must reckon with the rising federal deficit. In his most passionate comments ever on this topic, he said the exploding national debt and liabilities involving pension funds, state and local government governments and Social Security have reached a stage that is “totally unthinkable.”

Great articles don’t always get the readership they deserve. Here are another 10 that you might have missed, but I believe merit reading…

Bob Browne is an executive vice president and chief investment officer for Northern Trust, which had $1.1 trillion in assets under management as of September 30, 2018. In this interview, he discusses his firm’s capital market outlook and the six themes that will drive investment returns over the next five years.

Josh Shores serves as a principal and director of Southeastern Asset Management, Inc. He is a manager of the Longleaf Partners International Fund (LLINX). In this interview, he discusses why the biggest, broadest and deepest opportunity set for investing is outside the U.S.

It has been a year where virtually every asset class has suffered negative returns. But emerging market equities have outperformed global indices and, according to Jeffrey Gundlach, that’s where investors should put their money “over the next seven and certainly the next 20 years.”

With approximately 150 new fund and ETF launches in 2018, ESG/SRI investing has become a magnet for flows to asset managers. But what are the key motivators driving that trend among financial advisors? And, once an advisor has committed to an ESG/SRI approach, how do they go about selecting a mutual fund or ETF product?

This webinar will review the implications of a large-scale research study recently completed by Advisor Perspectives. Participants will learn:

• What drives advisors to embrace an ESG/SRI approach? – Our research identified the key factors that hold advisors back from committing assets to ESG/SRI products, as well as the “hot-button” issues that are motivating asset allocation decisions.
• How do advisors select an ESG/SRI fund or ETF? – Advisors weigh many metrics when selecting products – performance history, manager tenure, volatility, etc. Our research revealed which are the most and least important when it comes to selecting ESG/SRI products.
• How can asset managers better serve advisors? – Each quarter, we survey our advisor audience to determine the key issues that they face in their practice and those that they hear about most often from clients. Our research also shows how advisors prefer to learn about new investment products.

Additionally, Leigh Jedeikin, CFP and Vice President, and Daniel Ong, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager and Vice President, will present Dimensional’s approach to incorporating ESG considerations in its strategies, including identifying the specific needs of ESG investors, the screening and weighting criteria used in managing the funds, and the metrics used to evaluate the impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Since its inception in 1999, the Fairpointe Mid-Cap Strategy has returned 11.92% annually net of fees, outperforming the S&P 500 by 563 basis points. In this interview, the fund’s managers discuss its remarkable success.

A large-scale survey of financial advisors has contradicted many of the long-held beliefs about ESG/SRI investing.

A large-scale survey of financial advisors has contradicted many of the long-held beliefs about ESG/SRI investing. The survey was conducted by Advisor Perspectives, a leading publisher of investment content for the financial services industry, as part of its research service.

Brandon Rakszawski is Senior ETF Product Manager at VanEck. In this interview, he discusses the newly introduced VanEck Vectors Morningstar Durable Dividend ETF (DURA).

Martin Kremenstein is senior managing director and head of retirement products and ETFs at Nuveen, a TIAA company. In this interview, he discusses the latest trends and innovations in ESG/SRI investing.

Peter Zymali, vice president and senior portfolio manager on the Global Equity Team, is responsible for the implementation of several quantitative equity strategies specializing in Quality ESG, Tax Advantaged Equity, and Quality Dividend Focus. He currently co-manages the Northern U.S. Quality ESG Fund (NUESX). In this interview, he discusses the latest trends is ESG investing and what to expect from the next generation of products.

Jeremy Siegel is the Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In this interview, he provides is forecast for stock and bond market performance and identifies the asset classes that are most attractively valued.

To better serve our readers and advertising clients, we’ve added a new feature to our website.

Lisa Salvi is a member of the Advisor Services leadership team and is responsible for Schwab’s Business Consulting and Education offer. In this interview, she discusses her research that identified the best practices of the fastest growing financial advisory firms.

Neil J. Hennessy is portfolio manager and chief investment officer at Hennessy Funds, where he personally manages or co-manages six of the firm’s funds. In this interview, he discusses his outlook for the market and the economy, and why he thinks Japanese and energy stocks are exceptionally attractive.

Jillian DelSignore is head of ETF distribution for J.P. Morgan. In this interview, she discusses the overarching needs of financial advisors with respect to ETFs.

Corporate bonds offer incredibly poor prospects under any scenario, according to Jeffrey Gundlach. If rates rise, prices will drop quickly because their durations are between 7 and 10 years. Falling rates are no better, he said, because they would be accompanied by a bear market in stocks with effects that would extend to corporate bonds.

A central focus of the Trump administration has been to reduce the U.S. trade deficit and to force our trading partners – mostly China – to eliminate what he claims to be unfair trade practices. Yet former Fed Chair Janet Yellen doesn’t understand what Trump is doing.

The conventional wisdom promoted by the developers of social networks was that they would provide immense benefits to society through faster and broader connectivity. That view was shattered by Niall Ferguson, who called services like Facebook and Twitter “crazy ideas gone viral, with deeply negative implications.”

Brian Smedley is Senior Managing Director and Head of Macroeconomic and Investment Research at Guggenheim Partners. In this interview, he discusses his outlook for the economy and the capital markets, and how the economy is likely to run into a recession in the first half of 2020.

At Schwab IMPACT, stop by the Guggenheim booth (620), to meet Brian Smedley, and see him present Forecasting the Next Recession on Tuesday 10/30, at 11:15 AM ET, Showcase Stage C.

Anthony Eames is a vice president of Eaton Vance Management and director of responsible investment strategy. In this interview, he discusses the emerging trends in ESG/SRI products and how advisors can better serve their clients with responsible investing solutions.

Stop by to see us at booth 300 in the exhibit hall, where you’ll have a chance to talk with our product representatives.

Jeremy DeGroot, CFA, is a principal and the chief investment officer of Litman Gregory, a boutique wealth management firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this interview, he discusses the Litman Gregory Masters High Income Alternatives Fund, which seeks to generate a high level of current income from diverse sources, consistent with the goal of capital preservation over time. It was launched on September 28, 2018.

Stop by booth #610 at Schwab IMPACT® to learn more about the Litman Gregory Masters High Income Alternatives Fund (MAHIX).

Mike Van Wyk is a senior market research manager at American Funds, part of Capital Group. His research has revealed several secrets that high-net worth investors keep from their advisors, and what advisors can do to reveal them.

Visit us in the exhibit hall at booth 463 to learn about our latest research on high net worth clients and discover ways to serve them better. American Funds Distributors, Inc.

Di Zhou and Jim Gassman are co-managers of the Thornburg Better World International Fund (TBWIX), a global ESG fund. Since its inception on 9/30/15, through 9/30/18, the fund has earned an annualized rate of return of 10.96%, outperforming its benchmark, the MSCI ACWI Ex-US USD index, by 117 basis points. As of 9/30/18, the fund has been rated five stars by Morningstar.

Stop by to see us at booth #388 (near the Bear & Bull Pub) in the exhibit hall, where you’ll have a chance to talk with our product representatives and pick up our latest features in the Wall Street Transcript and Value Investor Insight.

Richard Davis is the portfolio manager of the Maycrest Balanced Fund Strategy. Since its in inception on January 1, 2007 to August 31, 2018, the Maycrest Balanced Fund Strategy had an annualized return of 11.46% versus 8.36% for its benchmark, the S&P 500 Total Return Index, for an outperformance of 310 basis points. In this interview, Richard discusses his strategy and market outlook.

Advisors are routinely entrusted with safeguarding their clients’ financial health. But new research shows there is much more at stake. Automobile accident fatalities and suicide rates are closely correlated with stock market declines.

I had the bittersweet privilege of attending Harold Evensky’s final presentation on investing. Evensky, who is by far the most decorated member of the advisory industry, is retiring and plans no further public talks.

Advisors can help people be the “heroes of their own lives” if we enrich their storytelling abilities, according to Ed Saxon.

Stimulative measures drive growth, and the U.S. economy and stock market have benefited from quantitative easing, lower rates, less regulation and tax cuts. But Jeffrey Gundlach admonished investors that too much stimulus can backfire.

One of the overriding questions from the 2016 presidential campaign is whether the onslaught of “fake news” altered the outcome of the election. That question is unanswerable, but we now know whether the financial equivalent of fake news altered stock prices.

John Barr manages the Needham Aggressive Growth Fund (NEAGX), which had an annualized return of 10.51% over the prior 15 years, versus 9.42% for the S&P 500, for an outperformance of 109 basis points. In this interview, he discusses the outlook for his fund.

Adam S. Abelson is the chief investment officer for the Stralem Funds. Since its inception on January 18, 2000, as of May 31, 2018, the Stralem Equity Fund (STEFX) had an annualized return of 5.78%, versus 5.51 % for its benchmark, the S&P 500 total-return index, for an outperformance of 27 basis points.

C. Thomas Howard, PhD, is the CEO and chief investment officer at AthenaInvest, Inc., a Colorado-based investment manager. He is the co-manager of the Athena Global Tactical ETFs, a separately managed account. As of June 30, 2018, since its inception in September 2010, it has had an annualized return of 19.0%, outperforming its benchmark, the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) by 900 basis points. It is rated five-stars by Morningstar.

Danton G. Goei joined Davis Advisors in 1998. He is a portfolio manager for the Davis Large Cap, Global, and International Portfolios and a member of the research team for other portfolios. In this interview, he discusses those funds and why Davis maintains a “wall of mistakes” that immortalizes its investment blunders.