A weekly update on issues important to the Investment Management industry
During the recent market cycle, asset managers have benefited from global increases in financial wealth driven by a bull market in most asset prices. These favorable trends in asset prices have masked some of the headwinds the industry faces, including growing consumer skepticism of higher-fee products and regulatory overhang.
Since their launch in 1993, exchange traded funds (ETFs) have steadily attracted assets from mutual funds and active managers that have struggled to compete on the basis of performance and overall tax efficiency. Now many industry observers believe that the same may very well happen to ETFs with the recent rise of direct index investing (DII). For this week’s post, we look into the pros and cons of DII and the implications for the investment management industry.
Despite the old maxim of a rising tide lifting all boats, the current markets are clearly more buoyant for wealth management firms than asset management firms. Many asset managers are trading at or near all-time lows from a valuation perspective, while financial advisory shops continue to accumulate client assets. For this week’s post, we’ll take a closer look at this trend, and what it means for the broader industry.
Asset manager M&A was robust through the first two quarters of 2018 against a backdrop of volatile market conditions. Several trends which have driven the uptick in sector M&A have continued into 2018, including revenue and cost pressures, RIA aggregators, and an increasing interest from bank acquirers. We discuss further in this week’s post.
Over the last several years, asset managers have benefited from global increases in financial wealth driven by a bull market in asset prices. However, favorable trends in asset prices have masked some of the headwinds the industry faces. Against this backdrop, we take a closer look at last quarter’s market performance through the lens of sector and size.
It’s been several months since Morgan Stanley and UBS departed from the Protocol for Broker Recruiting, and the industry is continuing to feel the ripple effects of their maneuver. Much remains to be seen, but many analysts expect more firms to abandon the protocol despite Wells Fargo’s and Merrill Lynch’s recent announcements to stick with it for now.
A rocky first quarter was particularly volatile for publicly traded RIAs. After reaching record highs in late January, most categories of publicly traded RIAs ended the quarter with negative returns.
Asset manager M&A was robust through the first quarter of 2018 against a backdrop of volatile market conditions. Several trends which have driven the uptick in sector M&A have continued into 2018, including revenue and cost pressures and an increasing interest from bank acquirers. We discuss further in this week’s post.
Publicly traded asset managers had a rough first quarter, as volatility returned to the market and major indices posted negative quarterly returns for the first time in over two years. While the overall drop in the market was relatively modest, stock price declines of publicly traded asset managers were generally more significant. It is not surprising that most asset managers have underperformed during periods of declining markets, since the reverse was true during 2017, when most asset managers outperformed the major indices.
Several topics were discussed at the CFA Institute’s Wealth Management Conference, most of which centered around financial planning, practice management, and servicing private clients with evolving needs and return requirements. Though we weren’t able to attend all the sessions, we did pick up on a few themes from our discussions with the attendees and other exhibitors. In this week’s post, we further discuss those themes.
Most of the sector’s recent press has focused on the tax bill’s impact on RIAs, so in addition to our own writings on the matter, we’ve highlighted some of the more salient pieces we’ve come across regarding the tax bill as it relates to the asset management sector.
Favorable market conditions over the last year have lifted RIA market caps to all-time highs yet again as AUM balances continue to climb with the major indices. Is the press wrong about some of the problems facing the industry or is there more to the story?
While we put off writing about bitcoin, the attention that cryptocurrencies received in late 2017 got our attention as a barometer for trends that will buffet the investment management industry in 2018. In this post, we highlight five reasons bitcoin matters to all investment managers.
As noted last week, much has been written about some of the major wirehouse firms abandoning protocol these last few months. This week we explore what the implications are for RIAs and how it could impact their value in the marketplace.
Asset manager M&A activity in 2017, in particular, is on track to reach the highest level in terms of deal volume since 2009.
If you only followed the press surrounding asset managers, you’d think the entire industry was in serious trouble. Fee compression, fund outflows, regulatory overhang, rising costs, and a host of other issues have dominated headlines in recent years, yet the market doesn’t seem to care.
This week, we’re sharing some recent media on trends in asset management, including the breakaway broker phenomenon, M&A activity, and the ongoing shift towards passive products.
Piggybacking off of our post from last week, we discuss the various options one faces when leaving a wirehouse firm, including the various pros and cons to doing so. The advisory profession has evolved significantly over time, so we’re writing this post to keep you apprised of your options as you consider the big leap.
Ever since the Financial Crisis, wirehouse advisors have been pondering this question as the independent model continues to lure wealth managers from the big banks and brokerage firms. This post discusses the various options that financial advisors (FAs) are faced with today and when it makes sense for them to stick around or do their own thing.
This week we’re sharing some recent media on trends in asset management and the outlook for M&A activity. Most industry observers foresee an uptick in asset manager deal-making as rising costs, asset outflows, and a heightened interest from consolidators incent many firms to pull the trigger on a sale or business combination with another RIA.
This week, we’re sharing some recent media on trends in the RIA space. We’ve blogged about asset flows, bank interest in the RIA space, the plight of active management, and the fiduciary rule, but these articles represent a deeper dive into each of these topics.
All classes of asset managers are off to a decent start in 2017 after a strong end to 2016 as the market weighs the impact of fee compression against rising equity prices.
This week, we take a break in our musings on asset manager valuations and impractical sports cars to share some recent media on trends in the RIA space we’ve been following.
The stock market rallied in the first five months of the year, with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 reaching record highs and continuing to climb. Nevertheless, IPOs remain scarce compared to prior years.
