Russell

2014: A Year of Blogs (Part III)

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 28, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with ,

We’re highlighting lessons from evaluating 1,500 blog posts in 2014. Part III builds from part II and part I. Industry blogs have come a long way from 2011 when there were 3 – 4 nascent blogs. In that time, the firms with the best blogs provide a point of view. No longer should any firms rely on providing a market summary or recapping the week’s top financial news. This institutional Vanguard post clarifies their perspective on smart beta (basically no bueno). The Russell post below ends with a bottom line that addresses FA’s thoughts/concerns over municipal bonds. The bottom line is direct without being condescending.

vanguard

russell 

Digital Lesson from Robo-Advisors

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 26, 2015, in Thoughts , tagged with , ,

Throughout 2014, we read much about the emerging robo-advisor industry and how it may be the disruptive technology to ‘revolutionize’ the traditional financial advice/guidance industry. Personally, I think revolution is probably a generation away, if at all. Regardless of the potential disruption, asset managers can improve their digital execution by learning from robo-advisors. To my eye, the best example is in tax-loss harvesting. Tax loss harvesting is a popular topic with financial advisors and many asset managers develop related FA support materials. Look at these blog posts from Russell, Vanguard, and BlackRock (best of the three).

Yet typical materials and blog posts rely on the user reading a lengthy, uninterrupted piece to better understand tax-loss harvesting. This Betterment implementation surpasses those by mingling text, video, graphics, and multiple sub-sections. Simply, Betterment presents a relatively dry and important topic in an engaging manner that asset managers could benefit from studying.

betterment

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 26, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

Three quick-reading blog posts this week covering three, highly different topics

  • BlackRock – A post from a millennial that references Robo-Advisors!
  • Oppenheimer – Post with 6 current Q&As. Question 3 seems to receive a lot of attention in the financial news. This answers reads more clearly than most articles I’ve seen.
  • Russell – Really just a valuable (yet amateur-looking) chart for FAs to utilize with clients frustrated with overall portfolio yield.

 

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Jan 13, 2015, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , , ,

We thought to bring the first two weeks of January together in a single post. You’ll find four posts, two relatively technical. Each can materially help financial advisors (and increasingly institutional investors) understand critical investment topics more thoroughly and/or clearly.

  • BlackRock – When a firm posts five predictions about smart beta, we know it’s no longer a fringe topic.
  • Oppenheimer -Believe this approach to discussing (changing) interest rates will be highly valuable to many FAs.
  • Russell – Good time of the year to remind clients to remain disciplined.
  • WisdomTree – Fascinating real-life situation related to liquidity (me too, liquidity and fascinating?)

Best Blogs of the Week

Posted by Anu Heda on Nov 17, 2014, in Best Blogs of the Week , tagged with , ,

Four interesting posts this week

  • BlackRock – Interesting quick-hit on the impact of lower, global oil prices
  • Russell – New (to me) approach to thinking about LDI
  • Russell – Easy-to-digest data on diversifying through commodities
  • Vanguard – These posts grow a little tiresome; the authors points related to active nature of factor selection in smart beta resonates with me