How To Invest Like The Ivy League Endowments with ETFs
Seeking Alpha published an article by Prateek Mehrotra outlining how ETFs can help investors build institutional quality portfolios diversified into liquid alternative investments designed to improve long-term risk adjusted returns. The article summary The country’s largest endowments aim to preserve capital while producing income and appreciation with less correlation to the stock market regardless of […]
Use of Liquid Alts Growing in Self-Directed IRAs
A recent article at WealthManagement.com discussed that interest in self-directed IRAs is growing. A few reasons for this are that more people have begun to accumulate sizeable assets in their retirement plans. and are looking to diversify their portfolios beyond stocks, bonds and mutual funds. As such, there tends to be a greater appetite for alternative assets […]
Why have some target date funds recently increased their equity allocation?
Blackrock, Fidelity and Pacific Investment Management Co have increased their equity allocation within their target date funds in the past year. These shifts have consultants, advisors and analysts questioning not only the reasons behind the move, but the potential consequences, especially if the recent market correction would expand. A few excerpts: “The shared characteristic these funds […]
Citigroup 401(k) Plan participants suit allowed to move forward
Suit alleges plan fiduciaries violated ERISA by offering affiliated funds that charged higher fees. A U.S. District Court judge in New York is allowing a participant lawsuit against plan fiduciaries of the Citigroup 401(k) plan. The case is another instance of an affiliated product that charges higher fees than funds with comparable performance. A copy of […]
The Value Add of Smart Beta
ETF Model SolutionTMs incorporates fundamental indexing (smart beta) strategies in our models where appropriate, including our Endowment Collective Fund, as we see potential to add value and enhance our risk-adjusted returns. The two founders of AQR Capital Management recently wrote piece about smart beta in which they categorize each of the types of approaches and describe how they […]
DC Plans Can Benefit by Adopting DB Plan Best Practices
A presentation by Robert C. Merton at Plan Sponsor Council of America’s 2014 National Conference highlighted several best practices used by defined benefit plans that could be adopted by defined contribution plans to help improve plan outcomes. The two areas of focus were on communication with participants and on investment selection. For example, since […]
A Better Option Than Target Date Funds
An article titled “A Better Option Than Target-Date Funds” written by Prateek Mehrotra, CIO of ETF Model SoTMlutions and Endowment Wealth ManagementTM was recently published in the Industry Voices column on PlanSponsor.com. In the article, Prateek discusses the following drawbacks of TDFs: TDFs assume a “one-size fits all” and fail to take into account unique […]
Target Date Funds aren’t right for every 401(k)
A recent article that appeared on CNBC.com titled “Don’t let your 401(k) retire before you do” highlighted some of the reasons that TDFs may not be a good fit for all plan participants, including: There is not uniformity among TDFs as to their asset mix, which can change unexpectedly Individual investors may have unique circumstances that […]
New Collective Investment Fund Brings Endowment Investment PhilosophyTM/Liquid Alternatives to Defined Contribution Plans
APPLETON, WIS. — Alta Trust Company has partnered with ETF Model SolutionsTM, LLC. to launch the Endowment Collective Fund (CUSIP: 26923F105). The Endowment Collective Investment Fund (CIF) seeks to improve risk-adjusted returns of traditional two-dimensional portfolios of stocks and bonds by adding alternative investments, such as private equity, hedge strategies and real assets to create a 3-dimensional portfolio. […]
More Data Shows That Few Active Mutual Fund Managers Beat the Market
A recent article summarized data from a paper in the Financial Analysts Journal on the career paths of mutual fund managers. Not surprisingly it confirms most mutual fund managers of any tenure “generally do not outperform the market or their style benchmarks and do not display consistently superior performance.” “Even long-term managers show no ability […]
