Over a third of wealth managers are not communicating with high net worth (HNW) clients via social media according to financial services research and insight firm Verdict Financial.
The company’s recent report, Social Media in Wealth Management: Reaching clients and prospects on social media, found that while the majority of investors are now active on social media daily, generating opportunities for wealth managers to promote their brands through social media platforms, not all wealth managers are taking the opportunity to reach them there.
Katri Tuomainen, Analyst for Wealth Management at Verdict Financial, states: “According to our 2015 Global Wealth Managers Survey, 37% of wealth managers do not use a social media channel to communicate with HNW clients, despite the fact that 78% of consumers with investments log into their social media profiles on a daily basis.”
According to the survey, the most often cited reason for shunning social media use is that company policy prevents it (51.3% of respondents), with concerns that it is too public also key (41.2%).
Tuomainen continues: “When wealth managers are active on social media, it is typically restricted to high-level marketing activity and thought leadership promotion. Indeed, many of the larger players that use social media do so under their general brands rather than via the wealth management division, which can limit the impact and reach of their social media activities in targeting wealth management clients.Besides raising brand awareness and promoting thought leadership, wealth management companies can use social media to target a younger audience, as well as servicing customers. Relationship managers can also individually leverage social media to find and reach out to prospective clients, nurturing client relationships, and building their personal brands.”
Verdict Financial believes that not having a presence on social media gives an inevitable edge to those wealth managers that do have social media embedded within their marketing and communications strategies, while companies with a policy prohibiting social media use stand to lose out in the long run.
PIMCO, a leading global investment management firm, announced on Tuesday that Paul Vosper has joined the firm as an Executive Vice President and Real Estate Strategist. Vosper is based in the firm’s New York office and reports to Jennifer Bridwell, Managing Director and Global Head of PIMCO’s Alternative Products.
“With more than 24 years of experience as a real estate investment professional, Paul brings significant experience and knowledge to our business and will enhance our ability to provide investment opportunities for our clients,” said Bridwell.
Prior to joining PIMCO, Vosper held roles at Morgan Stanley as a Co-Head and Chief Operating Officer for Alternative Investment Partners (“AIP”) responsible for AIPs real estate investment strategies and developing real estate customized solutions for both institutional and private clients. At AIP, he also sat on the Investment Committee. During his career at Morgan Stanley, he worked on real estate transactions in Europe, Asia and the U.S., combining both public and private market experience. Previously, Paul served as Head of Client Relations EMEA for Deutsche Bank RREEF. He was also a Managing Director, Real Estate Investing at Alliance Bernstein. Vosper holds Juris Doctor and Master’s Degrees in Comparative & International law from Duke Law School. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Politics, Law and Organization from Georgetown University.
“PIMCO will continue to use its considerable resources to hire the best industry talent globally. Already this year, we have hired more than 140 new employees, including more than 30 investment professionals across many areas including alternatives, client analytics, mortgages, real estate and macroeconomics,” said Dan Ivascyn, Managing Director and PIMCO’s Group Chief Investment Officer.
Vosper joins PIMCO’s established real estate team of 49 investment professionals globally and his hiring is part of the continued expansion of the firm’s Alternatives investment platform.
Globally, PIMCO’s alternatives offerings span a range of strategies with more than 100 investment professionals overseeing hedge fund and opportunistic/distressed strategies, including global macro, credit relative value, multi-asset volatility and opportunistic real estate, mortgage and corporate credit strategies.
As of March 31, 2016, PIMCO managed approximately $25 billion in alternative strategies, including $9.2 billion in opportunistic real estate strategies worldwide.
Foto: hans-jürgen2013
. Las 100 ciudades con más millonarios
More multi-millionaires live in London than any other city in the world according to Spear’s magazine, in association with wealth consultancy company WealthInsight. The research shows that despite annual falls in the number of multi-millionaires living in London’s closest rivals Tokyo (2nd) and Singapore (3rd), London’s multi-millionaire population continued to grow by 0.8% from 2014 to 2015. The city’s multi-millionaire population now stands at 25% more than second placed Tokyo with 4,400 millionaires now residing in the city.
New York is America’s highest ranking city (4th) followed by Los Angeles (20th), and Houston (24th).
The eighteen cities that saw the biggest increases in multi-millionaire population year on year were all in Asia with the Chinese city of Dalian toping the overall rankings with a yearly increase of 5.4% multi-millionaires. On the opposite side, Kiev (-10.2%), St Petersburg (-7.9%) and Moscow (-6.8%) saw the biggest decreases followed by Sao Paulo (-5.7%), Abuja (-4.3%) and Rio de Janerio (-3.7%).
Commenting on the findings, Oliver Williams, Head of WealthInsight said: “For the three years that we have run this survey, London has maintained the lead with the largest population of multimillionaires. Though the growth in London’s wealthy residents has slowed from 3.3% last year to 0.8% this year, the capital looks set to maintain its edge over rivals such as Tokyo and Paris, whose economies have made them less attractive to multimillionaires. For the next two to three years at least we should expect London to retain its lead as the global capital of multimillionaires.”
On the larger ranking, Williams comments: “The biggest changes in this year’s ranking have been caused by political and economic turmoil. Ukraine and Russia have witnessed contractions as their wealthy residents flock overseas. The real success story of this year’s list has been the rise in multi-millionaires residing in Chinese and Indian cities.“
Foto: Raffi Asdourian
. Preqin: El 5% de los inversores en hedge funds supone una cuarta parte de los activos de la industria
The $1bn Club, that group of institutional investors which have committed more than $1bn to hedge funds, has seen a net growth of 11 participants since 2015, and now includes 238 members. Forty institutions have joined this group of the largest hedge fund investors, while 29 have fallen out of the $1bn Club after reducing their exposure to the industry, according to Preqin.
Although investors in the $1bn Club account for just 5% of all active hedge fund investors, they represent just under a quarter (24%) of the total $3.13tn AUM held by the industry, shows the report. The combined sum of capital invested by the $1bn Club has risen by 4%, from $735bn as of May 2015 to $763bn a year later.
Public pension funds account for over a quarter (27%) of total $1bn Club capital committed to hedge funds, the largest proportion of any investor type. As of May 2016, these investors have $208bn allocated to the industry, up from the $190bn they had committed twelve months ago. Despite this increase in capital investment, almost half (49%) of public pension funds have decreased their allocation to hedge funds in the past twelve months, while 47% have increased their exposure. This indicates a division in public pensions’ attitudes to the industry: some high-profile investors like NYCERS have cut their allocation to hedge funds, but other large pension funds have been committing increasing levels of capital to the industry.
On average, $1bn Club investors allocate 16.8% of their AUM to hedge funds, compared to the average of 14.8% allocated by all other investors. $1bn Club investors invest in 33 vehicles on average, compared to eight vehicles for smaller investors.
Private sector pension funds and sovereign wealth funds each account for 16% of $1bn Club capital. Private sector pension funds increased their invested capital from $107bn in 2015 to $122bn in 2016, while accounting for a net growth of five members of the $1bn Club, the most of any type.
North America-based investors account for 62% of capital committed to hedge funds by the $1bn Club. Europe-based investors account for 23% of the capital committed to the hedge fund industry by the largest investors, a slight increase from 12 months ago (21%).
“Despite the small number of participants in the hedge fund investor $1bn Club, they are mighty in influence and represent nearly a quarter of all capital at work in the industry. As such, it is understandable why the redemptions of high-profile institutions such as NYCERS in 2016 and CalPERS in 2014 may attract headlines; these investors are the cornerstone of the asset class and a potential mass exit could herald worrying times for hedge funds. However, the signs in 2016 remain positive, with a further net increase of participants in the $1bn Club over the past 12 months, and the exposure of these investors to hedge funds has increased by nearly $30bn. With large resources and the continued support of the hedge fund industry, the $1bn Club is likely to remain influential and active.” Commented Amy Benste, Head of Hedge Fund Products, Preqin.
The Federal Reserve Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announcement marked the first of four significant central bank meetings that take place over the next several days, and perhaps not surprisingly the theme of global policy divergence is again on the table, says Rick Rieder, BlackRock ‘s Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income. “That’s not because the Fed’s statement was excessively hawkish, although it was mildly so, but rather because the Fed both continues to recognize that U.S. economic data remains stronger than that seen in much of the rest of the world and as stated that “near-term risks to the economic outlook have diminished.” Further, extraordinarily easy financial conditions across the globe are stabilizing regions (Europe and emerging markets, for instance) that had experienced some significant stresses in the year’s first half, which in turn reduces the left-tail risks for U.S. growth prospects. That has allowed the Fed to continue its “wait-and-see” approach, which also seems calibrated to leave the door open to some small degree of interest rate policy normalization this year, including possibly in September. Of course, the pace of that change has been profoundly altered since the December 2015 meeting rate hike.”
Still, in his view, the utility of extraordinarily low interest rate levels has long since passed much effectiveness in stimulating real economic growth and for some time now has solely been influencing the financial economy as a price-supporting mechanism. “Thus, as we have long argued, the baton must now be transferred from monetary authorities to the fiscal channel, if we are to see any meaningful re-rating of economic growth in the U.S., and further stabilization of global growth as well. Of course, the possibility of future fiscal policy support, and even the continuation of extraordinary monetary policy, both have political elements to them, and the degree to which the asset inflation of recent years has left the middle classes behind, relatively speaking, could influence the policy path forward via the ballot box.”
He goes on saying that fascinatingly, they think the seeds of further political volatility will continue to be with us, as labor and income dynamics get more difficult at the margin in many parts of the globe. In fact, according to some market analysts, it is historically speaking not unusual to see a delayed political reaction that results from major financial crises, such as that seen in 2008, “so the rise in populist sentiment (for example, with the Brexit vote in the U.K., and political campaigns in the U.S.) should not be a surprise,” he states, adding that this very real discontent is largely the result of an uneven recovery. “So, almost regardless of where an investor is located around the world, political event risk is vital to keep a close eye on, even if estimating that risk has become very difficult of late.” Of course, in addition to the U.S. elections on November 8, we would particularly take note of the Italian constitutional reform referendum that is scheduled to also take place later this year, as well as the next German federal elections in late-summer 2017.
“We think much more interest rate policy normalization this year may be difficult for the Fed to accomplish, particularly should jobs growth continue on its slowing trend, inflation expectations and realized inflation remain fairly moderate, and both domestic and international political risks continue to unsettle financial markets. Thus, unless we see a significant improvement in economic data, further stability in global financial markets, and a meaningful pickup in inflation measures, we are likely to see only one more rate hike this year, with the year’s last third as the most likely time for it.” He concludes.
Foto: Jakob Montrasio
. Los compradores chinos lideran las adquisiciones internacionales de real estate en Estados Unidos
Waning economic growth in many countries and higher home prices further enhanced by a strengthening U.S. dollar resulted in a slight decline in international sales dollar volume of U.S. property over the past year and a significant retreat in buying from non-resident foreigners.
This is according to an annual survey of residential purchases from international buyers released recently by the National Association of Realtors. The survey also amazingly revealed that the dollar volume of sales from Chinese buyers exceeded the total dollar sales figure of the next top four ranked countries combined.
NAR’s 2016 Profile of International Activity in U.S. Residential Real Estate, covering U.S. residential real estate sales to international clients between April 2015 and March 2016, found that foreign buyers purchased $102.6 billion of residential property, a 1.3 percent decline from the $103.9 billion of property purchased in last year’s survey. Overall, a total of 214,885 U.S. residential properties were bought by foreign buyers (up 2.8 percent), and properties were typically valued higher ($277,380) compared to the median price of all U.S. existing home sales ($223,058).
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says this year’s findings highlight the tremendous appeal U.S. real estate still has on many foreign nationals despite the price of property becoming less affordable. “Weaker economic growth throughout the world, devalued foreign currencies and financial market turbulence combined to present significant challenges for foreign buyers over the past year,” he said. “While these obstacles led to a cool down in sales from non-resident foreign buyers, the purchases by recent immigrant foreigners rose, resulting in the overall sales dollar volume still being the second highest since 2009.”2
Adds Yun, “Foreigners – especially those from China – continue to see the U.S. as a solid investment opportunity and an attractive place to visit and live.”
According to the survey, sales to non-resident foreign buyers pulled back by approximately $10 billion to the lowest dollar volume since 2013 ($35 billion). The decline was largely caused by the decrease in the share of non-resident foreign buyers to foreign residential buyers to 41 percent – down from the almost even split between the two in previous years (48 percent in 2015).
“Both the increase in U.S. home prices – up 6 percent in March 2016 compared to one year ago – and the depreciating value of foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar made buying property a lot pricier last year,” says Yun. “Led by Venezuela (45 percent) and Brazil (24 percent), at least eight countries, including China and Canada, saw double-digit percent increases in the median sales price of a U.S. existing-home when measured in their country’s currency.”
For the fourth year in a row, buyers from China exceeded all countries by dollar volume of salesat $27.3 billion, which was a slight decrease from last year’s survey ($28.6 billion) but over triple the total dollar volume of sales from Canadian buyers (ranked second at $8.9 billion). Chinese buyers purchased the most housing units for the second consecutive year (29,195; down from 34,327 in 2015), and also typically bought the most expensive homes at a median price of $542,084.
“Although China’s currency modestly weakened versus the U.S. dollar in the past year, it’s much stronger than it was 5 to 10 years ago, thereby making U.S. properties still appear reasonably affordable over a longer time span,” notes Yun.
In addition to the slightly diminished sales activity from Chinese buyers, the total number of sales and the sales dollar volume from buyers from Canada, India ($6.1 billion) and Mexico ($4.8 billion) also retracted from their levels one year ago. Only buyers from the United Kingdom – after a decrease in the 2015 survey – saw an uptick in total sales and dollar volume ($5.5 billion).
“Sales activity from U.K. buyers could very well subside over the next year depending on how severe the economic fallout is from Britain’s decision to leave the European Union,” adds Yun. “However, with economic instability and political turmoil outside of the U.S. likely to persist, the world view of American real estate as a safe investment should keep demand firm even as pressures from a stronger dollar continue to weigh down on affordability.”
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrArriba, de izda. a dcha.: Kevin S. Kosmak, Scott Sandee, Kelly Demers, Daniel D. Abbatacola y Joseph R. Schwall, de la oficina de Chicago - Abajo de izda. a dcha.: Thomas Dicker y Marleny Cheshier - Fotos cedidas. BNY Mellon Wealth Management nombra director para U.S. Markets, e incorpora a 6 profesionales en California y Chicago
BNY Mellon Wealth Management has named Thomas Dicker to be Head of U.S. Markets, based in Boston. In his new role Dicker will oversee the 38 wealth offices throughout the US reporting into Don Heberle, CEO of BNY Mellon Wealth Management.
Dicker, who most recently served as the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, is responsible for driving growth and delivering a superior client experience across the firm’s regional markets and has held several other key leadership positions and client-facing roles during his 29 years with BNY Mellon including overseeing the acquisition of the firm’s offices in Toronto, Chicago, and Menlo Park.
California
The firm has also hired Marleny Cheshier as a senior wealth manager in its Newport Beach wealth management office. Cheshier reports to Michael Silane, senior director of portfolio management. The Newport Beach office has experienced strong growth serving high net worth clients in Orange County and the broader Southern California market. Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Cheshier was at Northern Trust for 18 years, where she most recently served as a vice president and senior portfolio manager.
Five additional staff in Chicago
BNY Mellon has also hired Kevin S. Kosmak for a newly created team leader and senior wealth manager role and named Scott Sandee as senior wealth director. The firm also appointed Kelly Demers as vice president and residential mortgage banker. It named Daniel D. Abbatacola as underwriter in life insurance premium lending, and Joseph R. Schwall as senior private banker.
The additions to the Chicago office are part of the firm’s strategic hiring initiative in important wealth markets and bring the total size of the Chicago office to 35 professionals, an increase of 350% since BNY Mellon opened its doors there in 2010.
“BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s growth strategy here in Chicago and across the country is to continue to recruit and develop the best talent in the industry. We’re delighted to welcome Kevin, Scott, Kelly, Dan and Joe to our expanding Chicago office,” said Michael DiMedio, Chicago regional president. “They join a team that offers BNY Mellon’s exceptional wealth management services to our ever-expanding client base.”
Kosmak and Sandee report to DiMedio, while Demers reports to Managing Director Erin Gorman. Schwall reports to Regional Director William McKinley and Abbatacola reports to Rebecca Ryan, head of private bank life insurance lending.
Kosmak comes to BNY Mellon from Northern Trust, where he served for more than 13 years and was a senior portfolio manager and team leader. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business with a concentration in finance and a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of North Texas. He has a master’s in business administration with a concentration in financial analysis from DePaul University. He is a member of the board of the St. Edward School in Chicago, and is active with the Skokie Amateur Hockey Association.
Sandee was previously employed as a private wealth advisor for BMO Private Bank and, before that, as a wealth strategist with Northern Trust. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., and is a resident of Wilmette, Ill.
Demers joins BNY Mellon from JP Morgan Chase where she was a private client mortgage banker. She has nine years of financial services experience and a bachelor’s degree with a concentration in mathematics from the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. She is a member of the board for the West Point Society of Chicago, the National Louis University Veteran’s committee and IL State Treasurer’s Veteran’s Advisory Committee.
Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Abbatacola was employed as a senior underwriter with Northern Trust. Earlier he was with Cornerstone National Bank and Trust Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree with a concentration in finance from Northern Illinois University, and resides in Plainfield, Ill.
Schwall joins BNY Mellon from Northern Trust, where he held several key positions over his 27 years there. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is an active member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Have Dreams autism awareness organization.
Foto: id
. BMO Global Asset Management lanza el fondo Global Absolute Return Bond
BMO Global Asset Management has launched the BMO Global Absolute Return Bond fund further strengthening its absolute return offering for retail and institutional investors looking for attractive levels of potential return in today’s low-yield environment. The fund is a UCITS SICAV domiciled in Luxembourg and the Financial Conduct Authority recognizes it. It is a liquid investment strategy with daily dealing available.
BMO Global Absolute Return Bond fund’s investment approach is unconstrained by a benchmark or particular maturity, credit rating band, sector or geography, but has strict risk limits. A long bias, combined with the ability to goshort rates and credit, gives greater flexibility and downside protection.
Investment in global credit is combined with thematic overlays within the portfolio to provide diverse sources of return within a disciplined risk management framework. The core credit portfolio is a ‘buy and maintain’ strategy which focuses on exploiting persistent anomalies in investment grade and high yield securities and is well diversified with over 100 issuers to reduce risk. Thematic overlays contribute to return and aid diversification through active management of credit, interest rate and currency risk. Disciplined risk management is used across the portfolio to calibrate risk up or down as necessary.
BMO Global Asset Management’s Fixed Income team in London manages the fund. The lead managers are Keith Patton and Ian Robinson. Strategic decisions across each of the underlying strategies are delegated to experts in global credit, currency, rates and risk management.
“The fund aims to deliver stable returns whilst having a different profile to that of global bond markets,” said Keith Patton, co-manager of the BMO Global Absolute Return Bond fund. “The combination of multiple strategies, working together, provides investors with the opportunity for a smoother overall return profile over time relative to traditional investments. In addition, the unconstrained approach allows for greater diversification across strategies and for the investment teams to target areas where they have the greatest conviction.”
Ian Robinson, co-manager of the BMO Global Absolute Return Bond fund, added: “The focus on shorter dated credit securities reduces the cyclicality generally associated with longer maturity bonds.”
The launch is part of the continued drive to build BMO Global Asset Management’s offering to, and coverage of, wholesale and institutional clients across EMEA over the past year.
“We are seeing huge demand from our clients for absolute return strategies, as they look for solutions that can provide greater certainty of outcome and positive returns in a challenging market environment,” said Mandy Mannix, Head of Client Management, BMO Global Asset Management (EMEA).
Take-up of foreign investment funds has trumped the lackluster mutual fund industry growth in Southeast Asia in 2015, Cerulli Associates found in its recently released report Asset Management in Southeast Asia 2016.
While year-on-year growth of mutual fund assets under management declined from 21.2% in 2012 to 6.4% in 2015, foreign equity fund assets in Thailand surged from THB111.1 billion (US$3.1 billion) in 2014 to THB226.2 billion in 2015. In Malaysia, wholesale feeder assets nearly quadrupled from MYR812.5 million (US$188.8 million) in 2014 to MYR3.1 billion in 2015, and private unit trust foreign exposure increased from 14.9% to 16.8% over the same period.
“Despite these spectacular growth rates, assets of foreign-invested feeders in Thailand and Malaysia have largely been concentrated in the hands of the larger players or among the few biggest funds,” said Manuelita Contreras, an associate director at Cerulli in Singapore. The US$1.5 billion feeder fund assets managed by J.P. Morgan Asset Management in Thailand and Malaysia, for example, mainly came from four of its funds: JPMorgan Global Healthcare Fund, JPMorgan Global Income Fund, JPMorgan ASEAN Equity Fund, and JPMorgan Asia Pacific Income Fund.
Meanwhile, in the Philippines, no less than 13 foreign-invested feeder funds and two funds of funds were launched as of end-2015 since feeder fund unit investment trust funds were first introduced in late 2013, while at least four Indonesian managers have launched foreign-invested Shariah-compliant funds as of April 2016.
“For foreign managers looking to engage third-party fund distributors in Southeast Asia, a long-term track record and global brand recognition will come in handy, though we understand that Thai managers are also open to appointing less well-known managers,” said Contreras. Southeast Asian managers also generally prefer to work with fund managers with an Asian presence and a shorter turnaround time.
Negative interest rates– though unsettling for many – can actually be an economic boon, according to a new study by National Center for Policy Analysis(NCPA) Senior Fellow David Ranson.
“Low interest rates are not in themselves bad for the economy. Indeed, the same can be said of high interest rates; financial markets cannot operate efficiently unless rates are in line with expected inflation and, at times, deflation,” says Ranson.
The study points to Switzerland as an example of naturally negative interest rates. “To their own surprise, the Swiss accomplished it by maintaining an exceptionally strong currency, now roughly at par with the dollar. Life went on,” writes Ranson. “The Swiss currency has long been one of the strongest anywhere, and inflation has been low and sometimes negative for years. It is negative right now, but it is mostly market forces that drove Swiss nominal interest rates below zero. Indeed, in these hitherto rare cases where prices are consistently on the decline, it is natural for nominal rates to be negative.”
While there are mental, cultural and institutional barriers to negative interest rates, there are no economic barriers to negative interest rates, adds Ranson. “However inconsistent it may seem at first, there is no inherent conflict between opposing the Fed’s former zero interest-rate policy and cautiously welcoming negative interest rates, in the event that deflationary conditions last.”
