Foto: Gideon Tsang
. El número de advisors creció en 2014 en Estados Unidos
The industry’s total U.S. advisor headcount increased for the first time in nine years – by 1.1%-, according to the research “Advisor Metrics 2015: Anticipating the Advisor Landscapein 2020”, by Cerulli Associates.
“Many positive developments led to the headcount growth last year,” states Kenton Shirk, associate director at the firm. “From the advisor perspective, there is a heavier focus on teaming and onboarding rookie advisors into multi-advisor practices. Advisors are eager to hire junior advisors so they can refocus their own efforts on their largest and most ideal clients. There is also greater awareness and concern about succession preparedness.”
“While all of this recent growth has provided some positive momentum, the industry is still not in the clear,” Shirk explains. Although there was an uptick in the number of advisors in 2014, the projection is that the industry’s headcount will begin declining again in 2019 as advisor retirements increase.
“In 2020, we believe that modest headcount gains will be trumped by a sizable uptick in advisor retirements,” Shirk continues. “The industry’s headcount will begin to decline once again at an even more pronounced rate than in the recent years.”
To minimize the decrease in headcount, Cerulli recommends the industry begins laying a solid foundation to recruit and groom new advisors in the upcoming years.
Foto de Chris Ford. Crear un perfil de objetivos reales para los inversores es más importante que buscar un rendimiento numérico
When it comes to building investment portfolios, managers must look for durable, risk focused portfolios that allow investors to navigate short term volatility in the markets.
According to John Hailer, President and Executive Director, Natixis Global Asset Management, it is imperative to “remove emotions from investing.” In his opinion, creating a real goal profile for investors is more important than looking for quantitative returns, also, considering the current expectations and the fact that “volatility will linger for a while, traditional portfolios will not be enough to achieve the expected return.” Instead, a combination of strategies including active management and liquid alternatives must be used.
Of course, when opting for an active strategy, according to David Lafferty, Chief Market Strategist, Natixis Global AM, such strategy should be “very active and not just half-ways”, since if the only active feature is in the name, it will be very diffícult to exceed the net return. With regards to the Mexican market, where the operation of the firm according to Mauricio Giordano, CEO, Natixis Global AM Mexico, is a long term commitment, including, “a wide offer of solutions with a high level of specialization in each of its affiliate managers”, Lafferty recalled that when the Mexican bonds offer an average 3.5% in return, Mexican investors are expecting returns of 10% in their portfolios, hence there is an important difference in the perception of the market.
However, he feels optimistic about the prospects for Mexico since its current circumstances are not linked to the situation in China, and the fact that the peso has lost more than other currencies vs. a strong dollar, means that “Mexico is better positioned than most emerging economies to offer returns denominated in dollars,” which makes it an “attractive destination for the international capital.”
With regards to the rate hike from the Federal Reserve, Lafferty explained this should not be of concern, as any process of normalization will happen gradually and it is an evidence that the economy is improving, which is positive for the market perspectives. While the volatility is here to stay, keeping a long term, well diversified profile will help navigate the current environment.
Foto: Vrysxy
. Crece el número de firmas de Miami que invierten en hedge funds
The Miami metropolitan area is beginning to establish itself as an active player in the hedge fund space, with a steady rise in the number of firms investing in hedge funds and their allocations to the asset class. Preqin’s Hedge Fund Investor Profiles database currently tracks 70 hedge fund investors based in the Miami area.
The average Miami-based institutional investor in hedge funds currently allocates approximately $65mn to the asset class, an increase of $15mn from 2013. Miami has also seen the number of investors active in hedge funds rise over the last three years from 50 in 2013, to 66 in 2014 and 70 in 2015.
The current average allocation to hedge funds for institutional investors in Miami is 16.2% of their assets, an increase of 13.8% on 2014 and greater than the North American average of 16.1%. If allocations continue to increase, Miami will soon compete with larger North American markets such as New York (22%), Los Angeles (18.6%) and Chicago (17.1%). The institution based in the Miami area that has the highest allocation percentage to hedge funds is Chauncey F. Lufkin III Foundation, which has more than 81% of its total assets under management (AUM) dedicated to hedge funds.
Of the institutional investors active in the space, private wealth firms are the most numerous, making up 29% of all Miami-based firms investing in hedge funds. Foundations, funds of hedge funds and public pension funds account for 19%, 17% and 17% of Miami-based hedge fund investors respectively. As shown in the Preqin´s chart below, long/short equity funds are the most sought after by Miami-based investors, utilized by 65% of institutional investors in the area.
With a wide variety of Miami-based institutions invested in hedge funds and with reasonably high allocations to the space, the area provides a relatively small but notable source of capital for hedge fund managers. Should investor numbers continue to increase, the area may continue to develop as an important location for the industry, Preqin says.
PineBridge Investments nombra CEO a Gregory A. Ehret - Photo Youtube. PineBridge Investments nombra CEO a Gregory A. Ehret
PineBridge Investments, the global multi-asset class investment manager, announced the appointment of Gregory A. Ehretas Chief Executive Officer, effective January 25, 2016. Mr. Ehret joins PineBridge from State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of State Street Corporation, where he served as President and a member of the Executive Management Group.
PineBridge Chairman John L. Thornton said, “Greg is an industry veteran with an impressive track record of growing a global business across both developed and emerging markets. His leadership and operational expertise will position PineBridge to continue providing our clients with an integrated global perspective and a unique investment offering.”
“I have watched PineBridge develop its award-winning multi-asset platform and I am honored to lead such a distinguished team,” said Mr. Ehret. “With its strong footprint in key markets across the globe, I am excited to engage with PineBridge’s investment groups as they structure and deliver leading products to the firm’s clients.”
Stephen Fitzgerald, Interim CEO, will continue to serve as Deputy Chairman, a role he has held since 2013. Mr. Thornton added, “I would also like to thank Stephen for his dedicated leadership over the past few months, and we are pleased to continue benefiting from his international investment expertise on the Board.”
At State Street, Mr. Ehret was most recently responsible for global client outreach, product development, marketing, operations and technology, and was a member of the board of several operating entities and fund companies. During a 20-year tenure at State Street, Mr. Ehret held numerous management roles in the United Statesand Europe. Mr. Ehret has a BA in Economics from Bates College and an MBA from Boston University.
The most recent research from global analytics firm Cerulli Associates takes a critical look at the opportunity for managed account providers in the $5.2 trillion private defined contribution (DC) market. As the DC market matures, the asset management industry continues to reassess and measure the efficacy of a target-date product as the primary retirement investment solution for the majority of savers. Likewise, DC plan sponsors are closely scrutinizing the results of their target-date fund selection as it continues to gather a greater percentage of plan contributions.
“Managed account providers may experience greater success in the DC arena if managed accounts are consistently positioned and presented as a service, not just another investment option,” states Jessica Sclafani, associate director at Cerulli. “Importantly, managed accounts should be a complement rather than an adversary to target-date funds.”
“An increase in the availability of managed accounts reflects the DC industry’s growing interest in customization as a route to supporting improved participant outcomes,” Sclafani continues. “As participants’ investable assets increase, they become more interested in financial planning and personalized strategies, which are not addressed by the two most common QDIAs-target-date funds and balanced funds-but are both components of managed account programs.”
Cerulli’s latest report, Retirement Markets 2015: Growth Opportunities in Maturing Markets, focuses on trends in the $21.5 trillion retirement marketplace, including assets and growth projections in the different retirement segments – private/public defined benefit plans, private/public defined contribution plans, and the IRA market.
“Rather than fighting an uphill battle in trying to displace target-date funds, Cerulli recommends managed account providers focus on capturing the segment of participants who are nearing retirement, have amassed outside assets, and are looking for additional services,” Sclafani explains. Cerulli estimates there are approximately 19.5 million households ages 45 to 69 with investable assets ranging from $100,000 to $2 million. Cerulli considers these households, which represent $9.1 trillion in investable assets, as the target market for managed account providers.
Cerulli believes that managed account providers must partner with DC plan sponsors to make sure the differentiated value of a managed account is conveyed to participants (e.g., access to personalized advice or the ability to incorporate assets outside of the DC plan for a more holistic financial planning experience). For participants to opt in to a managed account service, they need to understand what they are paying for. This requires extra work from both the plan sponsor and managed account provider in educating the plan participant base.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is seeking candidates to represent the interests of financial markets stakeholders of all types as members of its Securities Markets Stakeholders Group (SMSG).
The SMSG helps to facilitate consultation between ESMA, its Board of Supervisors and stakeholders on ESMA’s areas of responsibility and provides technical advice on its policy development. This helps to ensure that stakeholders can contribute to the formulation of policy from the beginning of the process.
The successful candidates will take up their roles in July 2016. Steven Maijoor, ESMA Chair, said: “The SMSG plays a key role in providing advice from the perspective of a broad range of financial market stakeholders to ESMA and its Board on its activities, and makes a vital contribution to the development of financial markets policy. We are seeking the broadest possible stakeholder representation, in terms of stakeholder segment, gender, and geography, and encourage all interested parties to put themselves forward for consideration.”
The SMSG was established under Article 37 of the ESMA Regulation and is composed of 30 members, representing consumers, users of financial services, financial market participants, academics, employees in the financial sector and SMEs.
It meets on at least four occasions per year and twice with ESMA’s Board of Supervisors.
Each Member of the SMSG serves for a period of two and a half year and can serve two consecutive terms.
Application process
The call for expression of interest for membership in the SMSG is open to stakeholder representatives from the European Union and the EEA. The deadline for applications is 29 January 2016.
Amherst Capital Management, a real estate credit investment specialist and BNY Mellon Investment Management boutique, announced on Monday the addition of two seasoned real estate finance executives to lead the development of its Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Lending business. Christopher T. Kelly was appointed Head of Commercial Real Estate Lending, and Abbe Franchot was named Head of Originations.
“We are thrilled to announce the launch of our CRE Lending platform and expanded offerings on the alternative side of our business,” said Sean Dobson, CEO of Amherst Capital. “Chris and Abbe are exceptional real estate finance professionals and terrific additions to the Amherst Capital team.”
As Head of Commercial Real Estate Lending for Amherst Capital, Chris is responsible for leading all facets of the CRE middle-market Lending business, and targeting mortgage investments in all types of commercial and for-rent residential real estate assets. In this role, Chris will oversee the origination and qualification of potential investment opportunities and drive the underwriting process of CRE transactions, including cash flow modeling, asset valuation and debt structuring, additionally, he will provide oversight for Amherst Capital’s overall CRE loan portfolio performance and asset quality.
“The ability to participate in the initial growth and development of a new private debt origination business for Amherst Capital with the support of BNY Mellon and Texas Treasury Safekeeping Trust Company presents a unique and compelling opportunity,” said Chris Kelly, Head of Commercial Real Estate Lending at Amherst Capital. “We believe that the combination of Amherst Holdings’ deep mortgage expertise, proprietary data and analytics with the strength of BNY Mellon’s infrastructure, places Amherst Capital in a sector-leading position out of the gate.”
Chris has 28 years of experience in real estate debt, mezzanine and equity markets. Prior to joining Amherst Capital, he led the national real estate lending business at CapitalSource, a division of Pacific Western Bank, as a Managing Director and Head of Real Estate.
As Head of Originations, Abbe will lead a team of originators that will source investment opportunities. Abbe previously worked alongside Chris at CapitalSource, where she was responsible for providing debt solutions to CRE owners and investors nationwide as a senior member of the originations team.
Amherst Capital’s CRE Lending team will initially focus on strategies providing interim floating rate debt for property acquisitions or recapitalizations with a value-add or opportunistic investment plan.
Pictet Asset Management added a new fund to its offering. With the launch of PTR Phoenix, a market neutral fund, they offer investors access to Asian stock markets.
Led by James Kim, Tai Panich and Jing Wang in Singapore, the sixth total return fund at Pictet follows a top-down investment strategy, combining long and short positions in search of alpha.
The Ucits IV-compliant fund, offers weekly liquidity as well as daily pricing. It is registered for sale in Great Britain, Luxembourg, Singapore, Spain, France, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and Germany.
Emerging markets have experienced several years of relative underperformance. In 2016, they will face considerable external headwinds such as China’s slowdown and rebalancing, weak commodity prices, higher short-term US interest rates, and possibly further US dollar appreciation. Countries will react in different ways to these pressures depending on the extent of any imbalances and their own economic and institutional characteristics.
In the latest update of the Standard Life Investments emerging markets heat map, chief Economist Jeremy Lawson and Emerging Market Economist Nicolas Jaquier highlight important differences in their risk ratings of individual countries:
Jeremy Lawson said: “In May our heat map proved to be a useful indicator of subsequent asset price movements. Countries like Hungary, Korea and Russia showed relatively low risk and generally fared better than those at the higher end of the spectrum such as Brazil, Turkey and Peru. Looking forward, widespread currency depreciation has helped to reduce external imbalances in many countries, although domestic imbalances remain widespread and will take much longer to be addressed.
“Venezuela and Egypt, with pegged or inflexible exchange rate regimes, remain the countries where our heat mapshows risks are highest. Brazil and Malaysia have lowered their risk score after seeing their basic balances improve during the year, though risk is still high. Turkey’s external vulnerabilities are unchanged broadly, despite the benefits of the drop in oil prices.
“Whilst Colombia’s external variables improved marginally, this was offset by rising domestic imbalances. The outlook for fiscal balances has deteriorated notably in Latin America and Russia, and a marginal worsening of domestic balances led to a slight increase in risk for India, Indonesia, Mexico and The Philippines.”
As part of the Montréal Carbon Pledge which it signed as first asset management company in Austria in September 2015, Erste Asset Management has for the first time published the cumulative CO2 footprint of its equity funds. At 70.6%, the footprint falls nearly 30% short of the benchmark index, the MSC World (as of 30 October 2015). “Erste Asset Management sees itself as pioneer in sustainable investments”, says Gerold Permoser, CIO of the company in Vienna. “The climate conference in Paris reminds us how important the curtailing of the emission of greenhouse gases and a sustainable economy are in general. By publishing this key figure, we show to what extent our investments contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases.”
As Austrian market leader in the area of sustainability, Erste Asset Management offers three sustainable flagship equity funds, the CO2 footprint of each of which is even lower than that of the overall portfolio, as compared to the MSCI World index: Erste Responsible Stock America (45.4%), Erste Responsible Stock Global (40.7%), and Erste Responsible Stock Europe (39.9%). This way Erste Asset Management clearly demonstrates that a sustainable and ecological investment approach and yield are not mutually exclusive, but instead, complement each other. “We apply stringent criteria in the share selection and orientate ourselves on the basis of the environmental friendliness and sustainability of the respective companies,” as Permoser points out. This is also reflected by the impressive numbers of Erste Asset Management’s CO2 footprint.
After the assessment of the status quo, the next goals are expansion and optimization
By measuring and especially publishing the footprint, Erste Asset Management is taking another step towards strengthening its position as market leader in the field of sustainability. “To us at Erste Asset Management, sustainability also always means transparency. Therefore, there was no long discussion about whether or not to sign the Montréal Carbon Pledge.” At the moment, the company is preparing its next step. In the future, as soon as a sufficient reservoir of reliable data can be guaranteed, additional asset classes may be taken under the umbrella of the Montréal Carbon Pledge, such as corporate bonds or government bonds”.
Establishment of the CO2 footprint
Erste Asset Management establishes the CO2 footprint of its portfolios in a multi-step process: external rating agencies calculate the greenhouse emissions for all securities in the respective fund. Then the weighted average of the emissions of the securities held are calculated for each fund portfolio. The experts establish the total footprint of the measured equities held by Erste Asset Management by assigning weights across all funds, with the weights resulting from the share of the respective fund in terms of total assets under Erste AM’s management. The CO2 footprint accounts for the emission of all six greenhouse gases as defined by the Kyoto Protocol. The emission of the various gases is translated into a carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e: tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) to ensure the different gases are comparable in terms of their harmful effects on the climate at one glance. In order to facilitate comparability between companies of different sizes the emission of the carbon dioxide equivalent is related to sales in millions of USDs. This standardization is defined as CO2 intensity.
Montréal Carbon Pledge
The Montréal Carbon Pledge was launched on 25 September 2014 at the “PRI in Person” meeting in Montréal. This initiative is supported by PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment) and UNEP FI (United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative). The goal of the Montréal Pledge is to compile a list of signatories that manage assets worth in excess of USD 3,000 billion by the time of the world climate conference in Paris in December 2015. The Montréal Pledge tries to facilitate a higher degree of transparency in connection with the carbon footprint of equity portfolios and wants to contribute to its reduction in the long run.
