Products & portfolios: archive
Every Products & portfolios story in Advisors, newest first. 143 stories
2 stories
Senate passes the Social Security Claiming Age Clarity Act, sending it to Trump
The measure would change how the SSA labels claiming ages; the 2026 benefit maximums are $2,969 a month at 62 and $5,181 at 70.
Ed Slott: the QCD cap survives an RMD and a Roth conversion
The 2026 limit is $111,000, and Slott tells a 10-year-rule inherited-IRA beneficiary to withdraw above the RMD before the final year.
5 stories
SEC weighs three proposals to widen retail access to private markets
The Sept. 30 open-meeting agenda covers performance fees for advisers, closed-end fund repurchase offers, and accredited-investor credentials.
SEC proposes an exam-based path to accredited investor status
The three active commissioners voted unanimously to open the change to public comment, adding a FINRA-administered test and several professional credentials to the definition that governs private-market investing.
SEC proposes up to 20% RIA performance fees and looser interval-fund redemptions
The three proposals, each open to 60 days of public comment, would also add CPAs and chartered financial analysts to the credentials that qualify an individual as an accredited investor.
SEC proposes performance fees in regulated funds, asks about FINRA accreditation exam
The amendments would let advisers to regulated funds share in a strategy's returns; a separate request asks whether a FINRA exam could count toward accredited-investor status.
AlpInvest and Blue Sky file secondaries funds; Bain and Crescent file credit funds
The September 29 Form D batch carried two secondaries vehicles, a direct lending fund and a credit risk sharing fund, with three of the four reporting no capital raised.
4 stories
IRS ruling targets ETF conversions used to realign appreciated portfolios
The revenue ruling says a prearranged conversion that quickly and materially changes a portfolio can be recharacterized, leaving the holding period and the size of the shift open.
IRS, Treasury proposal would auto-create an estimated 63.36 million 530A accounts
The draft replaces March rules and would open a tax-advantaged account for an eligible child before a family makes any funding decision.
Cornyn and Van Duyne bill would defer tax on reinvested mutual fund gains
The Generating Retirement Ownership Through Long-Term Holding Act would let investors postpone capital gains tax on qualifying reinvested distributions until they sell shares, narrowing a gap the Tax Foundation says separates funds from ETFs.
Merrill to charge asset managers up to $1.4 million for data and shelf fees
The wirehouse's updated Form ADV filings tell clients that paying for data analytics gives it a financial incentive to recommend third-party managers' products over those that do not pay.
4 stories
Raymond James and AssetMark widen private-market access as Gridline flags an infrastructure gap
Cerulli found 57% of asset managers now prioritize broader access to semiliquid and illiquid alternatives, up 17 points from last year.
SEC staff reminds funds on private-asset fair value as private credit in registered fund portfolios hits $270 billion
The staff statement names interval funds, tender offer funds and BDCs, and pairs valuation judgment with what investors are told.
SEC staff statement puts private-asset valuation on advisors' due-diligence list
The joint notice adds no new rules but names non-accruals, payment-in-kind interest and fair value judgments among the disclosure items clients will ask about.
Rieder sees bond opportunity as 10-year Treasury yield tops 5%
Advisors face a duration decision as federal debt exceeds $40 trillion and AI-linked issuers add more than $400 billion of bonds in 2026.
1 story
Bitwise crypto models land inside Vise's rebalancing engine
Putting the crypto sleeve on the same rebalancing schedule and tax treatment as the rest of the book is the unglamorous version of mainstreaming digital assets — and the one that scales.
5 stories
The $1.3 trillion climate ask lands in manager reviews
Climate Week's panel handed advisors one practical instruction: underwrite climate risk inside the managers clients already own.
Schwab opens its cash shelf to a yield-splitting product
Save's Market Savings puts principal-protected yield in front of more than 16,000 RIAs on Schwab's platform, and turns the sweep into something advisers can shop.
The 26% earnings quarter was a capex peak
Goldman strategists expect the AI buildout that delivered the gain to start charging for itself, leaving the trailing four quarters a poor basis for planning.
The 4% rule sets the floor; the ratchet handles the upside
A mechanical 10% raise whenever the portfolio clears 150% of its starting value would let clients spend the upside the 4% rule leaves behind — if the trigger gets written down in advance.
The climate risk that pays is where clients live
Treat climate as a fund-selection question and you miss the planning decisions clients are about to make: where they live, whether to move, and whether the plan survives the answer.
1 story
Tax should be the last question in an equity-comp decision
The seven considerations are sound; the sequence most advisors inherit keeps a concentrated client holding.
2 stories
The 4% rule was a bond-yield artifact
A 2013 paper's challenge to the safe withdrawal rate still frames retirement-income conversations, and explains why a round number is the wrong thing to promise.
$85,000 sleeve is the new front door
Series vehicles that fill in five days are making master structures and administrators, not deal flow, the gate that controls alternatives in advisor accounts.
3 stories
US slips to No. 24, and 22% is the planning number
Natixis's Global Retirement Index hands advisors a client-facing reason to put a benefit-cut line inside every income plan they write.
AI risk now arrives inside the ordinary investment-grade sleeve
Hyperscaler issuance is projected at a record $420 billion next year, and the extra 37 basis points on AI debt is compensation for supply crowding rather than credit risk.
Inflation tops family-office worries; use the Citi ranking as a hedge script
Citi's survey of 350 family offices puts inflation first while public equities stay the preferred allocation, handing advisors a client-ranked agenda for the next hedge review.
1 story
The corporate-bond case is a supply call, and SoftBank is the test
Investment-grade credit can hold on healthy balance sheets, but the AI-financed high-yield supply arriving beside it is where the underwriting actually happens.
1 story
Prediction markets are booming. The investable proxies are not.
Clients want in on event contracts, but the tokens that stand in for the theme earn their fees somewhere else entirely.
2 stories
The $51 trillion retirement headline is a rollover story
Most of the quarter's gain came from equity prices, which leaves the $4.9 trillion IRA-over-401(k) spread as the figure advisors can put to work in an income conversation.
The quarter's fastest equity week is a rebalancing prompt
BofA counted $63.8 billion into U.S. stocks in the fastest week in three months while $1 billion left investment-grade credit and $2.5 billion left high yield, which makes a drift check the cheapest trade on the desk.
1 story
The blended risk score averages away the binding constraint
A two-dimensional read of willingness and capacity gives an advisor a ceiling to build against; the composite score gives a number that hides it.
4 stories
Rescinding 14a-8 turns client proxy voting into state-by-state diligence
If adopted, the SEC's proposal moves the gatekeeping of shareholder proposals to state law, and advisors who vote client proxies will feel it in every ESG engagement.
A 45.4% tax loss turns four of five tax fixes into a founder's playbook
Four of Financial Planning's five tax strategies presuppose a concentrated position, while the 1% drag everyone else pays is the harder problem to sell against.
BlackRock's tailored 401(k) default moves the income call earlier
If a plan's default already carries guaranteed income and private assets, the rollover stops being where the decumulation conversation starts.
The alternatives shelf splits into $2.8B pooled funds and $18,000 SPVs
The September 15 Form D batch holds both ends of the private market, and the diligence that matters now sits on the wrapper, not the manager.
2 stories
Crypto's Senate failure leaves advisers selling an asset with no statute
A 50-49 cloture loss kills the only bill that would have drawn a statutory line between digital commodities and digital securities, and the 403(b) trust-access rider that was riding on it needs a new vehicle.
The 10-year clears 5%, and cash becomes an active bet
With global benchmark yields at their highest since 2008, the default client allocation has become a duration position advisors have to defend.
1 story
AI adoption is collapsing fund lineup diversification
Managers buying the same models and the same datasets leave advisors holding one bet under five tickers, and the overlap check is now the job.
1 story
Clients bought protected participation, not yield, in Q2 annuities
LIMRA's final second-quarter tally cut $2.7 billion from the preliminary total, and the product-level split should anchor retirement-income conversations.