Investment Product and Service Launches

RobustWealth launches adviser-centered solution; Franklin Templeton adds fixed-income ETF offering; OneAmerica releases RetirementTrack target-date series; and more.

Art by Jackson Epstein

Art by Jackson Epstein

RobustWealth Launches Adviser-Centered Solution

RobustWealth has released its Advisor 2.0 platform, accompanying its recently released Client 2.0 portal.

The platform expedites processes through automated rebalancing, adviser-driven onboarding or client self-directed onboarding and customizable investment strategies.

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“Advisor 2.0 takes a huge leap forward in automating tasks to empower wealth management professionals to deliver signature client service with top-notch security in mind,” says Mike Kerins, founder and CEO of RobustWealth. “As we celebrate our fifth year in business, we zeroed in on five key features that are top priorities for advisers today.”

The upgraded adviser platform includes automated trading; adviser-driven or client self-directed onboarding; asset allocation choices; optimized billing, performance and account reporting; and a two-way document vault.

“We are continuously reinventing our technology, so financial professionals can more effectively help people manage their money,” says Kerins. “We look forward to fueling adviser success for the next five years and many more to come.”

Franklin Templeton Adds Fixed-Income ETF Offering

Franklin Templeton has expanded its active exchange-traded fund (ETF) lineup with the addition of its 10th fixed-income ETF offering, Franklin Liberty Ultra Short Bond ETF (FLUD).

FLUD aims to provide a high level of current income, while seeking to maintain an average duration under one year, and preserve capital. FLUD can also be used to pursue income while maintaining liquidity needs.  

“As a multi-sector fund, concentrated in financials-related industries, FLUD provides investors with diversification in the ultra-short investment category and seeks a higher yield potential than traditional cash investments, with limited additional risks,” says Patrick O’Connor, global head of ETFs for Franklin Templeton. “Franklin Templeton is once again delivering its time-tested expertise in active fixed income management through this very competitively priced, low-cost ETF. FLUD leverages our unique approach of blending top-down macroeconomic views, bottom-up fundamental research and proprietary, quantitative analysis.”

FLUD, which is listed on the NYSE Arca, is managed by David Yuen, senior vice president, head of multi-sector and quantitative strategies; Shawn Lyons, CFA, vice president, portfolio manager; Johnson Ng, CFA, vice president, senior trader, portfolio manager; Tom Runkel, CFA, vice president, portfolio manager; and Kent Burns, CFA, senior vice president, portfolio manager.

“FLUD invests in investment grade short maturity fixed-income securities issued by governments and agencies, as well as corporate credit and securitized securities,” Yuen says. “Sector allocation and security selection will be the primary drivers in pursuing income.” 

OneAmerica Releases RetirementTrack Target-Date Series

OneAmerica has announced the new RetirementTrack target-date series, the company’s first foray into multi-glide path funds.

RetirementTrack, launched June 1, goes beyond traditional target-date funds (TDFs), which tie asset allocation to age and retirement date. The new product takes TDFs a step further, allowing participants to further customize by risk tolerance. Three glide path options—conservative, moderate or aggressive—are available within each TDF. The inclusion of a stable value asset class in the investment lineup helps manage market volatility.

“The industry has seen such a rise in traditional target-date funds because they can be a great option for many people,” says Sandy McCarthy, president of Retirement Services at OneAmerica. “RetirementTrack is really the next chapter in target-date funds. Where traditional target-date funds have ‘one-size-fits-all’ limitations, RetirementTrack allows participants to customize investments in a way that meets their individual needs and objectives.”

“RetirementTrack really speaks to our foundational belief in the importance of customization,” McCarthy adds. “No two participants are alike, and the solutions we offer need to reflect that.”

RetirementTrack is available exclusively to OneAmerica customers through a collective investment trust (CIT), with additional highlights of 3(38) investment management. RetirementTrack also adheres to U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary guidelines, released to help protect fiduciaries and guide them in making prudent decisions.

“Now, more than ever, fiduciaries need a tool to help protect them when it comes to their TDFs,” says Terry Burns, managing director for products and investments, Retirement Services, OneAmerica. “RetirementTrack can be that tool. Not only does it offer best-practice options with cost efficiencies built in, it also provides various levels of 3(38) fiduciary protection.”

BCG Teams Up with Russell Investments to Launch Personalized Solution

Benefit Consultants Group (BCG), a Horace Mann company, has partnered with Russell Investments to offer personalized retirement accounts (PRA) on the BCG platform.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to work with Russell Investments to offer PRA to the adviser community,” says Michael Reis, vice president of business development at BCG. “BCG is dedicated to helping our partners provide plan sponsors and participants with customized, outcome-oriented asset allocations. The goal of this product is to increase the likelihood plan participants will reach their targeted retirement income objectives and be ready for retirement.”

PRA offers customized asset allocation that solves for a targeted retirement income goal using Russell Investments’ capital market assumptions and an asset allocation model.

Additionally, no participant input is necessary as the required data points are collected through a technology connection to recordkeeper or plan sponsor data, and PRA uses the plan’s core investment options as selected and monitored by the financial adviser. 

“Our personalized retirement accounts are a great fit for the BCG platform as our two firms are fully aligned philosophically on providing plan participants with tailored solutions to improve their retirement readiness,” says Kevin Knowles, senior director, Strategic Accounts at Russell Investments. “We look forward to a productive partnership that ultimately helps their participants achieve desired retirement income goals.”

 

A Bad Time to Stretch for Yield

We were already in a new normal of very low interest rates before the coronavirus pandemic struck. It now seems even less likely that the old rate regime will re-establish itself any time soon.


Back in mid-2019, PLANADVISER published an article titled “A New Normal? Time To Recheck Interest Rate Assumptions.”

In that story, Bob Browne, chief investment officer (CIO) at Northern Trust, summarized the “new normal” argument as follows: “I continue to be surprised by my fellow asset management professionals who think that the long-term norm for the 10-year U.S. Treasury should, by historical standards, be closer to 4% or even 4.5%. This is just too high when you consider, among other facts, that there is $15 trillion invested the bond markets globally right now that is carrying a negative interest rate.”

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Browne and others explained this as one of the lingering legacies of the Great Recession. On the day the article was published, the Swiss 10-year was trading at negative 90 basis points (bps), the German 10-year was trading at negative 56 basis points and the Japanese 10-year was at minus 20 basis points. So even if the global economy had enjoyed a record-long bull run during the 2010 to 2019 decade, why would a U.S. 10-year government bond trading at close to 1.5% or 1.75% seem low? That rate was in fact unusually high in the global context.

Fast forward to mid-2020 and the world has indeed embraced a new normal—but not one necessarily tied to interest rates. Investors and economies are grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, which has upended fundamental aspects of peoples’ lives all around the world. As the pandemic unfolded, concerns about vast and long-lasting economic damage sent the equity markets tumbling in March, though they rebounded significantly in April and May. Today, the equity market volatility continues unabated, with daily swings in excess of 1% or 2% being quite common.

But what about bond yields and the fixed-income side of the portfolio? For starters, negative rates persist across well-established economies in Europe, and yields here in the U.S. are only marginally higher, given the massive demand for “safe assets.” The U.S. 10-year bond interest rate, as of midday on July 16, is a mere 0.613%.

“While there is a lot that is unclear about the future of the global economy and the markets, it is abundantly clear that interest rates are going to stay very low for quite a long time,” warns Brett Wander, chief investment officer for fixed income at Charles Schwab Investment Management. “The U.S. Federal Reserve has emphasized it is planning to not raise rates for at least a number of years—not just a few months as they would normally signal. Crucially, this sentiment has already been priced into the marketplace, and, in fact, there is no consensus that rates will rise any time before, say, 2022. We are in a very new world for interest rates—we already were before the virus struck.”

Wander says asset managers are having to confront and rethink the classic idea that, when yields fall so low, investors should simply forego investing in bonds.

“Money managers may have agreed with that sentiment previously, but in the new normal, that’s just not true anymore,” Wander says. “What is required is that we continue to contemplate and evolve the role of fixed income in the holistic portfolio, starting from the point of accepting that rates can stay lower for longer than people previously thought possible.”

Wander says the purpose of fixed income in this environment will be to deliver stability and a ballast to the portfolio. Given that rates are not going to rebound, it is just not rational to expect government bonds to be a major producer of returns over time.

“Rather than accepting this, there is a tendency among many investors to put too much of an emphasis on yield, perhaps because they remember previous periods when fixed income delivered handsomely and even on par with equities in some markets,” he explains. “This causes them to ‘reach for yield,’ meaning that they accept bonds with lower and lower credit ratings as a means to increase the projected return. In my view, this is one of the biggest mistakes investors can make right now.”

Wander says investors taking this track of reaching for yield tend to both overestimate their excess potential return while underestimating the additional uncompensated risk they are adding to their portfolio as a whole.

“Nobody is really happy about it, but we have to accept the new normal and shy away from simply piling on risk in what is meant to be the stabilizing part of the portfolio,” Wander says.

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