Exchange traded funds have been gaining market share from the mutual fund industry over the years, and much of that attention has been related to lower costs. But a new research report by Morningstar says many ETFs are not, in fact, cheaper than index mutual funds. The researcher found that only three of the 14 ETF categories have a lower asset-weighted expense ratio than their mutual fund counterparts.
Lebenthal Picks Up Female Advisor Team
Alexandra Lebenthal, whose grandparents founded her eponymous firm in 1925 as a shop that sold municipal bonds largely to retail clients, is attracting female advisors to her wealth management platform. Lebenthal Wealth Advisors, the wealth management division of Lebenthal Holdings, has brought over advisors Annette Hall and Charlene Fisher to its New York office. Hall joins from Key Private Bank, where she managed $193 million in assets. Fisher joins from an independent film distribution, finance and marketing company, which she co-founded.
Wealthfront Expands Direct Indexing Capabilities
Online advice provider Wealthfront is expanding its direct indexing platform, launched a year ago and with $500 million invested. The first rollout gave investors the ability to directly own all the stocks in the S&P 500 and harvest losses they might generate, CEO Adam Nash writes in a blog post. Under the new platform, users can directly own a combination of stocks and ETFs to provide stock market coverage equivalent to Vanguard’s Total Stock Market ETF. For example, the company expects its Wealthfront 500 model, which uses up to 500 stocks from the S&P 500 combined with the Vanguard Extended Market ETF, to generate an additional return of 1.88 percent over its standard investment offering.
Quarterly changes are coming to the Direxion iBillionaire Index ETF (IBLN), according to Yahoo! Finance. The report indicates that 14 of IBLN’s 30 holdings are being replaced, with major additions in healthcare and technology.
Retiring By the Skin of Their Teeth
When clients get to a certain age, the difference between them slowing down in preparation for retirement and ramping up to save for retirement is ... a good financial advisor, Reese Harper, owner of Aquire Wealth Advisors, writes for DentristyIQ. He takes the case of two seasoned dentists, one who is finalizing in his retirement, and the other who is increasing income before being able to retire.
