Keebeck Wealth Management, a $1.4 billion registered investment advisor affiliated with Dynasty Financial Partners, has partnered with Halo Investing, a startup platform that allows advisors to monitor structured notes for their clients, analyze trends and sell for access to secondary liquidity.
The Chicago-based RIA will use Halo to add structured notes, market-linked CDs, buffered ETFs and annuities to client portfolios.
“Adding customized structured products to our platform provides us with more flexible investment options to preserve our clients’ assets and meet their financial objectives,” said Bruce K. Lee, founder and CEO of Keebeck Wealth Management.
About two years ago, Allianz Life Ventures, a subsidiary of Allianz Life, invested in Halo during its Series B funding round. The startup, used by Dynasty Financial Partners, has raised about $15 million in funding, according to Crunchbase.
Putnam’s First Active ETFs Go Live
Putnam Investments, the 84-year-old Boston-based asset management firm led by President and CEO Bob Reynolds, announced this week that its first four active ETFs began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The four semi-transparent active ETFs include the Putnam Sustainable Leaders ETF, the Putnam Sustainable Future ETF, the Putnam Focused Large Cap Growth ETF and the Putnam Large Cap Value ETF. The ETFs are based on existing mutual funds the firm currently manages. The firm is using Fidelity’s tracking basket methodology for active equity ETFs.
Many active fund managers have long shied away from the fully transparent ETF structure, not wanting to give away their "secret sauce" by revealing real-time portfolio positions. But the new semi-transparent ETF structures, which, to varying degrees, don't require disclosing underlying positions or weightings, have given active mutual fund managers a path forward.
CoinShares Takes Stake in Viridi Funds
European-based digital asset investment manager CoinShares has made a strategic investment in U.S.-based Viridi Funds, which recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch the first ESG crypto mining ETF in the U.S.
The ETF won’t invest directly in cryptocurrencies, but rather in companies actively involved in crypto mining, from producers of computer chips, manufacturers of computer equipment and market participants creating cryptocurrency themselves.
“This collaboration with Viridi Funds is in alignment with our goal to advance the concept of sustainability on a global scale as well as provide innovative, forward thinking investment vehicles that make digital assets accessible to individuals and institutions alike,” said Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at CoinShares.
In January, CoinShares launched a physically-backed exchange traded product, CoinShares Physical Bitcoin, in Europe.
Tuttle’s FOMO, Fat Tail Risk ETFs Start Trading
Thematic ETF provider Tuttle Capital Management announced that it launched two new ETFs this week. The FOMO ETF (FOMO), which will invest in “securities that reflect current or emerging trends,” according to Bloomberg, and the Fat Tail Risk ETF (FATT), which is aimed at protecting portfolios against large market declines, both started trading this week.
Called FOMO, an acronym for “fear of missing out,” the ETF will “target everything from stocks across both developed and emerging markets to SPACs, other ETFs, derivatives, volatility products and both leveraged and inverse funds,” Bloomberg reported.
"The problem with most thematic ETFs is they only invest in one area of the market, they don't rebalance frequently enough to stay in harmony with what is going on in markets, and they tend to be too highly concentrated," said Matthew Tuttle, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Tuttle Capital Management, in a statement. "FOMO can shift exposure to whatever happens to be trending at the time, it rebalances weekly so it can stay in harmony with market trends, and it weights holdings appropriately."
FATT, which is actively managed, invests in cash and U.S. government bonds, ETFs, volatility and inverse volatility ETFs and exchange traded notes, leveraged and inverse ETFs and ETNs and gold-related ETFs.
Tuttle manages 13 investment strategies and has $270 million in assets.
Potomac’s New Marketing Campaign Bets on the Most Important Meal of the Day
While many fund managers and investment platforms have relied on external wholesalers wining and dining advisors as their marketing strategy, Potomac is hoping to get advisors’ attention with its new marketing campaign. This week, the turnkey asset management provider mailed out boxes of bran cereal called Bull Bear by Potomac.
The campaign was launched to draw attention to the boutique firm’s rebrand, which includes a new website and several new podcast offerings. It also includes a commercial for the cereal. Advisors can request a free box of the cereal on Potomac’s website. The cereal box explains one of the firm’s investment strategies and includes a factsheet.
Potomac, which is run by President and Chief Investment Officer Manish Khatta, has notoriously shied away from the traditional wholesaling method of distribution used by much of the asset management industry.
