Orion Advisor Services has launched a series of initiatives aimed at helping breakaway advisors. The initiatives include Fast Track, an accelerated implementation process, and the Breaking Away Resource Center, an online repository of actionable advice for advisors thinking about going independent. Orion teamed with Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown to host a Breaking Away video series on Asset TV to anchor its online offerings. “One common theme I hear is a fear of change and making wrong choices, like which tech platform to choose or how to manage compliance concerns,” Brown said in a statement. “With the ‘Breaking Away’ resource center and broader strategy initiative, we’re aiming to dispel these fears and help advisors realize the benefits of independence through the real stories of those who have come before them.”
Advicent Gets a New Director of Planning
An internal promotion, Tom Burmeister joined Advicent in 2013 with a background in business law, compliance and financial services technology. He has been serving as a strategic account manager. The company described the promotion as a “natural progression” for Burmeister, based on positive feedback from the company’s enterprise partners and clients. He will combine his knowledge of planning technology and technology development to help Advicent propel the future of the company’s widely used NaviPlan software.
Cheers! Here’s to Investing in Fine Wine
Fine wine can provide a stable defensive buffer in distressed equity markets and offers lower volatility in return than emerging and global equity markets, across varying time periods, according to a report by U.K.-based wine investment company Cult Wines. While noting that there is “a degree” of positive correlation between global markets and the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000, an index representing secondary market prices of 1,000 global wines, the report argues that investment grade wine displays less sensitivity to economic growth and political events than global equities. “With global equities markets potentially facing the end of a record bull market, it is important to highlight fine wine’s ability to help investors avoid downside risk,” said Tom Gearing, managing director of the company. “The niche characteristics and relative size of the fine wine market insulates the market from wider macro-economic factors,” noted the report, “and it can therefore protect investors from greater loss.” With some of the well-publicized cases of fraud over the years, oenophiles interested in wine as an investment should be diligent about their decisions.
