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Investors have profited from allocating to passive funds and seeing both bonds and equities rise in an extended low volatility environment but there is currently too much complacency in the market and too much of myopic short-termism. That is the prevailing view of Michael Ho, Senior Managing Director of SSgA and Chief Investment Officer for Active Emerging Market Equities and global macro strategies.
Ho points to two main lessons that investors have had to learn in 2014.
The first relates to the widespread consensus at the start of the year among brokerage houses and economists that the US 10-year Treasury yield
Volatile markets are undoubtedly challenging but can also provide investors valuable opportunities and insights. Take the current sell-off as an example: for the first time in over a decade investors are able to compare various asset managers and their strategies against the backdrop of a recessionary environment, which in turn can lead to better-informed investor capital allocations in the future.
By Northern Trust – After a November 2018 roundtable on the proxy process, the SEC has begun issuing guidance around the use of proxy advisors. This promises to be the beginning of the SEC’s scrutiny into proxy voting, not the end.
Prior to Jay Clayton assuming the Chairmanship of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in May 2017, proxy voting had been a periodic item of SEC interest that failed to garner significant attention. A 2010 SEC concept release, 2013 roundtable, and 2014 staff legal bulletin generated little industry action. That is changing now that Chairman Clayton made it a priority
Ryan Sullivan, Vice President, Investor Services at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co highlights key components of the DOL rule that may spur growth in ETFs and how this regulation will influence existing ETF trends.
On 6 April, 2016 the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed the final version of its fiduciary rule which aims to broaden the definition and scope of fiduciary protections that have been in effect for Employee Retirement Income Securities Act plans since 1974.
Under the existing rules, financial advisors can be incentivised to sell clients products with higher fees and questionable returns, creating a potentially conflicted advice
By Tony Pursall and Richard Grasby, Maples and Calder – The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is a leading jurisdiction for company incorporations. The latest figures from the territory show that there are approximately 500,000 active BVI business companies and the rate of new incorporations shows no signs of abating. Many of those companies have individual shareholders, often a single individual. And many of those individuals have done little or no planning to deal with succession in the event of their death or, as we shall see, the planning they have done may not be effective.
This article outlines the rules
