FinaMetrica announced a deal to offer its risk tolerance toolkit to XY Planning Network's member community of nearly 500 financial planners.
XYPN members can access the toolkit at a substantially subsidized price of $50 per month, which equates to a 40% discount off the advisor retail rate.
"As the leading organization for fee-only financial planners who want to serve their Gen X and Gen Y peers providing comprehensive financial planning services for a monthly subscription fee, we think it's especially important to put effective risk tolerance and profiling tools in the hands of our members," said Michael Kitces, co-founder of XYPN, in a statement. "Many of our member advisors will be working with clients who have little experience with markets and investing, and as a result it's crucial to have a robust risk profiling process in place to understand how they may react to the inevitability of a future bear market."
Paul Resnik, director of FinaMetrica, said that this partnership shows how important risk profiling has become.
"Recognition of the important role risk profiling plays in the advice process is sparking a major shift in the US financial advice market," Resnik said in a statement. "We are seeing a growing consensus across the sector about the value of defensible risk profiling. Importantly, we are pleased to see decisive action from the principals of a leading planning network to encourage the use of tools that build trusting and enduring relationships between advisors and their clients."
According to Alan Moore, another XYPN co-founder,the network chose FinaMetrica because it concluded that FinaMetrica's risk profiling questionnaire is "the best and most empirically validated tool" for the job of assessing a client's risk tolerance.
"We strive to put the right tools in the hands of our network members to help them provide the very best financial planning services to their clients," Moore said in a statement. "We … are thrilled to be partnering to offer FinaMetrica's tools to XYPN advisors at a substantially reduced cost."
Franklin Templeton Debuts Two New Municipal Bond ETFs
Franklin Templeton Investments added two new actively managed municipal bond exchange-traded funds to its Franklin LibertyShares lineup—Franklin Liberty Intermediate Municipal Opportunities ETF (FLMI) and Franklin Liberty Municipal Bond ETF (FLMB).
The new ETFs, listed on NYSE Arca, seek a high level of current income that is exempt from federal income taxes by investing at least 80% of net assets in municipal securities whose interest payments are free from federal income taxes, including the federal alternative minimum tax.
The Franklin Liberty Intermediate Municipal Opportunities ETF may invest in municipal securities rated in any rating category, including below investment grade and defaulted securities, and seeks to maintain a dollar-weighted average portfolio maturity of three to 10 years.
The Franklin Liberty Municipal Bond ETF only invests in municipal securities rated, at the time of purchase, in one of the top four ratings categories by one or more U.S. nationally recognized rating services (or comparable unrated or short-term rated securities), and seeks to maintain a dollar-weighted average portfolio maturity of five to 15 years.
The LibertyShares ETF platform offers a suite of actively managed ETFs, which includes two equity funds and now four fixed income funds.
Sage Unveils Customized Muni Strategy
Sage Advisory Services launched a new Customized Laddered Strategy (C.L.I.M.B.) strategy that offers high liquidity, optimal risk/reward characteristics and favorable tax status.
Sage's C.L.I.M.B strategy enables clients to set a maximum maturity range and realize consistent cash flows from maturity and coupon payments. Sage enhances the return potential relative to traditional laddered strategies by actively managing state, sector, and credit weightings within each maturity bucket.
This multi-discipline investment approach enables Sage's portfolio management team to adjust portfolio characteristics to maximize return opportunities for both institutional and retail clients, while reducing risk exposure when necessary.
VanEck Merk Gold Trust Reduces Fees for Gold Delivery
