Shaun Wurzbach
Managing Director, Head of Commercial Group (North America), S&P Dow Jones Indices
How Is the ESG Discussion Changing for Advisors?
In a recent webinar I moderated, Brie Williams of State Street Global Advisors joined me to discuss how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data and investing are now at an important turning point. We ran out of time to answer all the questions we received, and this post follows “Why Now for ESG?” and answers…
- Categories ESG, Thematics
- Tags core ESG, ESG, S&P 500 ESG Index, sustainability
Why Now for ESG?
In a recent webinar I moderated, Brie Williams of State Street Global Advisors joined me to discuss how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data and investing are now at an important turning point. During that webinar, we answered some advisor questions. I encourage you to watch this replay if you missed it. We ran out…
- Categories ESG, Thematics
- Tags core ESG, ESG, S&P 500 ESG Index, sustainability
Core ESG Indexing Is Engaged to Drive Change
I define core ESG indexing as the use of indices designed to apply environmental, social, and governance (ESG) screening and ESG scores to recognized and sometimes iconic indices like the S&P 500®, S&P/ASX 200, or S&P/TSX Composite. These headline indices become actionable components of asset allocation when a fund or separately managed accounts (SMA) provider…
- Categories ESG, Thematics
- Tags core ESG, ESG, S&P 500 ESG Index, sustainability
The Continued Ups and Downs of Dividends
On May 20, 2020, my colleagues and I sought to address some questions about dividends and the viability of tried and true approaches to dividend income. During that session, Craig Lazzara, Ari Rajendra, and Howard Silverblatt of S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) joined me to address: The current state of dividends across the globe,…
An Unfair Fight: Value Managers Were Crushed
When I was in the U.S. Army, the doctrine for an attack specified a desired ratio of at least three of us versus every one of them. This would help to ensure an unfair fight. When your life is on the line, you want the odds in your favor. Why should that desire to tilt…
A Risk of the “Participate but Protect” Mentality
I recently completed several meetings with financial advisors in Kansas and Tennessee. Traveling to meet with advisors in their offices or at events is something that I enjoy doing and informs my love of the work that our team does in advisor education. However, I am troubled by a reoccurring conversation that came up. In…
Avoiding Beta Pollution in the Search for Value
In our latest S&P 500® Factor Indices Dashboard, Tim Edwards wrote, “Value’s return to form came after a decade of meagre pickings. In fact, value recorded in its best annual relative performance since 2000.” Small wonder then that the S&P 500 Enhanced Value Index and S&P 500 Pure Value were popular topics of financial advisor…
- Categories Equities, Factors, Strategy
- Tags factor allocator, factors, smart beta
Advisors Managing Interest Rate Risk With Municipal Bond Indices and ETFS
Given that our crystal balls are opaque for predicting interest rates, I thought it would be interesting to continue my interview with two financial advisors about managing interest rate risk in the municipal bond asset class. Matt Papazian is founding partner and CIO at Cardan Capital Partners of Denver, Colorado, and Tom Cartee is a…
- Categories Fixed Income
- Tags Financial Advisor, fixed income, interest rates, municipal bonds, munis
- Categories
- Fixed Income
It’s Now Easier to Strengthen Your Core With Municipal Bonds
We all know we should work on and improve our core, but how many of us have the discipline to do it? I interviewed two financial advisors who are strengthening their core by using municipal bond indices and the ETFs that track them. Matt Papazian is founding partner and CIO at Cardan Capital Partners of…
- Categories Fixed Income
- Tags ETFs, Financial Advisors, municipal bonds, robo-advisors
- Categories
- Fixed Income
Pure Style Eliminates the Muddle in the Middle
Financial advisors who implement style investing seek to outperform the blended benchmark whenever they believe that market conditions will favor either a growth or a value approach. Their view could be influenced by research, fundamental factors, or technicals. To implement such a view does not require 100% conviction in either growth or value. In fact,…