Tag Archives: indexing
Advisor Profile: Getting the Most out of Index Provider Content
As financial advisors increasingly use index-based strategies to help scale their practices, many are turning to index providers not only for benchmarks—but also for insights. A recent whitepaper1 from Cerulli Associates analyzes why and how a segment of advisors, known as “index provider content users,” are actively using these insights to inform their decision-making and…
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Advisor Profile: How Direct Indexing SMA Users Evaluate Solutions and Indices
Direct indexing separately managed accounts (SMAs) are gaining traction, especially among financial advisors serving affluent and high-net-worth clients. In their recent whitepaper, Cerulli Associates projects a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16% for direct indexing SMA assets—the highest among all investment vehicles considered.1 In this blog, we unpack what is driving the growth…
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Advisor Profile: The Rise of the Index-Based Product Power User
Growing demand for index-based strategies has been driven by financial advisors seeking low-cost solutions as they reallocate their time from investment management to financial planning. While index adoption is gaining momentum across advisor types, a distinct segment is setting the pace for deeper engagement, in-depth evaluation and sophisticated implementation of passive solutions: the index-based product…
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Growing Models Usage Calls for Enhanced Data Intelligence and Delivery
The growing adoption of model portfolios among wealth managers has spurred asset managers, home offices and other model providers to expand their offerings. Accessing quality data on underlying indices is essential to model development—and in some cases can be a barrier to product innovation. A recent whitepaper by Cerulli Associates1 examines the challenges asset managers…
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Go Beyond Index Data: Unlocking the Full Value of Index Providers
Index providers do far more than supply the benchmarks that index-based products aim to track. They also offer a range of services that wealth managers may look to in an effort to sharpen their strategies, streamline operations and deepen advisor engagement. Yet, some firms still treat index providers solely as data vendors—underutilizing a broader toolkit…
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Harvesting Hope – Tax Optimization in a Down Market
As the dust settled from Tax Day, U.S. equities found themselves nearly approaching correction territory. Amid concerns over tariffs and other global trade frictions, the S&P 500® has fallen 5.6% YTD through April 28, 2025. In Exhibit 1, we see that The 500™ experienced its most significant drop in 2025 of nearly 6% on April…
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Cerulli Associates Publishes Whitepaper on Redefining the Role of Index Providers
The financial services consulting firm, Cerulli Associates, recently published a research study on the use of index-based products within the U.S. retail wealth management market. Their whitepaper aims to shed light on how asset managers, asset allocation model portfolio providers, wealth manager home offices and financial advisors can better utilize index provider solutions.1 The study…
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The Taxing Effect of Taxes
“Be thankful I don’t take it all, cause I’m the taxman.” George Harrison (The Beatles) in “Taxman” For over 20 years, S&P Dow Jones Indices has compared index performance against actively managed funds and published the results in the SPIVA® Scorecards. Active funds have often struggled to match the returns of capitalization-weighted benchmarks like the…
- Categories Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
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- Equities, S&P 500 & DJIA
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Did Stock Pickers Struggle? Can Bond Managers Boast? The Mid-Year SPIVA Results Are In!
After global equity and bond markets soared in 2023, this year began on somewhat rockier ground. Valuations were more stretched, dispersion was rising and roughly half of the world’s population was facing uncertain election results. Many concluded that, among other predictions, active management was set to shine in 2024. The performance of actively managed funds…
- Categories Equities, Fixed Income
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Fees and Fortunes
One of the potential advantages of indexing is its typically lower cost relative to active management. Investors have benefited substantially by saving on fees. And as indexing has expanded across asset classes, these rewards have compounded, especially in fixed income, where fees can prove more influential. In Exhibit 1, we see that index mutual fund…
- Categories Equities, Fixed Income, S&P 500 & DJIA
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