The debate that began several decades ago over the merits and shortcomings of active versus passive investment management is ongoing. In this white paper, Abbot Downing examines the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
As of March 31, new rules regarding what constitutes a single-family office went into effect under Dodd-Frank's Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act. Those who do not qualify for a family office exclusion are now considered subject to regulation as investment advisors. This whitepaper looks at who the new rules impact and who qualifies for the exclusion.
The ongoing euro currency crisis has led to substantial declines in European asset prices. Measured relative to operating cash flow, European corporate assets are now selling at a 30% discount to the average of the rest of the world. While some portion of this differential can be explained by a weaker macroeconomic outlook, most of it is attributable to an increase in expected returns. Even if one assumes near-zero real earnings growth, the expected returns on European corporate assets exceed those available elsewhere in the world over an assumed five-year holding period.
The advanced needs and challenges facing ultra-high-net-worth investors require investment consulting strategies that are equally advanced. A mass market approach to asset management is not likely to provide such strategies, nor is an enhanced, or “super-sized” retail or high-net-worth solution appropriate. Rather, institutional quality investors must recognize that their financial position requires them to be treated like the world’s largest institutions.
How can art collectors protect themselves from fakes and forgeries? This article examines the differences between provenance and legal title, their bearing on claims of authenticity and what you should look for when making a purchase.
To earn returns in the regulated energy sector, investors will need to be aware of and understand the following items: supply and demand dynamics, interactions across the various commodity supply chains, the overall macro environment and impact on specific names and subsectors, regulatory and political environment, and operational and safety issues.
Interest rates continue to bump along near historical lows. Given the asymmetric risk/reward of holding bonds with extraordinarily low yields, some investors have been reconsidering their holdings. Investors worried about rising interest rates have several options (among them, shortening duration and using derivatives), but none are without opportunity costs and implementation challenges.
We anticipate a period of market consolidation leading up to, and including, the summer and would not be surprised to see more elevated levels of volatility. However, over the longer term we see risk assets continuing to be supported by valuations and abundant liquidity, although tail risks to growth from global fiscal policy remain.
Deutsche Bank is still optimistic on stocks, especially those with a history of growing dividends. In fact, the average corporate dividend yield is actually higher than the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasuries, and that alone should enable equities to outperform bonds. Specifically, they are skewing their portfolios toward the U.S. and emerging markets, while underweighting Europe due to the serious issues it faces.
Returning risk appetite in combination with currently oversold equity and commodity markets could end up bringing a strong relief rally. This rather positive but still realistic scenario should put long short equity and emerging market funds (directional strategies) in the best position to outperform other strategies. Managed futures should perform the worst under this assumption, mainly because the deterioration in technical indicators recently forced mid- to long-term trend followers in particular to open net-short positions.