REVIEW OCTOBER 2018 WWW.ASSETTV.COM
THE MOMENT THEY’VE SAVED FOR
Navigating the Pitfalls When It Comes To Harnessing Retirement Income
PLUS INSIDE:
Featured: The Aspirations of Andy Sieg
Viewpoints: The Yield Curve Effect
November 2017 | REVIEW ASSET TV | 1
REVIEW
EDITOR’S NOTE
CONTENTS
Whether you’re looking for new investment ideas, tips to run your advisory business or a read on how the money management industry will morph over the next few years, we know you’ll find it here in the quality conversations we publish. Read inside for our first offering on that ambitious tour: We sat down this month with Andy Sieg, chief executive of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and one of the foremost leaders in our industry globally. Andy talked to us about views he’s culled managing his “thundering herd” of 17,000 financial advisors. He spoke in a wide-ranging discussion about changes in clients’ mindsets amid fractured political Laura J. Keller landscapes globally, the cry for Head of Content adding more women to management Editor At Large teams, and what geographies are Even for an organization as dynamic most important to the future of Merrill as ours, it’s not often we get to tell Lynch’s business. We hope you enjoy you about something entirely new. watching our conversation with him. Today, we do! I’m pleased to say I’ve joined Asset TV as the new face of We’re pleased to say that we’re this team dedicated to bringing you reinstating Asset TV Review as a all the freshest insights in the wealth regular part of our programming. management industry. This magazine will allow us to update you about all that we have on offer. I invite you to join us and the sharpest We welcome any feedback you might investment professionals anywhere have about our programs. as we dive inside the global money management business. Don’t hesitate to get in touch, and We’ll pore over the most relevant keep watching! headlines and analysis with top fund managers, as we always have, and, Warmest Regards, now, add to our offerings regular, robust conversations with industry newsmakers.
MASTERCLASS: Insights on Retirement Income
4-5
Featured Interview: At the Head of ‘The Thundering Herd’
6-7
The Leaderboard
8
Viewpoints
9
Financial experts weigh in
Featuring Merrill Lynch Chief Andy Sieg
The Top 10 Most watched in 2018
Through those exclusive interviews, we aim to help our audience and their clients make better-informed investing decisions.
Expert Insights
ASSET TV REVIEW IS PUBLISHED FOR INVESTMENT PROFESSIONALS. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of Asset TV Inc. Information, views and opinions contained in the articles have been compiled from interviews conducted by or hosted on Asset TV with regulated fund managers and other investment professionals. Asset TV Inc. accepts no liability for any loss arising from the use hereof nor makes any representation as to their accuracy or completeness. Whilst every care has been taken in preparing Asset TV Review, neither Asset TV inc. nor the authorities can accept responsibility for any errors it may contain or for any losses from or in reliance upon its contents.
ASSET TV INC. 570 LEXINGTON AVENUE, 45TH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10022.
Asset TV Inc. is part of the Think Digital Group Ltd,6-7 Waterside, Station Road, Harpenden, AL5 4US, United Kingdom.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE GO TO WWW.ASSETTV.COM OR CALL US AT +1 212 661 4111. October 2018 | REVIEW ASSET TV | 3
MASTERCLASS
MASTERCLASS: INSIGHTS ON RETIREMENT INCOME It’s a moment people work all their lives towards — the moment when they can enjoy the fruits of a lifelong career and retire. And yet, the decisions an employee must make as they ready for this moment is far from clear. Asset TV has brought viewers a comprehensive panel discussion from four retirement experts to identify and consider the different challenges and choices facing retirees.
With savings rates so low for most of 2018 and guaranteed pensions largely a thing of the past, it’s more important than ever that workers and retirees rely on investing to finance their retirements. Today’s retirement landscape has put enormous pressure on employees to think about finance at a level they’ve never had to before — to grasp an understanding of an industry that is completely different from the one in which they have spent their careers.
In such an environment where investors are trying to safeguard their investments, guidance from advisors that simplifies plan options is crucial. To consider some of those options and innovations to help optimize retirement plans, Asset TV gathered in recent weeks a panel of four experts. In this Masterclass, executives from Capital Group, Great-West Financial, TransAmerica and Wellington Management discuss the ins and outs of dedicated contributions, annuities, equity funds and much more. Our
4 | REVIEW ASSET TV | October 2018
experts also share their takes on the risks and benefits presented by differing approaches, as well as innovative methods. Check out this Masterclass and many more on a wide range of investment topics on Asset TV. Accredited by the CFP Board and the Investments and Wealth Institute, Masterclass is continuing education whenever and wherever works best for you. Simply log onto the website to watch the program and take the corresponding quiz to earn credits.
REVIEW
Christopher J. Goolgasian
Chris Previti
“Equity market returns are likely to be lower in the future given valuations. Bond returns are lower because yields are low. And so when we look at that aspect of it, active management and having alpha can make an enormous difference in retirement with lower expected market returns.”
“Financial professionals have to understand that they’ve got to have a lot of arrows in their quiver. That’s why it’s important they understand how annuities work. There’s some misconceptions out there about how they work, how long they hold people’s money and people feel like maybe they’re trapped. The annuities that are available today give the client an opportunity to invest in the markets, both equity and fixed income.”
Steve Deschenes
Lance Carlson
“There are no single, single silver bullets but there are ways of mitigating those risks by building an appropriate approach. People think it’s just the glide path in reduction of equity. They begin to focus on kinds of equity in retirement and reduce risk. Not all plans, not all approaches do that. So an advisor who’s focused on that, who’s building multiple scenarios for the future, can help educate and guide towards the best decision.”
“What [an annuity] really allows you to do is to take these various vehicles and ensure you’ve got an income stream you can’t possibly outlive. And for that portion of my portfolio, be it for my living expenses and that bottom quarter that I have to have no matter what, I can put that kind of on auto pilot so then it takes the stress off the rest of my portfolio, I think that’s really important.”
Director of Investment Strategy, Portfolio Manager Wellington Management Co.
Director of Product Management and Analytics Capital Group
Senior Vice President— Managing Director, Wholesale Distribution Transamerica
Head of Sales Distribution Great-West Financial
October 2018 | REVIEW ASSET TV | 5
FEATURED INTERVIEW
AT THE HEAD OF ‘THE THUNDERING HERD’ Merrill Lynch Chief Andy Sieg tells us how clients paying too much attention to Washington could suffer and why he’s encouraging more women to enter the
management ranks of U.S. money management. In our Candid Conversations series, he discusses what’s at the forefront of the U.S. wealth management industry.
Lindsey Brunson Asset TV Segment Producer workplace, the takeaway came down to this: Andy sees a bull market for the financial services industry, much like he does for the trajectory of global markets. Retiring baby boomers means a surge in client numbers for Andy’s “thundering herd” of more than 17,000 advisors, and those customers need advice most in these uncertain times, he says. “I have, and our leadership team has, a very deep level of optimism about our business, our organization, and what the thundering herd can do for clients over time,” Andy says. “That energy and that bullishness is enthused in our firm. I think that’s something that really helps us drive to innovate. It helps us drive to do things better today.”
Andy Sieg, head of wealth management at Merrill Lynch, sat down with Asset TV America’s anchor Laura Keller a few weeks ago for a candid discussion about the state of the wealth management industry in a changing political and economic landscape.
This October, financial markets began to jump alongside headlines of trade wars emanating from Washington – policy changes that only add onto the effect others made by the Trump administration have had between the U.S. and key allies across the globe. Laura asked Andy what clients are grappling most over out of D.C.
Laura’s extensive interview with the top executive at Merrill Lynch is part of Asset TV’s initiative to bring viewers exclusive insights from the most influential investment professionals around the world.
“What we’re talking to clients about is trying to separate the way you are thinking about financial and economic matters and what you’re seeing kind of fundamentally in your business, try to keep that away from what you’re seeing around partisan politics,” Andy told Laura. “Our concern is that focus on what’s happening in the day’s politics will actually cause you to make short-term choices and potentially incorrect choices with regard to positioning your portfolios over time.”
From talking markets and tax cuts to diversity in the
Andy came to the head of the herd nearly two years ago, in
6 | REVIEW ASSET TV | October 2018
“
REVIEW I HAVE, AND OUR LEADERSHIP HAS, A VERY DEEP LEVEL OF OPTIMISM ABOUT OUR BUSINESS, OUR ORGANIZATION, AND WHAT THE THUNDERING HERD CAN DO FOR CLIENTS OVER TIME.”
2016, after more than two decades spent at Merrill Lynch. It’s a tenure broken only once by a stint at Citigroup. Before coming to the asset management industry, Andy worked as an aide in George Bush Sr.’s White House after graduating with a master’s in public policy from Harvard Kennedy School. It’s been 26 years of change unfolding around Andy, and now he’s the one choosing the direction. He’s become known for his desire to broaden Merrill Lynch’s workforce and where it mines for clients. “If you’re going to grow successfully in the marketplace,” he says, “you need to reach out into all corners of the marketplace, and frankly, you’re going to be in the best position to do that if the profile of your team, your advisor force, kind of matches the profile of the community you’re trying to serve.” In Andy’s vision for what Merrill Lynch should become, women, millennials, LGBT communities, blacks and Latinos—groups long marginalized by Wall Street— all have a part to play. The firm has seen its share of controversies, notably in 2013 when it settled within a matter of days two massive discrimination lawsuits brought by women and minorities. When Laura asked about complaints of too few women in senior positions, Andy said that now more than half of Merrill Lynch’s management development team is female. Still, he says, there’s plenty more that can be done in terms of meaningful gender balance in the leadership team. “We’re trying to obviously be the firm of choice for women leaders in our industry,” he says, going on to elaborate initiatives meant to reach out to women both as financial advisors and as clients.
impact investing. It’s something Andy says could prove to be one of the great innovations of the next couple of decades. Clients, he says, want to understand the relationship of their portfolio to the wider issues at play in the world. “If their financial advisor doesn’t have a good answer in terms of how they can factor environmental or social or governance forces into their portfolio, most likely the client’s going to leave and go somewhere else to invest,” he says. Yet conscious as Andy is of the need for growth, he still sees the legacy of Merrill Lynch as one meticulously built on the trust of clients and the pioneering practices of his advisor force.
“We need to do a lot of that kind of work so that we’re really rebranding, not just Merrill Lynch, but our industry in terms of how in tune we are with financial concerns, specifically of women.”
“It’s in all of our interest for the American people to have great confidence in the financial institutions and financial markets,” he says. “But I have to tell you, when I look just broadly at what our advisors do here and advisors are doing across the landscape, I feel great about it, and I’m very proud.”
As it stands, clients’ financial focus is increasingly leaning toward social and environmental awareness — known as
To watch more of Laura’s interview with Andy Sieg, visit Asset TV’s video library. October 2018 | REVIEW ASSET TV | 7
THE LEADERBOARD
THE TOP 10 MOST WATCHED IN 2018
The power of Asset TV to deliver video research to a network of more than 230,000 investment professionals in the U.S. allows them to make better informed investment decisions. Viewers from all major wire-house and broker-dealer firms watch for their investment due-diligence and to benefit from an accredited source of continuing education.
THOUGHT LEADERS
#01
JODY JONSSON Portfolio Manager, Capital Group
#02
JODIE GUNZBERG Head of U.S. Equities S&P Dow Jones Indices
#03
SCOTT MATHER CIO, U.S. Core Strategies PIMCO
#04
ROB BUSH ETF Strategist DWS
#05
DARRELL SPENCE Research Director Capital Group
LEADING COMPANIES
#06
EDWARD ROSENBERG SVP and Head of ETFs American Century
#07
BOB DOLL Senior Portfolio Manager/ Chief Equity Strategist Nuveen
#08
SHAUN WURZBACH Managing Director S&P Dow Jones Indices
#09
BOB BROWNE Chief Investment Officer Northern Trust Asset Management
#10
LUKE OLIVER Head of ETF Capital Markets DWS
| REVIEW ASSET | November 8 8| REVIEW ASSET TVTV| October 20182017
#01 #02 #03 #04 #05 #06 #07 #08 #09 #10
EXPERT INSIGHTS
VIEWPOINTS
FROM DISCUSSING THE YIELD CURVE EFFECT TO REFLECTING UPON THE EVOLUTION OF A COMPANY, HERE’S A SAMPLE OF THE LATEST CONTENT ON ASSET TV
THE YIELD CURVE EFFECT Susan Regan — Portfolio Manager at Ivy Investments “The thoughts are that the growth is going get lower and inflation is not going to go higher. That’s what I think that’s telling you is that even though the Fed is pushing up on rates, the long end of the curve isn’t reacting as much to it because it doesn’t believe that things are going to get better.”
HOW TRANSAMERICA IS EVOLVING Scott Ramey — Senior Vice President at Transamerica “We’re transitioning into a new model of workplace efficiency while rolling out multiple service and communication enhancements. Taken together, these changes make the Transamerica retirement plan experience better than ever before.”
HAZARDS OF THE NEXT TWO YEARS: CREDIT CYCLE DOWNTURN Brian Smedley — Head of Macroeconomic and Investment Research Group at Guggenheim Partners “We tend to see markets move well before business cycles turn with credit spreads widening, equities turning down and important shifts in the yield curve. So we’re trying to think ahead about how the next two years will evolve and how we are to position our portfolios before those shifts happen.”
BRING A HIGHER STANDARD OF CARE TO YOUR PRACTICE Ken Haman — Managing Director at AllianceBernstein “We consider trends that the advisor must pay strict attention to. As clients become more sophisticated their expectations increase dramatically. And it’s prudent for the financial advisor to know how to meet those expectations fully. [....] Clients today are moving away from the traditional fragmentation of services to a more holistic provider network.”
October 2018 | REVIEW ASSET TV | 9
Stay informed. Follow us on social media.
CONTACT US
MEET THE TEAM
Are you interested in becoming a part of Asset TV’s cutting edge programming? Reach out to a member of our sales team to learn more about opportunities to reach your desired audience.
Neil Jeffery
Jason Brandt
neil.jeffery@asset.tv
jason.brandt@asset.tv
EVP – Head of Americas Having worked with Asset TV in the U.K. since the company’s inception in 2003, in 2012 he crossed The Pond to establish Asset TV Inc. in NY.
Deb Wetherbee
SVP – Sales
A graduate from Binghamton University, BA, and Pace University, MBA, Jason was one of the first to join Asset TV Inc. Jason recently got married and survived his honeymoon safari experience in South Africa.
SVP – Sales
Tad Fabiaschi
Deb is a seasoned member of the industry, bringing her expertise from kasina, FRC, Nuveen, and Natixis to Asset TV Inc. Deb currently spends most of her free time watching little league games from the sidelines.
tad.fabiaschi@asset.tv
deb.wetherbee@asset.tv
Toni Cantwell Digital Advertising Manager toni.cantwell@asset.tv
Toni is a graduate of George Washington University and has spent the last 10 years in TV and Digital Advertising. Most of her free time is spent chasing her toddler or watching the NY Yankees/Giants.
Andrea Chinapen Business Development Manager andrea.chinapen@asset.tv
VP – Audience Development Tad has been with Asset TV since 2014. When he’s not connecting with financial advisors, you can find him cycling in Central Park. Tad graduated from SUNY Purchase in 2011 with a BA in Economics and hails from Bronxville, NY.
James Damico Business Development Manager james.damico@asset.tv
Jim supports the Asset TV sales team in New York. He graduated from Youngstown State University with a BA in Finance. Jim enjoys watching his favorite team, The Ohio State Buckeyes. GO Brutus!
Scott McKenna Account & Product Manager scott.mckenna@asset.tv
Andrea enjoys building new relationships with C-Suite decision makers. She likes spending her free time going for walks with her dog to the park.
Scott holds a Bachelors in Economics from SUNY Albany and currently heads Asset TV’s FinTech initiatives. You can find him at many of the major industry conferences or on the floor of the NYSE.
Michael Prisco Business Development Manager
Shakhnoza Baymuradova Audience Development Associate
A BA Graduate from Penn State, Mike is proud to be a part of the Asset TV sales team. He enjoys long walks on the beach, college football, and cold calls.
Shakhnoza holds a BA in Political Science from Columbia Universiy. She brings her international financial experience to the Audience Development at Asset TV. When she’s not working, her favorite way to spend her free time is with her family and friends.
michael.prisco@asset.tv
shakhnoza.baymuradova@asset.tv
October 2018 | REVIEW ASSET TV | 11
S&PDJI can weigh all the factors Factors add new variables into the investing mix and require focused insight, robust data, and transparent methodologies. Investors count on S&P Dow Jones Indices as a market leader for all things factors, and to express their views with straightforward single-factor indices as well as the most complex multi-factor strategies.
indexology®rethink factors spdji.com/indexology Copyright © 2018 S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. All rights reserved. S&P ® and Indexology ® are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC. Dow Jones® is a registered12 trademark of DowASSET Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. S&P Dow Jones Indices receives compensation for licensing its indices | REVIEW TV | November 2017 to third parties. S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC does not make investment recommendations and does not endorse, sponsor, promote or sell any investment product or fund based on its indices.