FolioDynamix, a New York-based firm focused on fee-based managed account solutions for the wealth management industry, and Scott & Stringfellow, a full service regional brokerage and financial services firm based in Richmond, Virginia, designed the program to target investor needs, such as early accumulation, retirement distribution, preservation and growth of capital.
Scott & Stringfellow is using Folio’s technology and services to build their fee-based advisory offerings in an integrated fashion. Key services include contracts with manager’s proprietary research, tear sheets, household proposal generation and IPS tools, overlay management tools, trade order management, billing, and household performance reporting.
Their goal is to roll several programs into the new UMA. “We were able to close out legacy programs that were redundant in nature and roll them into the UMA and offer our client’s a more flexible offering with even greater manager and fund access,” said Drew Jackson, Manager of Fee Based Programs of Scott & Stringfellow, in a news release. “Our strategy is to provide a single platform for all accounts,” he added.
Exchange-traded funds saw net inflows of $13.1 billion
in October, on the heels of September's inflows of $25.5 billion,
according to the latest Morningstar data.
A Morningstar news release said the healthy inflows along with
general market appreciation helped push total net assets in the industry
to nearly $945 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 34%.
Since the beginning of the year, investors have poured $80.6 billion
into U.S.-listed ETFs.
Morningstar said the most popular asset class continues to be
international stock, which has seen massive inflows driven by investor
demand for emerging markets exposure. U.S. Stock ETFs were also popular
in October, as investors looked to bulk up their exposure to “risky
assets.” ETFs in the U.S. stock asset class saw net inflows of $3.5
billion, despite the fact that some of the largest and most heavily
traded funds in the group (such as SPDR S&P 500 SPY, iShares S&P
500 Index IVV, and PowerShares QQQ QQQQ saw net outflows in the month.
Also, according to Morningstar, 2010 has been Vanguard’s year.
In fact, Vanguard has collected roughly 39 cents out of every dollar in
net inflows that U.S.-listed ETFs have seen so far this year. Assets
parked in BlackRock’s iShares business have grown 24% over the past
year, but its market share has fallen by 3.7% to about 45.6% of industry
assets. The number two player, State Street Global Advisors, has grown
its asset base by more than 34% over the past year, which helped keep
its market share relatively constant at just below 24% of industry
assets.
Vanguard’s ETF assets, on the other hand, exploded higher by
more than 72% over the past year, boosting the firm’s market share by
3.2% to 14.5% of industry assets. By examining the data, it would appear
that Vanguard’s gain has been iShares’ loss. It doesn’t look as though
Vanguard will be letting off the throttle anytime soon either. Vanguard
has already introduced 16 new ETFs to the market this year–including an
ETF share class of its Vanguard 500 Index Fund–and has many more
sitting on the registration shelf.
Aside from iShares, the largest market share loss over the past
year belonged to ProShares. The leveraged ETF provider was the only
major ETF provider to post negative asset growth (negative3.6%) over the
past year. Competition for traders’ dollars has heated up considerably
with the presence of Direxion Funds, which grew its asset base by 36.5%
during the same period. As such, ProShares’ market share fell by more
than 1% and currently stands at 2.6%.
The past year has also been a good year for Van Eck’s ETF
business. The firm, known for its Market Vectors products, has grown
from around $10 billion in total net assets last year to more than $17
billion at October month-end. Some of the firm’s newer products have
been a resounding success with investors, including its Junior Gold
Miners ETF GDXJ and Brazilian small-Cap ETF BRF.
For some perspective on just how popular emerging markets have
become, Morningstar noted that the more than $25 billion that has flowed
into Diversified Emerging Markets ETFs since the beginning of the year
represents 32% of all ETF inflows and nearly 76% of total net inflows
into ETFs in the international-stock asset class.
U.S. Equity ETFs
Morningstar said U.S. Stock
ETFs reined in nearly $3.5 billion in October, despite some of the
largest ETFs seeing sizable outflows for the month. Dividends were the
predominant theme within U.S. Stock ETFs in October. Last month, SPDR
S&P Dividend SDY and iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend DVY attracted
net inflows of $773.6 million and $458.9 million, respectively.
Moreover, high yielding plays including Vanguard REIT Index VNQ,
JPMorgan Alerian MLP Index ETN AMJ, and iShares S&P U.S. Preferred
Stock PFF were popular, with monthly inflows of $453.3 million, $266.2
million, and $212.5 million, respectively.
Last month, investors
were also allocating capital to two cyclical sectors that could
potentially benefit from the effects of the Federal Reserve's
Quantitative Easing (QE2)--technology and financials. Technology Select
Sector SPDR XLK attracted $990 million last month, while Financial
Select Sector SPDR XLF attracted $711 million.