Products & Services March 14, 2024

Product & Service Launches – 3/14/24

Cetera-affiliated advisers get Bitcion ETF policy guidance; Nationwide offering Morningstar AMAs; OneAmerica launches TDF series of CITs; and more.

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Cetera Offers Bitcoin ETF Policy and Guidance for Financial Professionals

Cetera Financial Group has introduced policy and guidance to its affiliated financial advisers regarding the use of bitcoin exchange-traded funds in brokerage accounts.

The firm’s policy includes education and resources designed to help financial professionals guide clients in incorporating bitcoin ETFs into investment portfolios. Cetera said it is among the first wealth managers to roll out a policy on bitcoin ETFs to meet investor demand for information on the products.

“As expected, we are prudently embracing bitcoin ETFs, and we prioritized developing this important guidance to help our financial professionals implement these products in client portfolios,” said Matt Fries, Cetera’s head of investment products and partner solutions, in a statement. “We will continue to proactively evaluate the implications of bitcoin ETFs and related products and modify our policies accordingly.”

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Cetera has approved usage of the following spot bitcoin ETFs for its affiliated advisers:

  • and Blackrock iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT);
  • Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC);
  • Franklin Bitcoin ETF (EZBC); and
  • Invesco Galaxy Bitcoin ETF (BTCO).

About 50 million people own bitcoin, as of February 2024, more than twice as many as the 20 million who did in 2023, according to Cetera, citing the number of unique addresses with non-zero balances of bitcoin. 

Nationwide Partners With Morningstar on AMAs

Nationwide Retirement Solutions, a division of the insurer, has partnered with Morningstar Inc.’s retirement group on an adviser-managed account offering for advisers working with institutional and government plans.

The AMA will allow advisers to deliver “professional advice and savings strategies for plan participants in an easy, accessible way,” according to the announcement. Participants will have access to personalized retirement strategies, Morningstar’s retirement engine and methodologies packaged by the advisers.

Morningstar’s AMAs allow registered investment adviser firms to offer a co-branded service. Plans do not incur any additional cost for offering the service, according to the announcement, and participants who enroll will pay “account management fees that are competitive with similar services on the open market.”

“Managed accounts are designed to help participants feel confident that they have the right strategies in place when it comes to saving and investing for retirement,” Craig Hawley, senior vice president of retirement solutions sales at Nationwide, said in the announcement. “Through this collaboration with Morningstar Retirement, we’re able to offer a service that combines the best of both worlds: personalized advice and professional management from a trusted adviser and our award-winning service.”

The offering adds to Nationwide’s ProAccount managed account service, which it has been offering since 2006.

OneAmerica Launches Active TDF Series With American Funds and Great Gray Trust

OneAmerica Financial has launched an actively managed target-date series of collective investment trusts in partnership with Capital Group’s American Funds and Great Gray Trust Co. LLC, according to an announcement.

OneAmerica’s RetirementTrack American Funds CIT series is only available to defined contribution retirement plan platforms. Great Gray is the trustee for the CITs, which are designed to offer lower fees to participants than mutual funds; Great Gray is using subsidiary flexPATH Strategies LLC to assist in fund management.

Fees for the TDFs will depend on the share class selected by investors; they range from 25 basis points, or 0.25%, to 59 basis points, according to OneAmerica. The series adjusts its mix of bonds and equities over time and manages risk based on a participant’s age—with those further from retirement weighted more toward to equities, and those closer to retirement weighted more toward fixed income.

“This is another great option for OneAmerica Financial clients who want to help their participants take control of their retirement strategy,” said Alan Blaskowski, vice president of product, business development and innovation for retirement services, in the announcement.

RetirementTrack American Funds also combines American Funds mutual funds with a stable value vehicle backed by American United Life Insurance Co., a OneAmerica Financial company, according to the announcement. The offer adds to OneAmerica’s RetirementTrack TDF series, also a set of CITs with Great Gray as trustee, which have passed $1 billion in assets in three years.

Cullen Capital Management Unveils Innovative 1st ETF

Cullen Capital Management LLC has launched an exchange-traded fund that offers income generation through a combination of dividends and covered-call premiums, according to the asset manager.

The Cullen Enhanced Equity Income ETF has launched on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker DIVP. The fund mimics the firm’s equity income strategy previously only available to investors through separately managed account and mutual fund offerings.

Cullen Capital has partnered with SEI Advisors’ Inner Circle Fund for portfolio management.

“After 13 years of successfully running a dividend equity, covered call, separately managed account, there was strong client demand to offer the same strategy in an ETF vehicle,” said Jeff Cullen, the managing director at Cullen Capital, in a statement.

DIVP integrates dividends from equity holdings with premiums from covered-call options written on approximately 25 to 40% of the underlying securities, according to Cullen. It aims, through this strategy, to offer higher income potential than other equity-income investments. 

Data & Research March 14, 2024

How Americans’ Health Care Costs Affect Their Work and Savings

Two out of every five Americans are postponing health care needs due to cost concerns, according to a survey commissioned by Paytient Technologies.

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A new study confirms that many Americans are struggling to pay for even basic health care, and the cost of saving is taking a variety of tolls, including heightened health problems.

In a study released Wednesday by Paytient Technologies Inc., a health care payment provider, 40% of respondents admitted to delaying health care due to cost. The top types of care this subset delayed were:

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Regular visits / checkups

32%

Follow-up visits for a specific symptom / condition

30%

Tests (blood, biopsies, etc.)

28%

Imaging (X-rays, mammograms, etc.)

27%

Specialist referrals

27%

Regular treatment for chronic conditions or recovery

24%

Prescription medication

23%

Emergency visits / urgent care

23%

Outpatient surgeries

20%

Inpatient surgeries

9%

Medical devices (wheelchairs, asthma pumps, etc.)

5%

The delay in these preventative measures and, at times, direct care, is adding additional problems and costs in the future. Of the 40% of people who delayed care due to cost, 23% said they developed new symptoms or conditions, and 38% reported that their health got worse. Moreover, 19% resorted to working a second job during work hours to pay for health care, and 31% felt compelled to lie to their bosses about their activities while dealing with the consequences of deferred medical attention.

Concerns about paying for health care are already a drag on many American’s retirement hopes. More than half (59%) of respondents in a separate annual survey done by Nationwide lack confidence in their ability to pay for health care costs as they age. Another 57% worry about their ability to pay for caregiving for their partner or spouse, according to Nationwide’s Health Care Cost in Retirement Survey, released in October 2023.

Work Reduction

Paytient, in its survey, examined the repercussions of delayed care on the workforce, revealing that one in six respondents’ work was directly affected by health issues they could not afford to treat. Among this group, 69% admitted to being distracted by pain at work, and 31% experienced panic attacks on the job.

Meanwhile, paying for insurance that might help offset health care costs is difficult in and of itself, according to the findings. The study found that 69 million workplace-insured Americans failed to meet their deductibles in the prior year. Almost half of respondents with insurance (45%) did not meet their single coverage deductibles in 2023, by an average of $1,482.

Some workers even moved with their feet to find better health care options: 17% of workplace-insured Americans made the decision to leave their jobs in pursuit of better health care.

Help Wanted

The need for medical attention comes as employers are placing a greater emphasis on wholistic financial wellness, which includes addressing health care costs.

“The results of this study spotlight the invisible insecurity of insured Americans as health insurance alone no longer guarantees access to care,” said Brian Whorley, founder and CEO of Paytient, in a statement. “Bringing this narrative into the national dialogue on healthcare highlights an opportunity for employers to affordably ensure employees have the security and certainty that they will be able to access and pay for care when they need it.”

The study included a diverse cross section of employed Americans with respect to gender, ethnicity/race, region, occupation, income level, seniority level, family type and health conditions. Respondents were of above-average income, with one in five earning more than $100,000 per year and 46% in managerial or higher positions. A quantitative sample was collected in January 2024, totaling 1,516 survey responses.

The research was conducted by Nonfiction Research LLC and commissioned by Paytient, a technology company that delivers financial and care solutions to more than 25 million Americans.

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