Gundlach’s survey of the economic and financial destruction wrought by the coronavirus shows problems abound.

Sonal Desai, PH.D., is executive vice president and chief investment officer of Franklin Templeton Fixed Income, as well a portfolio manager for a number of strategies. In this interview, she discusses the unique investment strategy she has developed, as well as the key risks – specifically the coronavirus – facing investors.

Margaret Farquharson is a senior director with the Nationwide Funds Group and leads its exchange traded fund business, where she has oversight for all aspects of the business including product development, product management, marketing, distribution, and operations.

Bob Browne is the chief investment officer of Northern Trust Asset Management, which has more than $900 billion in assets. He chairs the firm's investment policy committee, which sets investment policy for all Northern Trust groups. In this interview, he discusses his views on the global economy and markets.

Jan Blakeley Holman is the director of advisor education for Thornburg Investment Management. As a speaker and author, Jan draws on four decades in the business, first as an advisor, then as a financial services industry executive and now as an advisor to advisors. She has unique expertise in working with women clients and often teaches advisors how to speak with women about managing their wealth.

According to James Montier, now is the time to allocate away from U.S. equities and into emerging markets.

Advisor Perspectives has been ranked as the most-read electronic newsletter by financial advisors in 2019, based on the annual media survey conducted by Erdos and Morgan.

Expect a steeper yield curve, according to Jeffrey Gundlach. Investors should be “defensive” with respect to long-term bonds. Gold will go up, inflation will be subdued, there is a 30% to 35% chance of recession and – his “highest conviction” idea – the dollar will weaken. His most surprising prediction was who will be the Democratic nominee.

Great articles don’t always get the readership they deserve. We’ve already posted the 10 most-widely read articles for the past year. Below are another 10 that you might have missed, but I believe merit reading…

As is our custom, we conclude the year by reflecting on the 10 most-read articles over the past 12 months. In decreasing order, based on the number of unique readers, those are…

David Ellison manages the Hennessy Large Cap Financial Fund (HLFNX) and the Small Cap Financial Fund (HSFNX), both of which have outperformed their benchmarks since their inception in 1997. Dave has been recognized by Morningstar as the most tenured mutual fund portfolio manager in the financial services sector. I spoke with Dave on December 12.

MarketCounsel’s Summit, held earlier this week in Miami, lived up to its reputation as the “all-star game” of financial advisor conferences, attracting top-level executives from throughout the investment industry. Here are three highlights from Tuesday’s sessions.

In the U.S., between one quarter and one third of all assets managed are done so with an ESG or SRI mandate. Outside the U.S., that percentage is even higher. The Vitium Global Fund, formerly the Vice Fund, buys what most ESG/SRI investors scorn, stocks in the tobacco, alcoholic beverage, gaming and aerospace/defense industries.

Fear among bond investors is focused on rising rates, but Jeffrey Gundlach says you should worry about something more sinister. In his webcast yesterday, he also offered his updated 2020 presidential election prediction.

U.S. stocks are “fairly valued,” according to Jeremy Siegel. But in our annual interview, he also warns of two major risks to the economy and to investors.

American history teaches that we can rise above our deep political divide, according to Nicholas Burns. The U.S. rose to independence based on the “power of ideas,” he said. Lincoln put the country together after a divide far deeper than what we face today, and FDR led the country to victory in its most difficult war. Those challenges were infinitely more difficult than what we face now, Burns said.

News from the last 48 hours had a significant impact on the chances President Trump will be reelected, according to Greg Valliere. Moreover, although Valliere doesn’t expect the impeachment proceedings to end in Trump’s conviction, there are two scenarios that could change that outcome.

For most of the last 20 years, advisors could safely ignore inflation and the risks it poses to their clients’ fixed-income holdings and earning power. But inflation is too dangerous a risk to disregard. What are the chances of an upward spike in inflation and what would that mean for clients?

Kim Laughton is president of Schwab Charitable, a national donor-advised fund. In this interview, she discusses how advisors can integrate charitable planning into client discussions and use it as a tool to expand and deepen relationships.

Chris Davis is chairman of Davis Advisors, a firm founded by his father that has followed the same value-investing discipline for its 50-year history. In this interview, Chris discusses the exceptional opportunities he is finding among the financial stocks, how financial advisors can add the greatest value and the biggest changes he has seen over his career.

The First Eagle Global Fund (SGENX) reflects the teachings of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett. In this interview, the three managers of the fund discuss a number of topics, including why they hold a large position in gold, why the market will favor value investors on a long-term basis and their views of ESG investing in the context of the companies they own.

The U.S. economy is in a “good place” and the baseline outlook is “favorable,” according to Richard Clarida. To further allay fears, he called the much-discussed September 17 action by the Fed in the repo market a “technical, central bank 101 operation, not to be conflated with large-scale QE operations.”

Reflecting on his more than six decades as an asset manager, Dan Fuss says that climate change is now the greatest challenge facing society and the markets.

Brian Smedley is head of macroeconomic and investment research at Guggenheim Partners. In this interview, he explains why his team is forecasting a recession in mid-2020 and how advisors should position portfolios in response.

Lon Erickson, CFA, is a portfolio manager and managing director for Thornburg Investment Management and oversees five of its fixed income mutual funds. Erickson says that rates could be as low as 1.1% in the next year, and he explains why a collaborative, bottom-up construction process will benefit advisors and their clients.

When the yield curve inverted earlier this year, Blackstone’s economic model predicted a recession in the next 20 months. But Byron Wien cautioned against relying on that forecast.

A recession would doom President Trump’s reelection chances, according to Robert Shiller. But he said the chance of that happening before next November is less than 50%.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury security was 1.42% on September 3, and it won’t go any lower this year, according to Jeffrey Gundlach. He said he would “absolutely not” buy 10-year bonds.

John Langbein may not be a familiar name to financial advisors, but he has had a significant and lasting impact on our profession. On September 16, he was awarded the Frankel Fiduciary Prize.

If the robos were pitted against a fifth grader, consisting of a 60/40 cap-weighted index portfolio, Jeff Foxworthy would easily give the victory to the 10-year old.

In this interview, Jeffrey Germain and Matthew Johnson of Brandes Investment Management explain why U.S. investors suffer from a “home country bias” and discuss the compelling opportunities outside the U.S.

In this interview, the retired FPA managing partner and portfolio manager expresses his criticism of monetary policies, and how investors should position their portfolios in response.

If the signs of a recession prove true, the Fed will be in panic mode, according to Jeffrey Gundlach. The economy will weaken, rates will go up and the Fed will have to “do something,” to protect against a “spiral” of higher rates feeding and slower growth.

There are many retirement risks, such as: stock market performance, inflation, a volatile regulatory environment, the deterioration of good health, withdrawal timing and the need for long-term care. All have the potential to wreak havoc on retirement savings, but one risk could be more significant than the rest, Longevity.

A barrier to ESG and SRI adoption is the one-size-fits-all approach inherent in mutual funds and ETFs. But a new solution allows advisors to create SMAs that are customized based on each of your clients’ values, needs and preferences.

We’d all like our investments to make a positive contribution to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. But, as predicted by economic theory, ESG funds have suffered a performance deficit over a long time horizon.

Advisor Perspectives will be the exclusive marketing agent for Investments Illustrated’s products, the Big Picture © Chart and App. Advisor Perspectives will offer these products to its audience of nearly a half million professionals in the financial advisory industry.

A high-performing employee with low trust is a “toxic” team member, according to Simon Sinek. You are better off with someone who inspires high trust, even if they are just a mediocre performer. The challenge is helping those who lack it build the trust they need to succeed.

Technical analysis is built on the idea that markets and securities are actionable through analysis of historical trends. No firm has been as dominant and successful in the field of technical analysis that Dorsey Wright, the 30-year old Virginia-based firm that is now part of Nasdaq.

Although polls show Joe Biden leading his nearest competitor by more than 15 percentage points, Jeffrey Gundlach says he will not be the Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential election.

A white label approach streamlines the ETF launching process, by using filings and approvals that are already in place with the SEC

After the tumult of Q4 2018, investors deserved an easy quarter, and they got it. The Q4 trends of falling rates and rising economic concerns continued. But risk assets, like stocks and non-government fixed income spread products, pulled out of their nose dives with strong performances in Q1 2019. As we look ahead to the remainder of this year, what should bond investors expect?

If there is one asset class where advisors have taken a do-it-yourself approach, it is municipal bonds. Advisors and their clients often buy individual muni bonds and hold them until maturity. But the muni market is very broad, diverse and complex – and those are the ingredients that favor professional management.

Recessionary fears have subsided and all signs are that the global economy has stabilized, albeit at a less-than-desired growth rate. But risks abound – tariffs on Chinese goods that could trigger a trade war, Brexit negotiations, rising oil prices and a possible Fed rate hike.

Ever since the growth of robo advisors began to accelerate nearly a decade ago, the dominant trend facing advisors has been the commoditization of investment advice. With the proliferation of high-quality, low-cost investment solutions, advisors have increasingly outsourced their investing, freeing up valuable resources to help clients in other ways. But that doesn’t mean that all outsourced solutions are created equal or that advisors cannot add value through the investment choices that are made on behalf of their clients. Here’s what advisors need to know when choosing an outsourcing solution.

The most successful advisory firms are building their technology framework around their optimal client and the experience they want to deliver to that client. What’s most important when designing an experience is considering how it adds value to the advisor-client relationship.

Value investors have fared poorly over the last decade, as traditional value indices have trailed their corresponding growth counterparts. But that doesn’t mean that all value funds have done poorly. Indeed, one notable exception has been the Matthews Asia Value Fund (MAVRX).

With equity valuations at elevated levels, subdued economic growth due to changing demographics and stubbornly low productivity gains, as well as a bleak outlook for fixed income, advisors are challenged to rethink foundational portfolio elements of investor portfolios—which means seeking out strategies that bolster the core going forward.

There are three legs to the retirement problem: determining an appropriate savings and spending plan, having the right amount of insurance, and constructing an appropriate portfolio. Achieving those three goals and smoothing consumption, especially during the critical period just before and after retirement, is a complex and computationally intensive undertaking.