What Robo Advisors Can Teach Us About Focusing on the Client

This is a summary of a TechOps Track Session titled, “Empowering Advisors: Delivering Tools that Support Today’s Client Needs” from the Money Management Institute’s 2014 Fall Solutions Conference.  The discussion topic was supposed to be centered on how firms are delivering new advisor tools to help them customize solutions for different client segments. However, the […]

3 Ways to Deliver Tax Efficient Investment Solutions

This post is a summary of a session from the FRA’s 8th Annual Managed Accounts Summit. The speaker for this session was Randy Bullard, Executive VP, Institutional Business Development, Placemark Investments. Randy began by listing the three main areas where tax efficiency can be achieved: Asset Placement – trust & estate planning, asset allocation and […]

A Conversation with Randy Bullard

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with Randy Bullard, Founder and EVP of Business Development at Placemark Investments.  I planned to ask him a series of detailed questions about his company’s tax management and optimization services. Here is the list of topics I wanted to cover: Tax Aware Transition of Pre-Existing Securities Tax […]

Generating Tax Alpha With After-Tax Asset Allocation

The calculation of after-tax asset allocation is key to determining asset location, which can significantly impact an investor’s after-tax returns according to a study done by William Reichenstein, Ph.D., CFA (a copy is here as well).  Reichenstein proposes a unified framework that addresses the different risks and returns that exist between taxable and retirement accounts.  While he doesn’t mention the […]

Seeking Tax Alpha

The term “tax alpha,” which was coined by Rob Arnott of investment manager Research Affiliates, represents the improvement in net returns gained from effective tax management. (from Seeking Tax Alpha By David E. Adler at AdvisorMax.com) During my research and discussions with industry professionals, I’ve discovered (not surprisingly) that there are many definitions of tax […]

Is Tax Alpha a Myth or is it Real?

This blog is dedicated to a tax management as it relates to fee-based managed accounts.  I plan on researching and discussing many of the issues surrounding tax management.  I’ll look into tax management claims made by investment advisors, overlay managers and software companies.  Different methodologies of tax management are also on my radar as well […]

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