News

This week saw one of the more widely anticipated Fed announcements of recent years as investors looked to see if the “zero” interest rate environment was going to be put behind us.  As was widely publicized yesterday, the Fed elected to do nothing, based upon concerns of an economic slowdown, pushing off the prospect of a rate hike.   First Trust’s economic team put out a report that provides the text of the Fed’s statement, along with their perspective of what we can expect moving forward.  Learn more.

Appleton, WI.  August 13, 2015.  APPLETON, Wis.—ETF Model Solutions and its affiliate, Endowment Wealth Management have been named finalists for the Wisconsin Innovation Awards based on their development of the Endowment Index^® (symbol: ENDOW) and related index-based investment strategies.  The Endowment Index^® calculated by Nasdaq OMX^® has created national awareness, assisted in the development of new strategic partnerships, attracted investors in the firm, and have allowed the firms to expand their respective client bases.  The firms have developed Endowment Index-based investment strategies for individuals and families, endowments and foundations, and retirement plans.

The Wisconsin Innovation Awards (“WIA”) seek to celebrate and inspire innovation. The WIA highlights and honors the development of groundbreaking and innovative ideas. By celebrating transformational ideas, the WIA hope to encourage an even greater environment of innovation by bringing innovators together from various business sectors (e.g. tech, food, healthcare, agriculture, nonprofits, education, government), and from throughout the State of Wisconsin.  The Wisconsin Innovation Awards are led by a steering committee of business, community and entrepreneurial leaders.  The second annual WIA ceremony will take place on August 18, 2015 at the Discovery World in Milwaukee.

ETF Model Solutions^® designs ETF-based investment solutions for advisers, institutions, retirement plans and individual investors based upon the Endowment Investment Philosophy^®. The Firm is the investment manager for the Endowment Multi-Asset Collective Investment Fund (CUSIP 26923F105), a Collective Investment Trust which can be added as an investment option in most 401(k) plans.

Endowment Wealth Management^® is a fee-based investment advisor serving individuals and families, foundations and endowments, and retirement plans.   The firm seeks to build sustainable wealth solutions for its clients through the implementation of the Endowment Investment Philosophy^®.

Contact:            Tim Landolt, MBA | Managing Director, ETF Model Solutions^{®   |}  920.785.6012

Info: ETFModelSolutions.com | EndowmentWM.com| EndowmentIndex.com | WI Innovation Awards

Disclosure: You cannot invest directly in an index. Indexes do not have fees. Award recognition does not qualify as an endorsement of any particular index, investment firm, investment, or investment strategy. The firms do not make any solicitation payments to award sponsors in order to be nominated or to qualify for nomination of an award.

As new graduates leave college and transition into adult life, there are many aspects of their financial situations that will change. Here are some financial areas that you may want to talk about with recent grads.

1. Develop a Discipline to Control Spending– Managing expenses will be one of the first financial tasks a new graduate will have to conquer. Creating a budget to monitor larger costs like housing and transportation, as well as smaller everyday expenses can help keep track of where money is being spent and can help identify unnecessary splurges.
2. Saving for the Unexpected– The next goal for a recent graduate should be to save up an emergency fund that will cover 3-6 months’ worth of expenses in case of an unexpected expense or loss of employment. This can be difficult when student loan payments are due and getting a start on retirement savings is being constantly encouraged, but an emergency fund should be a high priority.
3. Student Loan Debt– Most recent college graduates will begin their careers with a fair amount of student loans to pay off. Student loans or any other forms of debt that charge the highest interest rates should be paid off first. Just meeting the minimum payment may be the best option early on though as an emergency fund is built up and money is diverted towards retirement savings.
4. Saving for Retirement– Once debt is under control, saving for the future, namely retirement, is the next big step. Starting early is crucial for young new grads as they have one major advantage; time. Taking advantage of their employer 401(k) plan with a company match is a smart place to start.
5. Investing Long-Term– Retirement savings should be invested with a long-term view, as a recent graduate who starts saving in their first few years will allow that money to compound for the next 40+ years. Short-term market fluctuations, even drastic ones, should not be cause to panic.
6. Credit Rating– A young adult will also want to familiarize themselves with their credit rating and how missing a loan payment or electricity bill could affect them when making a big purchase down the road, like a car or house.

All of these responsibilities will take some time to implement, but they will offer the recent graduates a good learning experience in balancing their short and long term financial goals.

Rob Riedl, Director of Wealth Management at Endowment Wealth Management talks about 61% of Americans without a retirement plan should develop a road map to help them to their retirement destination in a new radio spot running the week of October 13, 2014 on WHBY 1150, a radio station dedicated to news, sports and talk programming in the Appleton, Green Bay and Fox Cities area.

Click to listen:  EWM-Radio-Rob-Riedl-on-Retirement-2014.10.13

Robert Riedl, CPA, CFP®, AWMA®

The portfolio managers atop the country’s most respected university endowments failed to make the honor roll during the current bull market despite their top salaries and genius IQs. Harvard University’s $32.7 billion endowment returned an average of 10.5% annually over the past three years through June 2013 versus 18.45% for the S&P 500, including dividends, over that same period, the Wall Street Journal reported. Yale University’s $21 billion juggernaut gained 12.8% annually over the same period.

Underperformance this market cycle is hardly a reason for endowment managers to be ashamed. All investment strategies experience bouts of underperformance. Looking back 10 and 20 years, endowments outperformed the stock market with a lot less volatility. Endowments failed to live up to expectations this bull market cycle because they’re thin on equities and heavy on alternative assets, which lagged the stock market the past five years. For example, the Yale Endowment has only 11% of assets invested in foreign markets and 6% in domestic stocks. About half of Yale’s portfolio is invested in alternative or illiquid assets such as hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, real estate, timber, oil and gas.

“Less liquid markets exhibit more inefficiencies than their liquid counterparts, illiquid markets create opportunities for astute investors to identify mispricings and generate outsized returns,” the Yale Endowment 2013 report stated. “Intelligent pursuit of illiquidity is well suited to endowments, which operate with extremely long time horizons.”

To read the full article and the 5 reasons why endowments must stick with their long term investing strategy, follow this link.

APPLETON, WIS. — Alta Trust Company has partnered with ETF Model Solutions, LLC. to launch the Endowment Collective Fund (CUSIP: 26923F105). The Endowment Collective Investment Fund (CIF) seeks to improve risk-adjusted returns of traditional two-dimensional portfolios of stocks and bonds by adding alternative investments, such as private equity, hedge strategies and real assets to create a 3-dimensional portfolio. ™

Managers of university endowments, pension, and defined benefit plans have historically utilized lower-correlated alternative investments to improve the risk-adjusted returns of their portfolios. ETF Model Solutions, through the Endowment CIF, now brings the Endowment Investment Philosophy™ to the defined contribution plan space. However, rather than private placements or limited partnerships, the Fund uses liquid alternative investments, such as exchange-traded funds and mutual funds to obtain its alternative asset allocations.

ETF Model Solutions believes that the 3-dimensional Endowment CIF offers 4 major benefits when compared to most target date or balanced funds: (1) added protection for the Plan Sponsor, as both the trustee and the manager of the CIF serve in a fiduciary capacity; (2) reduced portfolio volatility than portfolios with greater equity allocations due to its hedge strategy holdings; (3) protection from inflation due a greater allocation to real assets, such as commodities, precious metals, real estate and infrastructure investments; and, (4) lower interest rate risk due to a smaller allocation to fixed income investments.

The Endowment CIF utilizes a core-satellite portfolio construction with low-cost, cap-weighted equity and fixed income ETFs comprising the core allocation of the asset class, with fundamentally-weighted funds utilized in an attempt to gain alpha. The strategically-managed Endowment CIF is presently targeted to an allocation of 40% global equity, 20% global fixed income and 40% liquid alternative investments.

Alta Trust maintains selling agreements with most major retirement plan platforms, thus plan advisors can offer the Endowment CIF to their Plan Sponsor clients through their existing platform relationships. Plan Sponsors can add the Endowment CIF to their retirement plans through a simple participation agreement, while maintaining their current investment options as well as their existing advisor/TPA/recordkeeping relationships.

CIFs are pooled investment funds available only to qualified retirement plans such as defined contribution 401(k) and defined benefit plans and are regulated by state and federal organizations, such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. CIFs are priced daily through the NSCC, just like mutual funds.

ETF Model Solutions, LLC. (Fund Investment Manager) is a Third Party ETF Strategist that specializes in creating customizable ETF-based asset allocation models. ETF Model Solutions is co-creator of the Endowment Index™ calculated by Nasdaq OMX® (Symbol: ENDOW).

Alta Trust (Fund Trustee) is an innovative financial services firm that acts as trustee for collective investment funds which feature unique money managers. The professionals at Alta Trust have been working with qualified plans for over three decades and provide daily oversight of all fund trading activity and accounting, as well as annual auditing of the fund to assure accurate and reliable account balances.

Disclosure

Alta Trust Company is a South Dakota chartered trust company that acts as trustee of the Funds. Collective Investment Funds are bank maintained trust funds and are not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Declaration of Trust for the Trust describes the procedures for admission to and withdrawal from a Fund. The Declaration of Trust and the Fund’s Employee Benefit Summary should be read in conjunction with this information. The information contained in this communication is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal or tax advice. Before investing in any Fund, Alta Trust recommends that potential investors consider the Fund’s investment objective, strategies, risks and expenses. We recommend that investors consult with their financial, legal and tax advisers prior to investment in any fund. Potential investors in any Fund may obtain a copy of the Employee Benefit Summary from the plan sponsor or from Alta Trust or ETF Model Solutions, LLC.