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Endowment Wealth Management® Named Finalist For Wisconsin Innovation Awards

By News

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.

6 Topics to Discuss with Recent Graduates

By News

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.

Endowment Index™ Named A Finalist for Index of the Year for 2014 by ETF.com

By News

March 11, 2015 08:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time

APPLETON, Wis.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Endowment Index™ (symbol: ENDOW) calculated by Nasdaq OMX®, has been honored as a finalist for “Index of the Year” by ETF.com for 2014. The rules-based Endowment Index™ tracks the performance of the average university and college endowment portfolio. The Index represents the investable opportunity for managers of portfolios that utilize the Endowment Investment Philosophy® by incorporating alternative investments within their asset allocations. The Endowment Index™ was co-created by ETF Model Solutions LLC and its affiliate, Endowment Wealth Management, Inc.

ETF.com’s Index of the Year is awarded to the index that has done the most to provide new ways of considering investment strategies, opportunities or ideas. The five finalists were selected from approximately 50 nominees. The other Index of the Year finalists are: Bloomberg Dollar Index, EMQQ Index, MSCI ACWI Low Carbon Target Indexes and the S&P 500 Index. The winner will be announced at an awards dinner, which takes place March 19 in New York City.

Matt Hougan, President of ETF.com commented: “The ETF.com Awards aim to recognize the firms that are driving the ETF business forward and creating better outcomes for investors. The Endowment Index™ certainly meets that definition, offering a standardized benchmark that incorporates equity, fixed income and alternatives exposure into a coherent whole. I’m pleased to see them nominated for our Index of the Year award. They are certainly one of the more intriguing, innovative and important new indexes out there.” Founded in 2001, ETF.com (formerly IndexUniverse) offers investors trusted insights through its leading publications, events, analysis and data.

ETF Model Solutions, LLC 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 ETF Collective Investment Fund, a Collective Investment Trust (CUSIP 26923F105) available for use in 401(k) Plans.

Info: www.ETFModelSolutions.com or www.EndowmentIndex.com

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, or investment strategy. ETF Model Solutions, LLC does not make any solicitation payments to award sponsors in order to be nominated or to qualify for nomination of an award.

Contacts

ETF Model Solutions, LLC
Tim Landolt, Managing Director
920.785.6012
Tim@ETFModelSolutions.com

Press Release: Endowment Index™ Historical Data Now Available Through Morningstar, Interactive Data and Bloomberg

By Endowment Index™, News

APPLETON, Wis., Nov. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/

Historical index data for the Endowment Index™ — calculated by Nasdaq OMX® — is now available through major index and investment databases, including Bloomberg, Morningstar, and Interactive Data.  In addition, the 30,000+ advisors on the Envestnet platform can now select the Endowment Index™ to benchmark client portfolios. Endowment Index™ data can be accessed through most major quote providers and websites under the symbol “ENDOW.” The Index’s Morningstar ID is F00000TPG6.

The Endowment Index helps trustees, portfolio managers, consultants and advisors to endowments, foundations, trusts, defined benefit/defined contribution plans, pension plans and individual investors more appropriately track the performance of and analyze globally-diversified, multi-asset portfolios. The Endowment Index™ is an objective benchmark comprised of three major asset class building blocks: Global Equity, Global Fixed Income, and Alternatives, which includes hedge funds, private equity and real assets. The Endowment Index™ is a total return index and all underlying components are comprised of exchange-traded funds or other investable securities.  Endowment Wealth Management, Inc. in collaboration with ETF Model Solutions, LLC earlier this year launched the Endowment Index™ as a benchmarking tool for investors in globally-diversified, multi-asset portfolios that include alternative investments.

Endowment Wealth Management, Inc. is an independent Private Wealth Management Firm using a Multi-Client Family Office service model, whose mission is to grow wealth for individuals, families, retirement plans, endowments, foundations and other institutions through the utilization of the Endowment Investment Philosophy™.  EWM can construct index-based portfolios for investors based upon the Endowment Index™ asset allocation.

ETF Model Solutions, LLC, is third party investment manager and ETF strategist that builds investment models for 401(k) plans, Investment Advisors within their practice, Family Offices, Endowments, Foundations, Trusts, and Individual Investors.  The Firm is the fund manager for the Endowment Multi-Asset ETF Collective Investment Fund, available for use in 401(k) and other retirement plans.

Contact:
Prateek Mehrotra, MBA, CFA®, CAIA®
Email
920.785.6010
www.EndowmentWM.com or www.ETFModelSolutions.com

Disclosure:  You typically cannot invest directly in an index. Indexes do not contain fees.  Information presented is for educational purposes only and is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies, nor shall it be construed to be the provision of investment advice.  Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not insured or guaranteed. Be sure to consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any investment strategies. While the firms are related and share corporate offices, Endowment Wealth Management, Inc. and ETF Model Solutions, LLC are each individually registered as an investment adviser in the State of Wisconsin. A copy of each firm’s respective disclosure document, Form ADV Brochure Part 2, is available upon request.

Link to Release

Press Release: Endowment Index Historical Data Now Available Through Morningstar, Interactive Data and Bloomberg

By Endowment Index™, News

APPLETON, Wis., Nov. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/

Historical index data for the Endowment Index™ — calculated by Nasdaq OMX® — is now available through major index and investment databases, including Bloomberg, Morningstar, and Interactive Data.  In addition, the 30,000+ advisors on the Envestnet platform can now select the Endowment Index™ to benchmark client portfolios. Endowment Index™ data can be accessed through most major quote providers and websites under the symbol “ENDOW.” The Index’s Morningstar ID is F00000TPG6.

The Endowment Index helps trustees, portfolio managers, consultants and advisors to endowments, foundations, trusts, defined benefit/defined contribution plans, pension plans and individual investors more appropriately track the performance of and analyze globally-diversified, multi-asset portfolios. The Endowment Index™ is an objective benchmark comprised of three major asset class building blocks: Global Equity, Global Fixed Income, and Alternatives, which includes hedge funds, private equity and real assets. The Endowment Index™ is a total return index and all underlying components are comprised of exchange-traded funds or other investable securities.  Endowment Wealth Management, Inc. in collaboration with ETF Model Solutions, LLC earlier this year launched the Endowment Index™ as a benchmarking tool for investors in globally-diversified, multi-asset portfolios that include alternative investments.

Endowment Wealth Management, Inc. is an independent Private Wealth Management Firm using a Multi-Client Family Office service model, whose mission is to grow wealth for individuals, families, retirement plans, endowments, foundations and other institutions through the utilization of the Endowment Investment Philosophy™.  EWM can construct index-based portfolios for investors based upon the Endowment Index™ asset allocation.

ETF Model Solutions, LLC, is third party investment manager and ETF strategist that builds investment models for 401(k) plans, Investment Advisors within their practice, Family Offices, Endowments, Foundations, Trusts, and Individual Investors.  The Firm is the fund manager for the Endowment Multi-Asset ETF Collective Investment Fund, available for use in 401(k) and other retirement plans.

Contact:
Prateek Mehrotra, MBA, CFA®, CAIA®
Email
920.785.6010
www.EndowmentWM.com or www.ETFModelSolutions.com

Disclosure:  You typically cannot invest directly in an index. Indexes do not contain fees.  Information presented is for educational purposes only and is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies, nor shall it be construed to be the provision of investment advice.  Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not insured or guaranteed. Be sure to consult with a qualified financial advisor and/or tax professional before implementing any investment strategies. While the firms are related and share corporate offices, Endowment Wealth Management, Inc. and ETF Model Solutions, LLC are each individually registered as an investment adviser in the State of Wisconsin. A copy of each firm’s respective disclosure document, Form ADV Brochure Part 2, is available upon request.

Link to Release

Endowment Wealth Management Records New Radio Spot Discussing Retirement

By News

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

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Robert Riedl, CPA, CFP®, AWMA®

Five Reasons Endowments Must Stick With Their Long-Term Investing Strategy Despite Recent Underperformance – Prateek Mehrotra

By News

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.

New Collective Investment Fund Brings Endowment Investment Philosophy™/Liquid Alternatives to Defined Contribution Plans

By News

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.

 

Not FDIC Insured May Lose Value No Bank Guarantee

 

Why Endowment Funds Like Yale’s Are Doing Just Fine – Prateek Mehrotra

By News

The Ivory Tower geniuses atop the country’s most respected endowments have recently received a firestorm of criticism for failing to produce outsized returns during the current bull market. But investors must accept that all investment strategies experience periods of underperformance and it’s hardly a reason for endowments to hang their heads.

Investors tend to have short memories and forget that these same endowments outperformed the stock market over the past decade with much less volatility.

Looking at the Yale Endowment investment policy’s achievements, Prateek Mehrotra, MBA, CFA®, CAIA® points out that their main goal is to “diversify across seven asset classes that all act independent of each other in different economic environments.” This leads to more stability and the ability for endowments to generate outsized returns that operate with an extremely long time horizon. Taking advantage of special situations, an ability available due to the diversified portfolio, allows them to distinguish an absolute return strategy and has been a factor in their growth by more than six fold over two decades.

To read the full article:

http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2014/07/31/why-endowment-funds-like-yales-are-doing-just-fine

Why Endowment Funds Like Yale’s Are Doing Just Fine

By News

The Ivory Tower geniuses atop the country’s most respected endowments have recently received a firestorm of criticism for failing to produce outsized returns during the current bull market. But investors must accept that all investment strategies experience periods of underperformance and it’s hardly a reason for endowments to hang their heads.

Investors tend to have short memories and forget that these same endowments outperformed the stock market over the past decade with much less volatility.

Looking at the Yale Endowment investment policy’s achievements, Prateek Mehrotra, MBA, CFA®, CAIA®   points out that their main goal is to “diversify across seven asset classes that all act independent of each other in different economic environments.” This leads to more stability and the ability for endowments to generate outsized returns that operate with an extremely long time horizon. Taking advantage of special situations, an ability available due to the diversified portfolio, allows them to distinguish an absolute return strategy and has been a factor in their growth by more than six fold over two decades.

To read the full article:

http://www.thinkadvisor.com/2014/07/31/why-endowment-funds-like-yales-are-doing-just-fine