✅ Wagner Wealth Management Affiliates With Arkadios Capital
We start today’s episode with an update on Wagner Wealth Management and their new affiliates, Arkadios Capital. Wagner is an independent advisory firm with $470 million in assets under advisement. And the company has recently joined Arkadios Capital, a hybrid platform for financial advisors. According to PR-news-wire.com, Wagner Wealth Management was founded by Dan Wagner Sr. in order to assist high net worth individuals and companies. Services include financial planning, asset management, alternative investment strategies, and 401K planning. Arkadios is focused on supporting growing financial advisory practices like Wagner’s.
Arkadios specializes in supporting larger and growth-oriented wealth management firms by offering specialty services. These include services like their in-house CFA asset management, a fixed income team, and back-office support for things like compliance and investment due diligence. Since it was founded in 2016, Arkadios has more than tripled its revenue and added an institutional bond desk and real estate investment team. According to Wagner Sr, Arkadios is an ideal partner for where Wagner Wealth is looking to go. Arkadios has worked diligently to understand the business needs at Wagner Wealth Management, and developed a structure that is expected to significantly advance the growth of both companies.
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✅ Meet Hazel, Walmart New Robo-advisor
Our next article is a follow up on a piece of news that we covered weeks ago. As you know, Walmart recently announced that they will be launching their own robo-advisor. And today we can finally put a name to it: Hazel. There are a few speculations as to where the name came from: some attribute it to the color Hazel, which is a shade of green. Others think it’s perhaps a tip to ‘Acorns’ or the Hal 9000 computer in “2001 a Space Odyssey.” And some were even quick to point out that it’s a female name and Walmart is following in the footsteps of Apple and Amazon with Siri and Alexa. Speaking of progress, Walmart has also made some big hires to form part of the Hazel team.
Their most recent big hire is Julia Unger, Citi’s head of global credit cards and an 18-year veteran of the New York money center bank. She will report to Janey Whiteside, Walmart’s executive vice president and chief customer officer, who was herself poached after a 17-year stint at American Express. All of this comes from the back of Walmart already loading up on two top Goldman Sachs Marcus execs, Omer Ismail and David Stark. As to when Hazel will actually be launched to the public: company spokeswoman Molly Blakeman said “The list of exact projects and timeline is still being developed,” But as long-time banking analyst Jonathan Holtoway said, “the time is now for Walmart to make their foray into banking-related services.”
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✅ How Are Asset Managers Handling The New EU Sustainable Investing Rules?
And our last article today covers the new EU sustainable investing rules and the hurdles they pose for asset managers. According to writers at the-asset.com, managers in Europe have a long way to go to comply with the new Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations or SFDR. Asset managers are now required to incorporate sustainability risks across their investment processes, product governance, and internal systems. Fabrizio Zumbo is the associate director of European asset and wealth management research at Cerulli Associates. He says that it is still unclear how soon managers will be in a position to comply with the new regulations. Zumbo also says there are a number of challenges when it comes to categorizing products under the new rules. For example, it is not clear what is meant by “promoting” when it comes to environmental, social, or sustainable objectives This lack of clarity means that managers should continually reassess the assignment of their products under the SFDR. There is also an absence of any formal market standards or definitive regulatory framework. This is making it difficult to integrate existing policies and processes, so asset managers are having to apply their own interpretations. And these are just a few of the hurdles being faced by asset managers in relation to these new EU regulations.
