CLS to Leave ESI Illuminations

CLS Investments is leaving the Envestnet Platform.

CLS Investments has notified Envestnet they no longer want to participate as a Third-Party Strategist on the ESI Illuminations Platform.  The portfolios have been removed from proposals for new business and any existing business needs to be moved to a new Third- Party Strategist on the platform.

Advisors with existing business have been notified.  If you have any questions on this feel free to reach out to Sandy Colvin at ESI, 802-229-3016 or 800-344-7437 x3016.

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Separately Managed Accounts Coming Soon to ESI Illuminations!

Separately Managed Accounts will soon be available in a Unified Managed Account, on the ESI Illuminations Platform!

For clients with $150,000 or more to invest, ESI Illuminations will soon make available the option to use a Separately Managed Account in your UMA account.  Different from Third Party Strategists who build portfolios with mutual funds or ETF’s, Separate Account Managers use general securities in their portfolios.

The two managers being added are Fidelity and Morningstar.  Both offer multiple all equity portfolios which means if being used as stand- alone are best suited for clients with a Diversified Equity Risk Tolerance. Another option is to use these portfolios in combination with another third- party strategist or separate account portfolio to create portfolios available to clients of all investment objective risk ranges.

Fidelity Advisor Portfolios

  • Founders – seeks to provide capital appreciation through investments in the equity securities of founder-involved companies
  • Growth Opportunities – seeks to provide long-term growth of capital through investments in the equity securities of domestic companies
  • Small Company – seeks to provide excess return relative to the Russell 2000 Index over a full market cycle by investing in a diversified portfolio of small cap equities.
  • Women’s Leadership – seeks to provide long-term growth of capital through investment in the equity securities of companies that prioritize and advance women’s leadership and development.

Morningstar Portfolios

  • Dividend – seeks a large, reliable, and growing dividend income stream and long-term capital appreciation by investing in select securities of dividend paying companies and other businesses- usually large, high yielding, U.S. companies that tend to have attractive to modest long-term growth potential.
  • Hare* – seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in common stocks and other securities (American Depositary Receipts, master limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts) focusing on companies with strong and growing competitive advantages. 
  • Small/Mid-Cap Equity – Seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in select common stocks and American Depositary Receipts (ADR’s) of what Morningstar believes to be undervalued, typically fundamentally strong, small and mid-cap businesses with durable competitive advantages and growth potential
  • Tortoise* – Seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in select common stocks of undervalued companies with durable competitive advantages and strong balance sheets.

*Both of these portfolios are offered in a Non-MLP version

Consult the attached UMA Manual as a guide for how to research or run proposals.  Or feel free to contact Sandy Colvin at ESI, 802-229-3016 or 800-344-7437 x3016 with any questions.

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SmartAsset Now Available to IARs!

SmartAsset is an approved lead generation system that ESI Investment Advisor Representatives (IARs) can sign up for on a pay per lead basis.

How it Works

  • IARs sign up with SmartAsset to purchase qualified leads – the advisor has an individual agreement with SmartAsset..
  • The advisor chooses some basic demographic information and AUM options that SmartAsset uses to identify leads.
  • Leads are generated by SmartAsset directly via marketing ads. Investors who are in-market for financial advice are invited to take a 25-30 question survey about their investment and financial planning preferences.
  • After investors complete the survey, SmartAdvisor’s in-house concierge team contacts them by phone, text and/or email to validate their contact information and intent.
  • Once they are validated, investors are matched with up to three financial advisors based on both investor and advisor criteria.
  • Advisors receive each lead – complete with all contact information, investable assets, and survey responses – in one of two ways: Directly to their inbox via email or on the phone via SmartAdvisor’s Live Connections program

Benefits to You

  • No marketing is required of the advisor.
  • The advisor controls the lead type that they receive.
  • All leads are pre-qualified by SmartAsset

Benefits to Your Client/Prospect

  • Client is connected to an advisor who meets their needs.

Getting Started

  • When you sign up with SmartAsset you’ll be asked to create a profile. Profiles must be submitted to ARU for review prior to publication on the Smart Asset site, and the email address will need to be provided that will be used with the system.
  • To get started with SmartAsset, go to https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/about  
  • Contact SmartAsset for information regarding costs to participate.

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Morningstar Smart Investor: Top 15 Funds leading the Way on ESG

The ability to outperform traditional benchmarks while pursuing sustainability initiatives has often seemed an elusive goal for investors. Using the Morningstar Analyst Rating together with the newly launched Morningstar ESG Commitment Level, investors can now identify funds that deliver the best of both worlds.

What is the Morningstar ESG Commitment Level?

To help investors understand where a strong environmental, social, and governance approach fits within a fund’s broader investment objectives, we debuted the Morningstar ESG Commitment Level in November 2020. The ESG Commitment Level is a qualitative measure of the extent to which asset managers and funds incorporate ESG considerations into their investment processes. The scale runs from best to worst as follows: Leader, Advanced, Basic, and Low.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW FULL ARTICLE

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ESI Closed Memorial Day – Phones Shut Down at 4pm ET 5/28

ESI phones will be shut down at 4pm ET on Friday May 28th and ESI will be closed in observance of the Memorial Day holiday on Monday May 31st.

We will resume regular business hours on Tuesday June 1st.

We wish you a happy and safe holiday weekend as we take some time to remember and thank all of those who have died during active military service.

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Introducing Legg Mason

Legg Mason high net worth (HNW) portfolios are now available on the ESI Illuminations platform.  

Legg Mason HNW portfolios seek to deliver long-term capital growth against specific risk ranges to help you meet your financial goals, providing growth potential while mitigating unwanted volatility.

Highlights

  • Each portfolio invests across multiple managers and asset classes to suit almost any investor’s asset allocation and diversification needs in a single portfolio.
  • Includes an allocation to SMAs, making it easy to tailor to investor needs.
  • Offered by an SMA market leader with over $88 billion1 in assets under management.

Strategy Details

Target Asset Mixes           5 portfolios across 5 risk profiles/1 all-equity ESG portfolio
Vehicles                             SMA, mutual fund
Style                                  Active
Minimum                          $750,000
Rebalance Schedule2       Rebalanced monthly to targets/Strategic asset allocation updated annually

Learn More about Legg Mason
Legg Mason Marketing and training materials – as well as a sales map – are available on the ESI Illuminations platform.

1Source: Cerulli Associates, The Cerulli Managed Edge U.S. Managed Accounts 1Q20 Edition. Data as of December 31, 2019

2Subject to change. Allocations are reviewed monthly and rebalanced back to targets if the actual weight is more than 5% from the target. If circumstances warrant, there may be off-cycle reallocations. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss

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Coming Soon! Separate Accounts in ESI Illuminations

The next rollout for ESI Illuminations 2.0 is Separate Accounts.

ESI Illuminations, now makes available Separately Managed Accounts.  A Separately Managed  Account describes a portfolio managed by a Third -Party Money Manager who invests primarily in General Securities.

ESI will be making available 30 Portfolios, managed by two different Separate Account Managers, Morningstar and Fidelity.

The minimum for using Separate Account Manager is $150k.  These portfolios will be available as a sleeve in a Unified Managed Account. 

Look for these portfolios to be live on the ESI Illuminations Platform soon.

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SmartAsset Lead Generation Now Available to IARs

SmartAsset is an approved lead generation system that ESI Investment Advisor Representatives (IARs) can sign up for on a pay per lead basis.

How it Works

  • IARs sign up with SmartAsset to purchase qualified leads – the advisor has an individual agreement with SmartAsset..
  • The advisor chooses some basic demographic information and AUM options that SmartAsset uses to identify leads.
  • Leads are generated by SmartAsset directly via marketing ads. Investors who are in-market for financial advice are invited to take a 25-30 question survey about their investment and financial planning preferences.
  • After investors complete the survey, SmartAdvisor’s in-house concierge team contacts them by phone, text and/or email to validate their contact information and intent.
  • Once they are validated, investors are matched with up to three financial advisors based on both investor and advisor criteria.
  • Advisors receive each lead – complete with all contact information, investable assets, and survey responses – in one of two ways: Directly to their inbox via email or on the phone via SmartAdvisor’s Live Connections program

Benefits to You

  • No marketing is required of the advisor.
  • The advisor controls the lead type that they receive.
  • All leads are pre-qualified by SmartAsset

Benefits to Your Client/Prospect

  • Client is connected to an advisor who meets their needs.

Getting Started

  • When you sign up with SmartAsset you’ll be asked to create a profile. Profiles must be submitted to ARU for review prior to publication on the Smart Asset site, and the email address will need to be provided that will be used with the system.
  • To get started with SmartAsset, go to https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/about  
  • Contact SmartAsset for information regarding costs to participate.

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Multifactor Authentication Coming to Investigo May 22nd

MFA is a common tool to protect information by making it harder for a hacker to nefariously access a client’s profile by requiring not only the correct username and password but an additional code that will be sent to an email address the client has access to.

For clients who already have access to Investigo: The first time they login to the client portal after May 21st they will be asked to provide an email address where a onetime use code will be sent to verify, they have access to the email account.

Once the email address is verified your client will be asked if investigo should trust the device. If they say yes, they won’t be asked for the MFA code for subsequent logins. If they select no then they will need to go through the MFA process each time.

For Client profiles established after 5/21: The first time your client logins into the portal they will be asked to change their password and register an email address that can be used for multifactor authentication.

Your clients can change the email they use for MFA at any time by logging into the client portal, clicking on my profile and update their mail address.

If you have any questions about the new MFA process you can reach out to investigo directly at 866-209-2440.

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Maple Capital May Fixed Income Commentary Now Available

“After rising for three straight months, bond yields declined a bit (9 to 12 basis points) in April. As in the prior months, most of the action involved the 5 year Treasury and longer points on the yield curve. The short end of the yield curve, from overnight rates to the 5 year, remains anchored by Fed policy which is expected to remain unchanged into next year or perhaps longer. The total return for the Bloomberg Barclays Intermediate Aggregate Bond Index was 0.52% for the month, which was the first positive result this year.”

Click here to read the full commentary.

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