Cetera To Offer Affiliates Access To YCharts Platform
Cetera Financial Group is now offering its affiliates access to YCharts, a cloud-based investment research platform for wealth advisors and asset managers. The platform helps users track the markets without the use of terminals, enabling them to streamline investment research and client communications workflows while saving valuable time.
YCharts offers data, visualization tools and advanced analytics for equity, mutual fund and ETF research as well as for portfolio construction, idea generation and market monitoring.
According to Cetera, it requires technology vendors such as YCharts to demonstrate key value-adds to practices’ operations and meet rigorous compliance and security standards.
Cetera oversaw approximately $330 billion in assets under administration and $116 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2023. The company has about 8,000 financial advisors, according to Financial Advisor’s B-D survey.
Nuveen Adds Income For Life To Qualifying DC Plans
Nuveen, the Chicago-based investment manager for TIAA, has introduced a target-date solution for defined contribution plans that offers plan participants guaranteed savings growth during their working years, as well as the ability to set aside a portion of savings for guaranteed monthly payments that last for an investor’s life in retirement.
The Nuveen Lifecycle Income Series is an extension of the Nuveen Lifecycle target-date fund platform. Structured as collective investments trusts available only to qualified retirement plans, the series embeds the TIAA Secure Income Account, a deferred fixed annuity, within a familiar target-date fund series.
The series includes three TDF strategies: Nuveen Lifecycle Income Index (which includes all passive investments); Nuveen Lifecycle Income Blend (which includes a blend of active and passive investments); and Nuveen Lifecycle Income Active (which includes all active investments).
The TIAA Secure Income Account allocation within the collective investment trust is protected from losing value and grows no matter what the market does. At retirement, a participant has the option to turn some or all their savings in the TDF into a monthly “paycheck” for life.
LPL Adds Direct Indexing To Its Wealth Portfolios Platform
LPL Financial is now offering affiliate advisors direct indexing within the firm’s Model Wealth Portfolios unified managed account program.
Direct indexing can help make trading investment strategies more tax efficient, while also creating personalized outcomes for clients. The offering is accessible through the new custom-indexed, separately managed account solutions in the Model Wealth Portfolios platform, offering a foundation for powerful tax and portfolio management capabilities.
The custom index separately managed accounts, designed by LPL Research using MSCI indexes, will have minimums of $100,000, and will include large-cap, small-cap and mid-cap equities, as well as international equity options.
Handwrytten Adds AI Assist For Personalized Messaging
Handwrytten, a notes service in Tempe, Ariz., has launched a new artificial intelligence feature that helps users generate notes written by machine to mimic handwritten correspondence.
Handwrytten AI Assist can be used to send notes, including thank-you notes for gifts, apology notes or condolence messages. The feature can also be used as a networking tool for professionals and businesses looking to make a personal connection.
The company says the script on its notes is indistinguishable from real human handwriting. There are 23 handwriting styles from which to choose, but for a onetime fee, users can upload their own handwriting and signature for a truly personalized style. Users can select from more than 100 card designs or they can design their own online.
The pricing starts at just $3.25 to send one Handwrytten note, with discounts for bulk orders and subscriptions.
Find out more at Handwrytten.com or download the Handwrytten app.
CFP Board Debuts Companion Guide To Psychology Book
The CFP Board has released a new book published by ALM that complements the 2022 offering The Psychology of Financial Planning.
The new publication, The Psychology of Financial Planning: Practitioner Resource Guide, equips CFP professionals with tools designed to integrate the psychology of financial planning into their practice. The guide offers step-by-step guides, do-and-don’t lists, practical exercises, assessments and examples.
The book can be read after or in conjunction with The Psychology of Financial Planning. An ebook and printed version can be purchased on the CFP Board’s website at CFP.net/psychology. Bulk pricing is available.
Snappy Kraken, Idea Decanter Offer Video Marketing For Advisors
Snappy Kraken, a marketing tech firm for advisors, has joined with video producer Idea Decanter to offer advisors video strategies that will fuel their business success and also enable them to preserve their unique voice and message. Snappy Kraken’s “Personal Connection Videos” give advisors a streamlined approach to creating and promoting videos at scale.
With access to pre-built campaigns, advisors can personalize and record videos using provided scripts and distribute them across email and social media channels.
Find out more at www.snappykraken.com.