Also, RIA in a Box introduces a cybersecurity platform for advisors.
JMP OppZone Services has launched an opportunity zone platform. The administrative platform is designed for investors, project sponsors and entrepreneurs who want to get involved in this new type of tax-advantaged investment.
“Navigating the regulations, creating workable investment structures and dealing with the investment timing requirements [of opportunity zones] can be challenging,” said Samuel Weiser, CEO of JMP OppZone Services, in a statement. “JMP’s primary goal is to create efficiency, transparency and scalability for OZ investors and sponsors looking to capitalize on the new law.”
The platform delivers due diligence, consulting, business support services, administration services and investor compliance for tax regulation.
It allows investors to identify opportunity zone investments and make direct investments across multiple zones, with options to self-direct investment or invest jointly with other families and individuals. Sponsors using the platform will have the ability to pool capital while reducing operational and compliance risk, according to Weiser.
RIA in a Box Launches Cybersecurity Platform
The new platform complements the firm’s MyRIA Compliance solution, empowering RIAs to design, implement and document a cybersecurity program within a single interface.
The platform is designed for firms of all sizes and is focused on the human side of cybersecurity, providing security awareness training, email phishing attack simulation, technology inventory and risk assessment. It also offers firms the ability to build a customized information security policy and includes a vendor due diligence tool announced previously at this year’s T3 conference.
“Helping firms strengthen their cybersecurity policies and awareness of vulnerabilities will not only help advisors sleep better at night but provide their clients added confidence that their personal information is security,” said GJ King, president at RIA in a Box.
The new cybersecurity platform can be purchased as a standalone subscription or bundled as part of a firm’s MyRIA Compliance subscription.
North Capital Introduces Evisor Platform
The Salt Lake City-based RIA, which provides financial planning and portfolio management to individuals, families, businesses and nonprofits has introduced a free financial planning platform for individual investors to access online called evisor.com.
Uses can create a customized financial review that incorporates the firm’s proprietary “Lifetime Financial Analysis” tool, but for a 0.25% annual fee the users can open an investment account for North Capital to manage and monitor. An additional fee is involved to access an investment advisor on planning questions not addressed by the online tool. All assets are custodied at Charles Schwab.
Long/Short ETF Debuts With Focus on Undervalued/Overvalued Stocks
The Acquirers Fund (ZIG) is marketing itself as a “true deep value” fund whose long positions are in stocks that “are much more than ‘cheap’ [but] “also have strong, liquid balance sheets, and a robust business capable of generating free cash flows, and more.”
The ETF will hold long positions in companies it deems deeply, truly undervalued and fundamentally strong targets of buyout firms and activist investors who want to force a major corporate change. It will also hold short positions in companies it deems overvalued and financially weak.
The 130/30 long/short strategy tracks the performance of The Acquirer’s Index, which consists of the 30 most deeply undervalued, fundamentally strong stocks and the 30 most overvalued and fundamentally weak stocks that are included in the rules-based index. The index chooses stocks from the largest 25% of U.S.-listed stocks by market cap. ZIG trades on the NYSE Arca and has an expense ratio of 0.94%.
VanEck Launches Muni ETF
The VanEck Vectors Municipal Bond ETF (MAAX) is the latest addition to the firm’s suite of Guided Allocation Funds.
MAXX is an actively managed ETF that seeks to reduce duration and/or credit risk during appropriate times by adjusting allocations primarily among VanEck Vectors municipal exchange-traded products, including the firm’s high-yield, short high-yield, AMT-free long, AMT-free intermediate and AMT-free short municipal index ETFs. Allocations are adjusted based on interest rate and credit opportunities.
The fund seeks maximum total return and income and has a total expense ratio of 0.36%.
ThinkAdvisor
By Bernice Napach | May 20, 2019 at 10:14 AM