This week’s guest has experienced multiple economic and market cycles during his more than 50 years of managing money and thinks the current one is particularly perilous for investors. In an exclusive WEALTHTRACK appearance, he felt it was important to tell us why and what steps we should consider taking to mitigate its effects.

Feb 25, 2023

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/874964/000093041323000476/c105767_497.htm
497 1 c105767_497.htm
THE LAZARD FUNDS, INC.
Lazard Emerging Market Debt Portfolio
Supplement to Current Summary Prospectus and Prospectus
The Board of Directors of The Lazard Funds, Inc. (the “Fund”) has approved the liquidation of Lazard Emerging Market Debt Portfolio (the “Portfolio”).
No further investments are being accepted into the Portfolio, except for investments by certain brokers or other financial intermediaries or employee benefit or retirement plans (acting on behalf of their clients or participants) with pre-existing investments in the Portfolio pursuant to an agreement or other arrangement with the Fund, the Distributor or another agent of the Fund regarding Portfolio investments. Promptly upon completion of liquidation of the Portfolio’s investments, the Portfolio will redeem all its outstanding shares by distribution of its assets to shareholders in amounts equal to the net asset value of each shareholder’s Portfolio investment. It is anticipated that the Portfolio’s assets will be distributed to shareholders on or about April 25, 2023.
Prior to the liquidation of the Portfolio, depending on the arrangements of any broker or other financial intermediary associated with your account through which Portfolio shares are held, the Fund’s exchange privilege may allow you to exchange shares of the Portfolio for shares of the same Class of another series of the Fund in an identically registered account. Please see the section of the Prospectus entitled “Shareholder Information—Investor Services—Exchange Privilege” for more information.
Dated: February 24, 2023

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915802/000139834423004073/fp0082418-1_497.htm
497 1 fp0082418-1_497.htm
FINANCIAL INVESTORS TRUST
Grandeur Peak Emerging Markets Opportunities Fund
Grandeur Peak Global Contrarian Fund
Grandeur Peak Global Explorer Fund
Grandeur Peak Global Micro Cap Fund
Grandeur Peak Global Opportunities Fund
Grandeur Peak Global Reach Fund
Grandeur Peak Global Stalwarts Fund
Grandeur Peak International Opportunities Fund
Grandeur Peak International Stalwarts Fund
Grandeur Peak US Stalwarts Fund
(each, a “Fund”)
Supplement dated February 23, 2023 to the
Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information,
each dated August 31, 2022, as supplemented
The Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of Financial Investors Trust (the “Trust”), based upon the recommendation of Grandeur Peak Global Advisors, LLC, the investment adviser to the Funds, approved the proposed reorganization of each Fund into correspondingly named series of Grandeur Peak Funds Trust (each, a “New Fund”), subject in each case to the approval of the shareholders of the relevant existing Fund (each, a “Reorganization”).
The Board also approved an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization and Termination (the “Plan”) that provides that each existing Fund will assign all of its assets to the corresponding New Fund, in exchange solely for (1) the number of the New Fund shares equivalent in value to shares of the relevant existing Fund outstanding immediately prior to the closing date of the Reorganization, and (2) the New Fund’s assumption of all of the relevant existing Fund’s liabilities, followed by a distribution of those shares to such existing Fund’s shareholders so that the existing Fund’s shareholders receive shares of the corresponding New Fund equivalent in value to the shares of the existing Fund held by such shareholder on the closing date of the Reorganization. Each Reorganization is intended to qualify as a tax-free reorganization for federal income tax purposes.
The Trust will hold a shareholder meeting on or about April 12, 2023, as may be adjourned, at which shareholders of each existing Fund as of February 22, 2023 will be asked to consider and vote on the Plan. If shareholders of each Fund approve the Reorganization with respect to that Fund, the Reorganizations are expected to take effect in or around June 2023.
Shareholders of each existing Fund will receive a combined prospectus/proxy statement with additional information about the shareholders meeting, the Reorganizations, and the New Funds. Please read these materials carefully, as they will contain a more detailed description of the Reorganizations.
Please retain this supplement with your Prospectus and
Statement of Additional Information.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/915802/000139834423004075/fp0082418-3_497.htm
97 1 fp0082418-3_497.htm
FINANCIAL INVESTORS TRUST
Rondure New World Fund
Rondure Overseas Fund
(each, a “Fund”)
Supplement dated February 23, 2023 to the
Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information,
each dated August 31, 2022, as supplemented
The Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of Financial Investors Trust (the “Trust”), based upon the recommendation of Rondure Global Advisors, LLC, the investment adviser to the Funds, approved the proposed reorganization of each Fund into correspondingly named series of Northern Lights Fund Trust III (each, a “New Fund”), subject in each case to the approval of the shareholders of the relevant existing Fund (each, a “Reorganization”).
The Board also approved an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization and Termination (the “Plan”) that provides that each existing Fund will assign all of its assets to the corresponding New Fund, in exchange solely for (1) the number of the New Fund shares equivalent in value to shares of the relevant existing Fund outstanding immediately prior to the closing date of the Reorganization, and (2) the New Fund’s assumption of all of the relevant existing Fund’s liabilities, followed by a distribution of those shares to such existing Fund’s shareholders so that the existing Fund’s shareholders receive shares of the corresponding New Fund equivalent in value to the shares of the existing Fund held by such shareholder on the closing date of the Reorganization. Each Reorganization is intended to qualify as a tax-free reorganization for federal income tax purposes.
The Trust will hold a shareholder meeting on or about April 12, 2023, as may be adjourned, at which shareholders of each existing Fund as of February 22, 2023 will be asked to consider and vote on the Plan. If shareholders of each Fund approve the Reorganization with respect to that Fund, the Reorganizations are expected to take effect in or around June 2023.
Shareholders of each existing Fund will receive a combined prospectus/proxy statement with additional information about the shareholders meeting, the Reorganizations, and the New Funds. Please read these materials carefully, as they will contain a more detailed description of the Reorganizations.
Please retain this supplement with your Prospectus and
Statement of Additional Information.
New filing:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1537140/000158064223000969/rondure_485a.htm

”Enthusiasm for bonds is proving to be a bonanza for BlackRock’s fixed-income exchange traded funds, which have attracted more investor cash since US interest rates started rising than all their competitors combined.BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, is capitalising on growing interest among wealth managers and other asset managers in using ETFs instead of or in addition to buying bonds directly. From March last year to the end of January, there were $146bn net flows into BlackRock’s fixed-income ETFs, while competitors took in $134bn.
“Bond ETFs have been a bright spot for BlackRock after a year when its overall assets under management shrank by nearly 15 per cent to $8.6tn. Chief executive Larry Fink considers them a main driver of revenue growth. BlackRock predicts that bond ETF assets industry-wide will more than double from $1.8tn now to $5tn in 2030. The increases are being driven by regulatory changes, investors’ growing comfort with the way they perform in volatile markets and creative uses of them by wealth managers and even other bond funds.”

Financial Times - February 17, 2023
I was able to access the article one time online using my DuckGo browser. Good luck. As I posted in OT, a subscription to the Financial Times via Amazon’s Kindle service can now be had for a modest $7.99 monthly. I am a subscriber. ISTM the articles in the Kindle edition publish a day or two later than they appear online, however.

LarryB - agreed. Nobody knows nuttin' and markets will fluctuate. Only things you can do is either stick your head in the sand (and money in the mattress) or stay in the game and remember the markets are like flying in a plane: control what you can about the trip (eg, choice of airline, seat/class, etc) but understand that there may well be some turbulence along the flight ... and while it could be scary at times, the only way out of it is through it.
That said, I do wonder what younger financial advisors/planners/brokers are feeling or acting during market swoons and what they can advise clients outside of algorithmically-generated allocation recommendations ... for the past 20 years they've pretty much only known ZIRP environments, fed-puts, and no prolonged periods of inflation, stagflation, or chaos.
(But your point is well-taken: I had an 8%-ish condo mortgage back in 2000 (obtained via, of all places, Priceline.Com and very quickly paid off) which until recently was considered exhorbitant and OMGTERRIBLE.) Current rates are still better than what we had back then!

It’s odd because I often hear from the usual pundits that any attempts to tax people or regulate industry are socialist and anti-American, but I can’t think of anything quite so anti-American on the right wing as crypto. Its existence is an attempt to undermine and circumvent the U.S. dollar, and what could be more American than our sawbucks? Our currency is arguably the most powerful representation of America worldwide, and if the dollar fails as the world reserve currency it doesn’t bode well for us as a superpower.
Perhaps that is the actual value of crypto as an investment— it represents a belief and perhaps even a hope that America will fail. I don’t think it’s an accident by the way that Russia has become intensely interested in crypto. It is a nation state and currency weapon of mass destruction, like investing in a missile pointed at the dollar. The problem with even that thesis is America has ample financial and legal means to defend itself against crypto. One of them is interest rates. A lot of investors want dollars now so they can buy T-bills, CDs and money markets yielding almost 5%. You get 0% on your crypto investment, and any entity issuing yield-paying debt on crypto would be of dubious credit quality versus the government which has taxing authority to pay its bills, the financial terrorists in Congress notwithstanding.
Then there are the legal defenses. As Yogibearbull rightly pointed out, it wouldn’t be too hard for regulators to clamp down on crypto for attempting to muscle in on the dollar. Moreover, if blockchain technology is the most interesting and valuable aspect of crypto—and I believe it is—it wouldn’t be too hard to use that technology for our existing all-American much beloved dollar.

Why model portfolios won’t help you to succeed in the stock market.

February 14, 2016|by Pat McKeough
1978, 1998, 2007, 2016 or 2023...............a model is a model. Everyone has a 'model' in their head, dependent upon one's financial goals and means to arrive at that goal. The assumption of an 'investing model' of being only the stock market is 'strange'. Market investments are models of some form.
VWINX operated by Vanguard/Wellesley is a model for a conservative investment.
Not including taxes and inflation since its inception in 1970, the fund has a 15 year return of 6.30% and a lifetime return of 9.30%.
@Alban Maintain reading and studying, remain curious to help with learning. All of us here are 'still' learning. As with your post, continue to ask the proper question in hopes of finding a proper answer.
--- Strictly my opinions, of course.

@sma3 Interesting. Thanks for your response. I am a reporter for a financial news outlet. Would you be interested in speaking on-the-record about this for a larger story? If so, I can offer my email or number. Thank you.

Thanks all for the above insights!
Kolanivak isn’t just another market pundit. As a spokesman for the investment arm of JPMorgan Chase he commands a very high stature. If size and financial influence of company or institution is considered, the advice might be seen to carry more weight and be of superior quality. One would expect advice from such a giant to move markets. Their advice feels incrementally different from that of smaller money managers like Charles Schwab, T. Rowe Price or Invesco.
From Wikipedia: ”JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational financial services company … the largest bank in the United States and the world's largest bank by market capitalization. The firm is considered systemically important by the Financial Stability Board (which) has led to enhanced regulatory oversight …” (Wikipedia)
Here’s an indication of the relative sizes of some financial institutions by market cap:
J.P. Morgan Chase $418 Billion
Bank of America $283 Billion
Charles Schwab $150.77 Billion
T Rowe Price $26.4 Billion
Invesco $8.4 Billion

I have been trying to find out more about model portfolios now that Morningstar provides a lot of data on them. At first sight, they seem to be beneficial for both investors and financial advisers, but they are unregulated, which can create problems. I came across this article. It is very critical of model portfolios and raises a number of issues. I wonder if people here have come across any of these questionable practices in broker model portfolios. Thanks, Alban

Supposedly the buy-side and sell-side 'analysts' don't coordinate the timing of release of their guidance, but I still don't trust Wall Street to play fair, even if it's the law or SEC regulation. A Chinese-firewall sort of thing, I think.
Nevertheless, a good rule of thumb is that when Joe/Jane Retail Investor see something in the media or as a research note from their firm, the information's already long-since known by others with far deeper pockets so it's not a surprise to everyone and depending on what's discussed, the 'easy' money could already have been made.
An even better rule of thumb is to never act blindly on what big-bank 'analysts' and prominent CIOs put out no matter how loudly their prognostications might be. You could've made a fortune fading (taking the opposite position) on such statements from, for example, Goldman's various CIOs over the years or Cramer's TV picks. Frankly, to me, the more I see them on TV or the financial press/social media, the less credence I give them.
By contrast, senior investment analysts or CIOs who eschew the media and rarely do interviews or make prognostications, or smaller folks running tiny funds or doing newsletter analysis might be worth paying more attention to in terms of their assessments and opinions - such as David Giroux of TRP or Jason Kelly. But even there, you still have to do your own diligence!

Congress passed a massive year-end spending bill that included enhancements to retirement savings known as the SECURE Act 2.0. These changes build on the SECURE Act of 2019 and address issues that were not part of the original act, with the ultimate goal of increasing retirement preparedness for Americans.
McLean is hosting a webinar to provide insight into the meaningful changes brought by this new legislation. Moderated by Brian Bass, you will hear from McLean thought leaders Wade Pfau, Rob Cordeau, and Jason Rizkallah as we discuss what has changed and what financial planning opportunities are possible due to SECURE Act 2.0.
Topics include:
Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)
529 College Savings Plans
Qualified retirement plans - both Traditional and Roth
Charitable planning
SEP and SIMPLE Roth accounts
Employer contributions to Roth accounts
Updates to benefit retirement savings

webinar secure act 2.0

The thing about a properly run S&P 500 index fund is the unknowns are “known unknowns.” We never know how the market will perform in the future, but if you own a low cost index fund that tracks the market well, you know you will get that market return. That brings a certain level of comfort psychologically that other strategies do not bring, and that comfort enables many investors, especially unsophisticated ones, to stick with their investment strategies to achieve their financial goals.
But with any other strategy, the truly unknown unknowns can upset investors. When the active or smart beta fund is underperforming the market, many investors get upset and sell, often at the worst time near the bottom. And when the fund is outperforming the market, investors can’t help chasing that performance, and buy, again often at the worst time, near the peak. I’ve seen such performance chasing even with sophisticated investors, sometimes even on this board. A number of studies reveal how investor returns in funds are often significantly less than the funds themselves because of such poor timing. This is especially so in volatile but top-performing funds. Investors tend to fare better in low-volatility active and smart-beta strategies. In this way, SCHD could still work for the patient long-term investor. Just don’t assume the moon.

The other new twist is you can convert up to $200,000 ( used to be $160,000 I think) or 25% of your IRA into a QLAC tax free, so you can lower your RMD. I have not dug into it yet, but I think you can pick an annuity date at anytime in the future, and one that would still return money to your heirs.

I feel that deferred income annuities are one of the rare positive innovations in financial services in years. But that doesn't make QLACs a great idea.
As Kitces wrote in 2015, using QLACs for the purpose of reducing RMDs, doesn't pay off. It's their value as longevity insurance, not as an RMD reduction mechanism, that makes them worthwhile.
https://www.kitces.com/blog/why-a-qlac-in-an-ira-is-a-terrible-way-to-defer-the-required-minimum-distribution-rmd-obligation/
He also suggested that the 25% limit helped people to avoid a liquidity squeeze - where they didn't have enough left in their IRA to fund retirement before their deferred annuity started monthly payments.
What SECURE 2.0 changed:
- instead of a $125K limit, adjusted for inflation (that's where the $160K figure comes from), it is reset to $200K, still adjusted for inflation;
- the 25% limit is removed
- QLAC monthly payments, once they begin, can be used to satisfy not only the RMD requirement of the annuity but also of the remaining IRA balance, potentially lowering the RMD withdrawals required of the non-annuity portion of the IRA.
https://www.klgates.com/SECURE-20-Act-Legislation-Includes-Significant-Changes-to-Individual-Retirement-Accounts-1-31-2023
What did not change:
- must start payments by age 85
- return of principal to heirs is permitted
Original QLAC regs

@TheShadow, are those Hennessy Financial Funds remnants of the prior (old) FBR Funds?

Bank of Princeton was to be acquired some years ago by Investors Bank in NJ; however, the deal fell through. Investors was later acquired by Citizen Financial Group early last year.
Earnings news release from the SEC website:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1913971/000119312523016226/d441956dex991.htm

There is Hennessy Large Cap Financial and Small Cap Financial Funds.
https://go.hennessyfunds.com/Hennessy-Large-Cap-Financial-Fund-Q3-Holdings.pdf
https://go.hennessyfunds.com/Hennessy-Small-Cap-Financial-Fund-Q3-Holdings.pdf
If you don't mind a load fund, there is RMB Mendon Financial Services Fund also.
https://rmbfunds.com/sites/default/files/2023-01/2022-12-31 Holdings - RMB Mendon Financial Services Fund.pdf

Great to see he's adding some support for the fund. This helps assuage my concerns that they might liquidate it because of its small size. Not that much info that I can find on Brent Clayton. Found this:
"Brent Clayton has been investing in frontier and emerging markets equities for the past ten years at LR Global, a boutique asset management firm that spun out of the Rockefeller family office. He joined LR Global as an equity analyst in 2007 and became a co-portfolio manager in 2012 in conjunction with the launch of the firm’s Frontier Markets -dedicated equity strategy. He also has helped build, train, and manage a Hanoi-based fundamental research team in support of this fund.
Brent received a B.A., cum laude, from Dartmouth College with a concentration in Government and a minor in Portuguese. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder."

I have also read that Powell was added LATE to the agenda of Economic Club in DC, and the purpose is to CORRCT some impressions - intended or unintended - at the last FOMC presser. So, the above + his WRONG comment about financial conditions that he said remain tough, but have moderated in the last few months.