Mike Nudelman/Business Insider
Advisor busted for lying about Winklevoss ties (Reuters)
Arun Ganguly pleaded guilty to scheming to defraud, grand larceny and identity theft after deceiving "people from coast to coast by completely fabricating his past experience, personal wealth and ability to fund their companies," according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance. Ganguly forged documents and created false emails as part of the scheme while also suggesting the Winklevoss twins would pay a finders' fee if he was able to find a foreign buyer for Facebook shares. He is facing between 2 and 6 years in prison.
The potential impact of a Puerto Rico default on muni bonds (Charles Schwab)
Earlier this month Standard and Poor's downgraded Puerto Rico's general obligation bonds further into junk territory. The downgrade pushed the country's debt rating down to to 'Caa1' and 'B' on concerns of a slowing economy and crumbling economic conditions. According to Charles Schwab, "Approximately 30% of muni mutual funds have holdings in Puerto Rico." Schwab suggests that while the worst is likely priced in, the buying the debt is extremely risky and should only be purchased by those who have a high appetite for risk.
Calpers will pay money managers less (Investment News)
Calpers will reduce the amount of fees it pays money managers by 8% as it winds down its hedge fund program. The pension fund expects to pay $100 million less in fees in 2015 before shutting down the program completely in about a year.
4 changes in technology for advisors (Financial Planning)
Financial Planning notes four big changes in advisor technology were discussed at the Technology Tools for Today Conference. The publication suggests Fidelity bought eMoney due to its "expertise in account aggregation and advisor/client portals," but that the technology could be used in other areas as well. Although eMoney has typically been used for financial planning, the Fidelity deal sets up its emX Select to be used as a platform. Finding ways to compete against robo advisors was also a popular topic at the conference. According to Financial Planning, "Northstar (Orion/CLS), eMoney, MoneyGuidePro, Advicent, RiXtrema and Riskalyze are among the firms with products and services aimed at helping advisors compete effectively against the B2C robo advisor platforms. " Finally, the conference several companies unveil impressive planning software. MoneyGuidePro, Advicent, and FinanceLogix all unveiled new products.
The market is pricing in six rate hikes through 2016 (Advisor Perspectives)
Gavekal Capital notes the Fed Funds futures market is suggesting 50 basis points of rate hikes by the end of 2015. The firm notes the market has become a bit more hawkish as the year has progressed as trading in January expected 37.5 basis points of hikes by year end. Looking out to the end of 2016, market expectations are for 141 basis points worth of rate hikes.