ETFs may be ideally suited to retail investors’ needs, but many financial advisers don’t fully understand them

Most investors need income, which is why bonds still have an important role to play in portfolios despite low interest rates. But fund selectors must pay attention to liquidity 

Family offices’ long-term investment horizons make them ideally suited to private equity investing, but many lack the internal expertise to succeed in the asset class, creating an opportunity for third-party investment boutiques

Sarasin & Partners, pioneers of the long-term thematic approach to investing, see plenty of opportunity in US equities, while also highlighting European and Japanese exporters 

The European large-cap equity exchange traded funds sector has benefitted from the return to favour of European equities, while iShares continues to dominate the European ETF market

The potential of higher interest rates and a slowdown in the global economy should be bad news for high yield bonds, but default rates remain low and many believe the sector is well placed to ride out market volatility 

In the hands of concentrated managers, portfolios can outperform benchmark indices even in the highly efficient US equity market

Wealth managers do not have to be talented futurologists to know that the rebalancing of the global economy means higher volatility.