Let's Talk ETFs

The latest episode of Let's Talk ETFs sees iShares' Danny Prince rejoin the podcast to try and help investors save money on their tax bill. One of his key messages is that while ETFs are famously tax efficient relative to their cousins in the mutual fund space, how you use exchange traded funds to tax manage is just as important as the underlying tax efficiency inherent in many of these investing vehicles.
Topics covered

3:00 - Why do investors overlook the tax efficiency aspect of ETFs?

Understanding how investments are taxed: 

7:00 - Capital Gains

9:30 - Qualified vs. non-qualified dividends

11:30 - Tax-deferred vs. non-tax-deferred accounts

14:00 - What do we mean when we say ETFs are “tax efficient”? And why is this the case?

18:15 - Why are mutual funds much more likely to pay out capital gains than ETFs?

21:30 - 2018 was a record year for mutual fund capital gains payouts; ETFs remained significantly more tax efficient over the same period 

Beyond equities: Tax rules for other asset classes and fund structures:

27:00 - What does it mean when a bond fund is listed as being “tax-free”? Muni bond ETFs

28:30 - ETFs that hold physical commodities are generally taxed as collectibles (IAU) (GLD) (SLV) 

30:30 - Taxing futures-based ETFs: The 60/40 rule

32:00 - Limited partnership funds and the tax man: Schedule k-1 forms

Tax management strategies:

34:30 - Tax loss harvesting

36:00 - The Wash Sale rule (IVV) (SPY)

38:00 - Knowing which assets belong in tax-deferred vs. non-tax-deferred accounts

40:15 - In summation: Investors need to be more conscious of how taxes can affect their bottom line


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Making sense of turbulent global markets in actionable ways can be challenging in any environment - and the current market environment is certainly no exception. As Director of Macro ETF Strategy at Invesco, Jason Bloom's job is to provide investors with a range of strategies for navigating any market. On the latest episode of Let's Talk ETFs, Jason wades through the current macro environment, before taking listeners on a tour of Invesco's vast product lineup with some practical implications.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By Jonathan Liss

After Victor Haghani and I did a bit of a take-down on Smart Beta back in early September, I thought it only fair to take a step back and properly articulate the case for utilizing factor investing strategies within well diversified portfolios. And who better to lead this endeavor than the Head of iShares Factor ETF Strategy for BlackRock’s U.S. Wealth Advisory iShares business, Bob Hum. In his role, Bob focuses on supporting iShares clients, generating content on Factors and how clients can implement them within their portfolios.
Bob has a unique way of explaining some of the more complex concepts underlying factor investing in simple, straightforward terms, without dumbing things down at all. The result is a far-reaching conversation that recognizes some of the limits of factor investing without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Because warts and all, there's certainly a lot of benefits to be conferred by utilizing smart beta strategies within a low cost, tax efficient ETF wrapper. I hope you find this conversation as enlightening as I did.  
Topics covered:
2:30 - Bob's backstory: What drew him to financial markets and ETFs3:40 - Getting basic definitions in place: What is factor investing?6:00 - Smart Beta or Factor Investing?8:00 - What are the main types of factor investing?9:45 - Size10:20 - Style/Value11:35 - Low volatility12:45 - Momentum13:45 - Quality14:30 - What does the persistence of factors say about markets being efficient?16:00 - Why does factor investing work? Structural, behavioral and risk-based explanations18:15 - How should investors think about when different factors flash conflicting signals on the same stock?25:30 - Benchmarking factor performance: Selecting the correct index is crucial28:00 - Why have ETFs been so central to the growth of factor investing31:00 - A brief history of factor investing: Evaluating additional factors for inclusion in broad-based portfolio strategies37:10 - Beyond equity factors: Applying factor investing strategies to other asset classes40:00 - Constructing factor portfolios: Two approaches (LRGF) (USMV)42:30 - New approaches to factor investing in an ETF wrapper: BlackRock U.S. Equity Factor Rotation ETF (DYNF)
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's guest on Let's Talk ETFs is the Founder, President and Director of Research & ETFs at Hoya Capital Real Estate, Alex Pettee. Hoya Capital Real Estate is a Connecticut-based registered investment advisor that is working to make real estate investing more accessible to all investors. In that vein, Hoya Capital advises ETFs and individual accounts by investing in portfolios of publicly traded commercial and residential real estate companies.
Alex also goes by the moniker Hoya Capital Real Estate here at Seeking Alpha. He’s been a contributing author since 2015 - around the time he founded Hoya Capital - building up a following of more than 12,000 investors with his unparalleled analysis of the U.S. real estate market. Last month, he joined the team at the iREIT on Alphamarketplace service, run by Brad Thomas, to provide the macro side of the real estate investing equation.
In March of this year, Alex launched the Hoya Capital Housing ETF (HOMZ), which is really the first fund to offer exposure to the entire U.S. housing market in a single fund. Going beyond the homebuilders and mortgage REITs that are included in many housing ETFs, HOMZ includes the entirety of industries related to housing including home improvement and furnishing names, mortgage lenders, financing and technology companies in the portfolio, which tracks the Hoya Capital 100.
During a wide-ranging conversation, we cover the U.S. housing market from both a top-down and bottom-up perspective.
Topics covered:

3:00- Hoya Capital’s Backstory: How’d Alex become “obsessed” with real estate as an asset class and come to launch the Hoya Capital Housing ETF (HOMZ)5:45 - A year of firsts: Alex joins the the iREIT on Alpha Seeking Alpha Marketplace service as the “Macro real estate” specialist10:20 - Lower rates vs. recession concerns: Which trend has the upper hand in the U.S. housing market?18:15- When will the backlog of “deferred household formations” among Gens X and Y finally enter the housing market?22:15 - Viewing current homebuilder valuations in light of the massive run-up YTD (XHB) (ITB)24:40- Current dynamics in the rental market (REZ)29:55- HOMZ - The entire U.S. housing market in a single ETF33:00- Looking under the hood: Understanding sector caps and weighting’s within HOMZ37:30 - HOMZ: More of a capital appreciation or an income play?40:40 - Creating an ex-U.S. equivalent to HOMZ is harder than it seems43:45- In search of a higher quality higher yield real estate product45:45 - Maintaining a fair playing field in the ETF space
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to Blockforce Capital and Reality Shares founder and CEO Eric Ervin, with a new technology that has the potential to be as widely adopted and profitable as blockchain, "it's better to be early than late to the party".
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

iShares fixed income specialist Karen Schenone joins the latest episode of Let's Talk ETFs for an in-depth look at the inner workings of bond ETFs.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Investing Edge is a podcast channel on Seeking Alpha that features shows from different Seeking Alpha authors, with a focus on their unique investing style. Authors will speak with CEOs and industry experts, break down key market stories and topics, and share insights on how they research new investments.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deborah Fuhr, Managing Partner and Founder of ETFGI, joins the latest episode of Let's Talk ETFs. Debbie is also a founding member of Women in ETFs, or “WE”, the first women’s group for the ETF industry. In the wide-ranging conversation that follows, we touch on everything from differences in the U.S. and European ETF markets, potential pitfalls currently facing ETFs' greater adoption globally, and burgeoning trends like smart beta, ESG, the proliferation of niche thematic funds, and much more. 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wide-ranging conversation that follows, we discuss Mak F.s.' top income ideas for the current macro environment, best practices in fund selection, his favorite thematic ETF and much more.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can one of the most popular investing strategies of the last decade live up to the hype? Victor Haghani of Salomon Brothers and Long Term Capital Management fame joins the podcast as we pull back the curtain on smart beta and try to determine whether past really is prologue when it comes to one of today's most popular investing strategies.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices