Advisor Perspectives, a leading publisher serving financial advisors and the financial advisory community, has announced its Venerated Voices™ awards for commentaries published in 2019. Rankings were issued in four categories: The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm and Author, the Top 10 Venerated Voices™ by Commentary, and a new category, The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm and Author by Count.
The most popular topics in 2019 among were related to the threat of a recession, the federal debt burden and unwarranted speculation. Other popular topics included market volatility, oil prices and behavioral investing.
Leading the Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm category was Blackstone of New York City, followed by Hussman Funds of Maryland. In third place was Mauldin Economics.
Among individual commentators, the most-widely read was John Hussman of Hussman Funds. In second place was Byron Wien of Blackstone followed by Richard Bernstein of Richard Bernstein Advisors.
The most-widely read commentary of 2019, published on April 29th, was Page Two by Jeffrey Saut. In his first letter after leaving Raymond James, he praised small-cap stocks, discussed the current market highs, and gave his stocks and mutual fund investment ideas.
Ben Inker and John Thorndike of GMO took second place with the GMO Quarterly Letter, published January 25th. In it, Inker bemoaned the losses of 2018 and looked forward to a 5%+ return on portfolios in 2019. He detailed possibilities for asset allocations within a portfolio and discussed GMO’s process.
In third place was The Ten Surprises of 2019 by Byron Wien of Blackstone, published on January 3rd. In this piece, Wien analyzed each of his 2019 predictions from his annual letter for 2018. The majority of his predictions were correct, but a few that were off the mark included expectations of oil reaching $80/barrell, increasing inflation and the continuation of the Iran and NAFTA agreements.
Advisor Perspectives’ website currently attracts over 180,000 unique visitors per month, virtually all of them financial advisors serving high- and ultra-high net worth individuals. The company publishes economic and market commentaries submitted by fund companies, advisors and independent research firms. In 2019, over 1,900 such commentaries were published and made available through a daily newsletter, Research Perspectives, which the company emails to its subscribers.
Venerated Voices™ rankings were determined by the number of unique readers of each commentary, using data provided electronically by the third-party web analytics service Google Analytics. The data were normalized using the average score per month or quarter (in the case of annual rankings). For the annual awards for the firm and author, a minimum of three commentaries must have been submitted during the year. Any participant is eligible to receive a quarterly award. Each firm and author is assigned a relative score based on unique pageviews, with a score of 100 equal to average quarterly readership.
Advisor Perspectives was founded in 2007 and is based in Lexington, Massachusetts. In addition to Research Perspectives, it publishes a widely read weekly newsletter, Advisor Perspectives, which contains original articles on the markets, the economy and practice management.
Advisor Perspectives will continue providing quarterly updates to its rankings, as well as issuing annual Venerated Voices™ awards.
The Top 10 Venerated Voices™ by Commentary
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm
|
Rank
|
Firm
|
Score
|
|
1
|
Blackstone
|
592
|
|
2
|
Hussman Funds
|
454
|
|
3
|
Mauldin Economics
|
403
|
|
4
|
Oaktree Capital Management
|
399
|
|
5
|
Saut Strategy
|
375
|
|
6
|
GMO
|
295
|
|
7
|
Evensky & Katz / Foldes Financial Wealth Management
|
239
|
|
8
|
Real Investment Advice
|
234
|
|
9
|
Richard Bernstein Advisors
|
227
|
|
10
|
Charles Schwab
|
196
|
|
11
|
Invesco
|
184
|
|
12
|
Research Affiliates
|
167
|
|
13
|
Nevins Research
|
163
|
|
14
|
Absolute Return Partners
|
156
|
|
15
|
F.A.S.T. Graphs
|
125
|
|
16
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
117
|
|
17
|
The Fat Pitch
|
115
|
|
18
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
113
|
|
19
|
Euro Pacific Capital
|
95
|
|
20
|
Macro Tides
|
94
|
|
21
|
Smith Capital Investors
|
88
|
|
22
|
Calamos Investments
|
88
|
|
23
|
Heartland Advisors
|
86
|
|
24
|
Anderson Griggs
|
84
|
|
25
|
Hennessy Funds
|
82
|
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Firm (minimum twelve posts per year)
|
Rank
|
Firm
|
Score
|
|
1
|
Hussman Funds
|
454
|
|
2
|
Mauldin Economics
|
403
|
|
3
|
Saut Strategy
|
375
|
|
4
|
GMO
|
295
|
|
5
|
Real Investment Advice
|
234
|
|
6
|
Richard Bernstein Advisors
|
227
|
|
7
|
Charles Schwab
|
196
|
|
8
|
Invesco
|
184
|
|
9
|
Absolute Return Partners
|
156
|
|
10
|
F.A.S.T. Graphs
|
125
|
|
11
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
117
|
|
12
|
The Fat Pitch
|
115
|
|
13
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
113
|
|
14
|
Euro Pacific Capital
|
95
|
|
15
|
Confluence Investment Management
|
72
|
|
16
|
BlackRock
|
71
|
|
17
|
Raymond James
|
64
|
|
18
|
Smead Capital Management
|
60
|
|
19
|
PIMCO
|
57
|
|
20
|
Commonwealth Financial Network
|
56
|
|
21
|
Northern Trust
|
56
|
|
22
|
First Trust Advisors
|
56
|
|
23
|
Osterweis Capital Management
|
54
|
|
24
|
Guggenheim Investments
|
52
|
|
25
|
Matthews Asia
|
51
|
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Author
|
Rank
|
Author
|
Firm
|
Score
|
|
1
|
John Hussman
|
Hussman Funds
|
608
|
|
2
|
Byron Wien
|
Blackstone
|
466
|
|
3
|
Richard Bernstein
|
Richard Bernstein Advisors
|
343
|
|
4
|
John Mauldin
|
Mauldin Economics
|
307
|
|
5
|
Lance Roberts
|
Real Investment Advice
|
292
|
|
6
|
Niels Jensen
|
Absolute Return Partners
|
262
|
|
7
|
Liz Ann Sonders
|
Charles Schwab
|
174
|
|
8
|
Liz Ann Sonders, Jeffrey Kleintop, Brad Sorensen
|
Charles Schwab
|
174
|
|
9
|
Howard Marks
|
Oaktree Capital Management
|
159
|
|
10
|
Harold Evensky
|
Evensky & Katz / Foldes Financial Wealth Management
|
145
|
|
11
|
Jim Welsh
|
Macro Tides
|
144
|
|
12
|
Peter Schiff
|
Euro Pacific Capital
|
142
|
|
13
|
Frank Holmes
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
136
|
|
14
|
Chuck Carnevale
|
F.A.S.T. Graphs
|
123
|
|
15
|
Larry Adam
|
Raymond James
|
110
|
|
16
|
Scott Brown
|
Raymond James
|
110
|
|
17
|
Urban Carmel
|
The Fat Pitch
|
109
|
|
18
|
Scott Welch
|
Dynasty Financial Partners
|
107
|
|
19
|
Gary Halbert
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
97
|
|
20
|
John Prichard, Miles Yourman
|
Knightsbridge Asset Management
|
96
|
|
21
|
David Robertson
|
Arete Asset Management
|
92
|
|
22
|
Libby Cantrill
|
PIMCO
|
87
|
|
23
|
Tiffany Wilding
|
PIMCO
|
87
|
|
24
|
Rick Rieder
|
BlackRock
|
76
|
|
25
|
Russ Koesterich
|
BlackRock
|
76
|
The Top 25 Venerated Voices™ by Author (minimum three posts per quarter)
|
Rank
|
Author
|
Firm
|
Score
|
|
1
|
John Hussman
|
Hussman Funds
|
608
|
|
2
|
John Mauldin
|
Mauldin Economics
|
307
|
|
3
|
Lance Roberts
|
Real Investment Advice
|
292
|
|
4
|
Niels Jensen
|
Absolute Return Partners
|
262
|
|
5
|
Liz Ann Sonders
|
Charles Schwab
|
174
|
|
7
|
Liz Ann Sonders, Jeffrey Kleintop, Brad Sorensen
|
Charles Schwab
|
174
|
|
8
|
Frank Holmes
|
U.S. Global Investors
|
136
|
|
9
|
Chuck Carnevale
|
F.A.S.T. Graphs
|
123
|
|
10
|
Scott Brown
|
Raymond James
|
110
|
|
11
|
Larry Adam
|
Raymond James
|
110
|
|
12
|
Urban Carmel
|
The Fat Pitch
|
109
|
|
13
|
Gary Halbert
|
Halbert Wealth Management
|
97
|
|
14
|
Tiffany Wilding
|
PIMCO
|
87
|
|
15
|
Russ Koesterich
|
BlackRock
|
76
|
|
16
|
Bryce Coward
|
Knowledge Leaders Capital
|
71
|
|
17
|
Steven Vannelli
|
Knowledge Leaders Capital
|
71
|
|
18
|
Brian Wesbury, Robert Stein
|
First Trust Advisors
|
69
|
|
19
|
Carl Tannenbaum, Ryan James Boyle, Vaibhav Tandon
|
Northern Trust
|
66
|
|
20
|
Bill Smead
|
Smead Capital Management
|
66
|
|
21
|
Eric Winograd
|
AllianceBernstein
|
60
|
|
22
|
Sonal Desai
|
Franklin Templeton Investments
|
59
|
|
23
|
Bill O'Grady
|
Confluence Investment Management
|
50
|
|
24
|
Jeff Miller
|
NewArc Investments, Inc.
|
45
|
|
25
|
Brad McMillan
|
Commonwealth Financial Network
|
40
|
Read more articles by Jill Mislinski
