Latest news with #WesGray
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Pitt County Health Department receives accreditation with honors
PITT COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT) — On May 9, 2025, the Pitt County Health Department was among thirteen health departments across the state reaccredited by the North Carolina Local Health Department Accreditation (NCLHDA) Board. 'We celebrate each health department who has newly completed an accreditation cycle. Accreditation is a quality improvement process to help agencies identify strengths and opportunities as health departments work daily to serve their communities,' NC Local Health Department Accreditation Administrator, Margaret Benson Nemitz said. 'The accreditation process requires teamwork and dedication from health department staff, Boards of Health members, site visitors, and Accreditation Board members, all working together to identify, clarify, verify, and amplify the quality work taking place across our state. Each of these agencies has demonstrated their ability to maintain and/or exceed the standards established by the NCLHDA program, including throughout their COVID response. Congratulations!' Receiving the Accreditation with Honors designation is a way to recognize agencies that have excelled in their accreditation assessment by missing one or less activities within each of five standards set by the NCLHDA program. Pitt County received this designation as well as 9 other counties, which include Albemarle Regional Health Services, Columbus County Health Department, Guilford County Department of Public Health, Jackson County Department of Public Health, Mecklenburg County Public Health Department, Montgomery County Department of Health, Rockingham County Health Department, Sampson County Health Department, and Wilkes County Health Department. 'The reaccreditation process is a rigorous and comprehensive undertaking that reflects years of dedicated preparation,' Pitt County Health Director, Wes Gray said. 'I am immensely proud of our staff for their unwavering commitment to excellence and for being recognized for the outstanding quality of work they deliver each day.' North Carolina is actually the first state in the country to mandate accreditation for its local health departments. For more information, contact Allison Swart, Health Education Division Director, at 252-902-2426. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trillions in SMA assets ripe for tax-friendly ETF 'exit valve'
The appreciated assets locked in tax limbo from the capital gains in separately managed accounts amount to a massive opportunity for ETF conversions, a new study said. About $2.7 trillion in SMA holdings, including $1.6 trillion among wirehouse clients and $484 billion with customers of registered investment advisory firms, could use "a rotation into a more tax-efficient solution, given how much advisors' clients dislike paying taxes on investments," according to a report last month by research and consulting firm Cerulli Associates. The increasingly popular Section 351 conversions of assets into ETFs defer capital gains and bring much more efficiency and lower costs for financial advisors, fund companies and wealth management service providers. Consolidation at RIAs is fueling the ETF transfers, too. However, experts caution that the process poses technical challenges and involves strict compliance rules requiring diversification of the holdings. While Section 351 conversions are "not something that every advisor could or should do," the move (named after a provision of the tax code) has generated "so much demand for the service that we don't need salespeople," said Wes Gray, CEO of ETF technology firm ETF Architect and asset management company Alpha Architect. The 351 conversions have become essentially "all we do on a go-forward basis" at the tech firm, noted Gray, whom Bloomberg has described as a "tax-slashing ETF trailblazer." "It's extremely complex, and it's very useful for people who manage money for high net worth, taxable types and deal with hodgepodge portfolios all the time," Gray said. "It's a lot of work, a lot of effort, and it's not easy. It's not like you just press buttons." READ MORE: Using tax-aware long-short vehicles to track down alpha So-called white-labeling services, such as ETF Architect, Tidal Financial Group and other wealth and investment technology firms like SEI and Ultimus Fund Solutions, assist portfolio managers with ETF launches and help advisors and their firms carry out the migration of assets, according to Cerulli. Last March, asset manager Eagle Capital Management "ignited industry interest" with the conversion of $1.8 billion in SMA assets into the EAGL ETF, the report noted. Rockefeller Capital Management and Nicholas Wealth Management have also created ETFs through the conversions of SMAs and other kinds of holdings. The method can act as "an exit valve for some separate accounts that have exhausted tax-loss harvesting or simply become too operationally burdensome for the advisor or asset manager" and "serve as an efficiency tool for the advisor, including as a way to deliver their strategy to clients and charge fees for it," the report said. Direct indexing available through the SMAs "had been considered a competitor to ETFs," but the conversions are getting more attention because of those capabilities, it noted. Besides the assets in SMAs, another pool of client holdings in the form of $9.5 trillion of individual securities could flow into ETFs. "While not all of this can or will be converted, the top-level asset pool is huge," the report said. "Cerulli finds a particularly applicable archetype of advisor who may be running their own SMA strategies for clients. These advisors, classified by Cerulli as insourcers, may believe they have strong investment selection abilities and in functioning as de facto asset managers, at times create separate account portfolios for their clients — a task difficult to scale and one from which wealth management firm owners will seek to shift away." READ MORE: How to unlock tax savings in incoming client portfolios And those scenarios could especially play out in the case of the frequent RIA M&A deals, since the transfers enable acquirers to "combine assets across the firm" into an ETF and "gather scale for the strategy," said Daniil Shapiro, a director with Cerulli's product development unit. The SMA transfers to ETFs represent "an interesting theme to keep an eye on in the medium term," Shapiro said. But the technical constraints will slow the process down at many firms. "You probably have discussions that are happening right now between ETF issuers and scaled RIA firms," he said. "It's important to consider this within the scope of the broader ETF industry. This is going to take a significant amount of time before we see scaled conversions of tens of billions of dollars." SMA conversions to ETFs entail jumping over at least seven logistical hurdles and navigating four types of regulatory factors, according to another report on the process by ETF Architect. For example, the current SMA clients must give their formal permission, and the firms need to keep thorough records on the transaction and coordinate it with one or more custodians. In addition, they'll have to ensure there are sufficient assets to make the process feasible and that the makeup of the new ETF aligns with the fund prospectus and complies with the regulations for investment companies, diversification mandates and formal "control" of the holdings. "It's actually really complicated and takes a lot of work. It's not like we just whip it up," Gray said. "I would say, today, a lot of people still don't know how ETFs operate. A 351, it's even more complicated, more esoteric." READ MORE: Wall Street brokers risk losing billions in fees on SEC shift For SMA investors, the problem lies in the fact that, "Once you've got low basis in these things, you can't do much," and "all 351 does — and the reason it's so disruptive — is it allows capital to flow freely" without any tax hits, Gray continued. The conversions are "going to rip out tons of operational complexity that the RIA is dealing with" as a result of "managing all of these Frankenstein portfolios," he said. Cerulli's $2.7 trillion estimate of the possible amount of SMA assets ripe for conversion sounded correct to Gray. Further transfers are likely, if the Securities and Exchange Commission approves the creation of ETF share classes in mutual funds sought by all of the largest asset managers after the expiration of Vanguard's patent. "What they don't know, because they're not that smart, is that all that's going to do is open them up to massive 351 exposure," Gray said. "It's just not looking good for people who don't have a real value proposition anymore. You can't lean on the sunk tax cost, which is a real problem."
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Mpox virus detected in Pitt County wastewater sample; no reported infections
PITT COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT) — Pitt County health officials are urging awareness and caution after Mpox virus was detected in wastewater samples. The samples were collected Mar. 25, Mar. 28 and Apr. 8 through routine testing. The virus found in wastewater is no longer infectious, but it shows that people in the area may be carrying the virus, even if they don't have symptoms. At this time, the risk to the public remains low and no cases have been reported in North Carolina. However, the detection suggests there may have been at least one person with an undiagnosed or unreported infection in the area at the time. 'Finding the virus in wastewater doesn't mean there is a community outbreak, but it does mean we need to stay alert,' Pitt County Health Director Wes Gray said. 'We encourage residents to learn the symptoms, take precautions, and get vaccinated if they are eligible.' Vaccines are available to protect against mpox infection from both types and can reduce the severity of illness if an infection does occur. Information about vaccine recommendations and where to find vaccine is available on the NCDHHS mpox page at Mpox symptoms include: A rash on the hands, feet, chest, face, mouth, or genital area Rash that resembles pimples or blisters, eventually scabbing and healing Fever, chills, fatigue, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
