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Zacks Investment Management Review

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This review was produced by SmartAsset based on publicly available information. The named firm and its financial professionals have not reviewed, approved, or endorsed this review and are not responsible for its accuracy. Review content is produced by SmartAsset independently of any business relationships that might exist between SmartAsset and the named firm and its financial professionals, and firms and financial professionals having business relationships with SmartAsset receive no special treatment or consideration in SmartAsset’s reviews. This page contains links to SmartAsset’s financial advisor matching tool, which may or may not match you with the firm mentioned in this review or its financial professionals.

Offering an expansive list of investment strategies and specializing in independent research, Zacks Investment Management is a Chicago-based financial advisor firm with billions in assets under management (AUM). The research-driven firm is an offshoot of the well-known independent research firm, Zacks Investment Research. It has a relatively small team of financial advisors on staff.

Zacks Investment Management primarily works with individuals and high-net-worth individuals, but also has a number of institutional clients on its books. These include investment companies, pooled investment vehicles, pension and profit-sharing plans, state or municipal governments, businesses, other investment advisors and wrap programs.

Zacks Investment Management Background

Zacks Investment Management's roots date back to 1978, when quantitative equity analyst Leonard Zacks founded Zacks Investment Research. Zacks Investment Management, which was formally established in 1992, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the well-known research firm that provides data and analysis to investment professionals.

Many of Leonard Zacks' ideas shape Zacks Investment Management's strategies and philosophies, including its policy of using of earnings estimates to pick stocks and its proprietary stock-ranking model. The firm itself also heavily values research when making investment decisions, including proprietary quantitative models and academic articles.

Zacks Investment Management Clients and Minimum Account Sizes

Separate from its investment management services, Zacks Investment Management offers its investment strategies to other investment professionals to utilize. Its client base for this portion of the business, which it refers to as its wholesaling business, includes third-party brokerage firms, registered investment advisors and independent broker-dealers.

Zacks Investment Management generally requires a minimum investment of $500,000 for its traditional investment advisory services. This minimum applies to both its wealth management program accounts and its individual fixed-income securities accounts. However, the firm may be willing to accept clients who have less than this minimum.

Services Offered by Zacks Investment Management

Zacks Investment Management primarily provides discretionary investment management. It offers clients different strategies in its wealth management program, which is focused on asset allocation. Clients interested in an alternative approach to investing have the choice of four alternative investments strategies. Additionally, the firm has its online investment advisory program, Zacks Advantage.

When it comes to financial planning clients, Zacks may use the services of certain unaffiliated firms for assistance in providing advice.

Zacks Investment Management Investment Philosophy

Zacks Investment Management's investment philosophy is centered on Zacks Performance Rank, a proprietary stock-ranking model developed by Len Zacks, the found of Zacks Investment Research. This stock selection model is based on trends in earnings estimate revisions and earnings surprises. Relying on this model as well as its own research, software, other models and databases, Zacks creates customized portfolios comprising stocks and bonds entirely in-house. 

Zacks offers a number of different investing strategies. The firm will determine which strategies are appropriate for your portfolio based on a number of factors, including your goals, risk tolerance and time horizon. Once that's determined, a member of Zacks' investment committee will create your portfolio using the firm's investment models, which are supported by Zacks Investment Research's insights. 

Zacks Investment Management Fees

Zacks Investment Management offers several sets of services with distinct fee schedules to match each. The firm charges the following asset-based fees for its retail wealth management program:

Retail Wealth Management Fee Schedule
Assets Fee Rates
Up to $500,000 1.80%
$500,000 - $1,000,000 1.65%
$1,000,000 - $1,500,000 1.50%
$1,500,000 - $2,000,000 1.45%
$2,000,000 - $2,500,000 1.35%
$2,500,000 - $3,000,000 1.30%
$3,000,000 - $3,500,000 1.25%
$3,500,000 - $4,000,000 1.20%
$4,000,000 - $4,500,000 1.15%
$4,500,000 - $5,000,000 1.10%
$5,000,000 - $10,000,000  1.05%
More than $10,000,000 1.00%

Wealth management clients who solely have individual fixed-income securities, including treasury, corporate and municipal bonds, will follow the fee schedule below:

Fixed-Income Wealth Management Fee Schedule
Assets Fee Rates
$500,000 - $2,000,000 0.65%
$2,000,000 - $4,000,000 0.50%
$4,000,000 - $6,000,000 0.40%
More than $6,000,000 0.25%

Zacks uses yet another fee schedule called Zacks Strategies Direct for clients who join the firm as a referral. These rates go as follows:

Zacks Strategies Direct Fee Schedule
Assets Fee Rates
Up to $500,000 0.99%
$500,000 - $1,000,000 0.90%
$1,000,000 - $2,000,000 0.80%
$2,000,000 - $5,000,000 0.70%
More than $5,000,000 0.60%

The firm's Global Tactical Strategy (for retail clients) adheres to the following fee schedule:

Global Tactical Strategy Fee Schedule
Assets Fee Rates
Up to $500,000 0.95%
$500,000 - $1,000,000 0.90%
$1,000,000 - $4,000,000 0.80%
More than $4,000,000 0.70%

Meanwhile, there is a 1.50% management fee associated with the firm's Premier Select Strategy (for retail clients).

In addition to asset-based fees and other costs, Zacks Investment Management charges performance-based fees to certain qualified clients. These fees will be based either on the account's total return or the amount by which it surpassed a benchmark. Fee rates will be negotiated based on a number of factors, including the amount of assets under management, how long a client has had the account and the client's investment guidelines. Zacks says these fees will not be more than 20% of an account's total return over the period of a year.

What to Watch Out For

Zacks Investment Management has not been subject to any disciplinary actions by regulators over the past decade. However, prospective clients should be aware that Zacks Investment Management is mainly focused on investment management. While Zacks can meet clients’ financial planning needs, it may rely on financial planning services provided through unaffiliated firms to do so.

Also, note that Zacks does charge performance-based fees to certain clients. As these fees are based on how well a portfolio performs, they may incentivize advisors to take more risks in an effort to increase portfolio performance.

Opening an Account With Zacks Investment Management

To find out more about working with Zacks Investment Management, go to the firm's website and click the green “Contact” button in the top right hand corner. There you can find the email addresses and phone numbers for each of the firm's investment advisors as well as the private client group's executive director. In addition to the company's headquarters in Chicago, the firm has offices in Atlanta, Denver, Indianapolis, Houston, Dallas, Salt Lake City, New York, San Francisco and a number of other cities throughout the country. 

There's also the option to send Zacks Investment Management a message and have the firm follow up with you. Simply fill out the form with your name, email address, phone number and a message.

All information is accurate as of the writing of this article.

Investing Tips

  • Do you have questions about investing? Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
  • Figure out how much risk you’re comfortable with and can afford to take on. This will help you figure out the optimal asset allocation to balance risk and reward. A conservative investor may want to primarily invest in cash and bonds, while a very aggressive investor may be comfortable heavily investing in equities.

How Long $1mm Lasts in Retirement

SmartAsset's interactive map highlights places where $1 million will last the longest in retirement. Zoom between states and the national map to see the top spots in each region. Also, scroll over any city to learn about the cost of living in retirement for that location.

Least
Most
Rank City Housing Expenses Food Expenses Healthcare Expenses Utilities Expenses Transportation Expenses

Methodology We analyzed data on average expenditures for seniors, cost of living and investment returns to determine how many years of retirement a $1 million nest egg would cover in cities across America.

First, we looked at data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on the average annual expenditures of seniors. We then applied cost of living data from the Council for Community and Economic Research to adjust those national average spending levels based on the costs of each expense category (housing, food, healthcare, utilities, transportation and other) in each city. Using this data, SmartAsset calculated the average cost of living for retirees in the largest U.S. cities.

We assumed the $1 million would grow at a real return (interest minus inflation) of 2%. Then, we divided $1 million by the sum of each of those annual numbers to determine how long $1 million would cover retirement expenses in each of the cities in our study. Cities where $1 million lasted the longest ranked the highest in the study.

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Council for Community and Economic Research