For years leading up to the pandemic, low inflation and stable growth created a favorable environment for investors that supported sustained periods of robust stock and bond returns. With inflation virtually non-existent, economic downturns were met with monetary and fiscal stimulus that provided a backstop for financial markets.
Despite stubbornly high inflation and recessionary fears, spending by consumers may not slow down as we approach the busy holiday shopping season.
Two aspects of the financial markets operate simultaneously. Emphatically, they do not operate alternately, but simultaneously. One aspect is driven entirely by arithmetic. Every security is a claim to some long-term stream of cash flows that will be delivered to the holder, or series of holders, over time.
When market investors suffer losses — or get taken for a ride — they’re often eligible for a tax write-off to soften the blow. Users of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX won’t be so lucky.
As we approach Thanksgiving, it’s the perfect time to reflect on all we are grateful for. From an investor’s perspective, this year’s bear market will certainly not make this list. But even though it has been a challenging year performance-wise, we still believe that investors have a cornucopia of economic and financial market blessings to count!
Is globalization truly dead? Stephen Dover, head of Franklin Templeton Institute, explores what drives globalization, whether we are currently in a “de-globalization” wave—and what it means for investors.
Owning a mutual fund that’s down 20% or 30% is bad enough. Now, holders of many money-losing investments will be asked to pay capital gains taxes too.
Our annual ESG manager survey of active managers assesses the integration of ESG considerations in investment processes among equity, fixed income and private markets managers, and spotlights firmwide policies, use of data, engagement and integration.
For the first time in years, rich Americans who cheat on their taxes face a growing threat from the Internal Revenue Service.
My guest today will discuss how he works with UHNW/HNW individuals and families when it comes to charitable giving and meeting philanthropic needs. We will talk about the issues individuals should consider when making a gift of a business interest to a public charity. We will discuss the benefits for donors in making the decision to give a gift of a business interest to a public charity, the types of business interests that a donor may give to charity and the trends he’s seeing across his client base when it comes to charitable giving strategies such as this one.
The inflationary tremors shaking Wall Street all year are causing big changes to fixed-income capital flows that could ultimately end up disrupting the money-management industry over the long haul.
Federal Reserve policymakers believe that inflation expectations are self-fulfilling prophecies, and they’re dead set on preventing them from moving materially higher.
In this exclusive 1-hour webinar, industry veteran and CIO of Crossmark Global Investments, Bob Doll, CFA will discuss the current political landscape, potential midterm scenarios, and what they could mean.
The person responsible for translating the math chapter of my book, Wealth Management, into Japanese told me, “You give me much headache.” Welcome to the math chapter.
There was a time when a large portion of Americans belonged to the “middle class.”
Franklin Mutual Series believes dividend payers can give value investors better total returns over the longer term.
Anne Walsh, Chief Investment Officer for Fixed Income, on the economic and credit cycle, and on risk and opportunity across the fixed-income landscape.
In the 1994 comedy film, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Lt. Einhorn is the female leading the Miami police’s investigation of the disappearance of the Miami Dolphin’s mascot, Snowflake.
Corporate defined benefit (DB) plan sponsors face two primary risks: equity risk and interest rate risk.
With interest rates higher amid a challenging macro environment, we see a compelling case for bond allocations and are cautious about higher-risk investments.
To foresee what crisis might be next, it is vital to understand the dollar's role in global finance and economics and the resulting role that the Fed plays in influencing global monetary policy.
The most crowded trade on Wall Street -- long inflation -- is suddenly getting crushed like never before in the post-lockdown era, sparking a spate of forced deleveraging among a broad cohort of institutional funds.
US household debt climbed at the fastest annual pace since 2008 in the third quarter, with credit-card balances surging even as the interest rates that lenders charge to consumers hit a multi-decade high.
Join Dr. Michael Finke as he shares the steps for developing a goals-based financial plan, the importance of understanding the impact of investment risk, and approaches to funding inflexible spending. Sponsored by RetireOne and Protective.
Doug Drabik discusses fixed income market conditions and offers insight for bond investors.
The succession plans that come off with the fewest disruptions are those that are implemented over an extended period, especially when the successors are not family members.
Fast-money quants were effectively forced to buy an estimated $225 billion of stocks and bonds over just two trading sessions, as one of Wall Street’s hottest strategies in the great 2022 bear market shows signs of cracking.
While the path to get us here has been painful, investable yields have the potential to meet the return objectives of pension plans, insurance companies, or other investors that may have been sitting on the sidelines—or taking undue risk within fixed income in a reach for yield.
High inflation and slow economic growth are a problem for investors. Here's how to shore up your portfolio.
We believe highly innovative companies, when accounted for properly, are cheaper than their non-innovative peers in all regions of the world.
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), climate and multi-asset implications—Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions examines the IRA from an investment lens.
U.S. equities are mixed in restrained trading, with investors awaiting the next two pieces to complete the October inflation picture.
While many investors think that IPOs are exciting, they are risky investments. Academic research shows overwhelmingly that the returns to investors are not commensurate with the risk.
A matter that can have large impacts on the marginal tax rates faced by individuals who obtain health insurance coverage through the ACA exchanges is the reduction of the tax credits (or subsidies) for health insurance coverage as incomes increase.
As a result of higher mortgage rates, an oversupply of housing and falling demand, the downturn in the housing market is only just getting started.
What problem could be solved or what issue or challenge could be addressed that would offer wide appeal to the expansive advisor community? The answer that made sense to me was financial education.
A federal judge in Texas struck down the Biden administration’s sweeping student loan forgiveness plan, calling it “one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States.”
Early this week, with the severe inverted yield curve and other signals flashing recession, I planned to use this letter to delve into the data. Then Thursday’s CPI data convinced markets to blow the all-clear whistle.
Here are some suggestions to consider when remarrying.
Declining markets make active management skills more valuable. In the first half of 2022, a significant minority of active managers were able to outperform their benchmarks in several categories. After suffering an 85% underperformance rate in 2021, just 51% of large-cap domestic equity funds lagged the S&P 500 in the first six months of 2022, putting actively managed large-cap U.S. equity funds on track for their best (i.e., lowest) underperformance rate since 2009. Find out if the same held true for mid-cap, small-cap, growth, value, international equity and fixed income funds, and see how the trends play out over longer time horizons.
U.S. stocks posted its biggest daily gain since 2020 following data on October’s consumer price inflation (CPI), which came in cooler-than-expected.
An astounding $200 million dollars per day, every day, is spent gambling in Las Vegas casinos.
Clients often assume that their need for life insurance ends when they stop working. In fact, whole life insurance can play an important role in your client’s retirement income strategy. For higher income earners, a whole life policy may also be an effective way to help protect income and accumulate additional funds for retirement. Here to discuss the role whole life insurance can play in your clients’ retirement strategies is Neil Drzewiecki.
In February of this year, I posted a subscriber request video titled: “5 Premier Dividend Growth Stocks With A Margin Of Safety.”
Equity investors have sustained significant losses this year and are facing a long list of new uncertainties.
JPMorgan Asset Management’s David Kelly has a message for longer term investors who have been stung by this year’s downturn in stock and bond markets: now is the time to jump back in.
U.S. equities are lower as the global markets await the final results of the U.S. midterm elections as the control of the Congress remains undetermined.
There is a long history that proves ESG’s viability and more than 2,000 empirical studies that show little absolute difference in performance by adopting it as a criterion for analysis.
It’s not as if volatility markets have needed extra juice this year.
JPMorgan Asset Management, Invesco Ltd. and Dimensional Fund Advisors are among large money managers pushing back against proposals by US regulators to crack down on misleading fund names.
