Reducing or eliminating debt might feel like the ultimate financial milestone, but paying off debt early – or avoiding it entirely – can limit future opportunities for building or preserving wealth. During periods of volatility, it may be tempting to get rid of debt for short-term relief, but this could compromise your long-term plan. Staying the course may be crucial to your goals – no matter the market.

Discover why higher Treasury yields, strong ETF demand, and active management are creating new opportunities in muni bonds for advisors.

Given the current state of inflation and interest rates, it’s probable that many advisors and investors are considering alternative ways of fostering income within their portfolios.

Reflecting on the first half of 2026 provides a clear roadmap to strategize for the remainder of the year. Before that can occur, however, it’s imperative to check the pulse on the current state of the market and posit what may happen next.

A growing number of investors from the US to South Korea are using leveraged exchange-traded funds for long-term investing, a far cry from the day trading they were designed for.

Alphabet Inc. is looking to raise as much as $25 billion from its latest US investment-grade bond offering, a deal that will test investor appetite for AI-related debt following a July selloff.

Finding a place to stash the keys to your cryptocurrency hoard has never been easier, thanks to options that run from putting them in a retired Swiss nuclear bunker to the humdrum use of digital-asset exchanges. It’s also never been harder to keep them safe from thieves.

On Wall Street, money speaks louder than words. The way Big Oil is currently allocating dollars suggests the supermajors are, quietly, preparing for leaner times. It’s the right approach: Oil is a cyclical business, and lower prices are always around the corner. This time, they may be even closer.

Richard Driehaus, the late Chicago money manager who helped popularize momentum investing, took exception to the mantra of buy low, sell high.

While the outcome of the July FOMC meeting itself was in line with expectations, the aftermath has proven to be far more challenging for the money and bond markets, especially for longer-dated maturities, a.k.a. duration. Investors, as well as Fed Chairman Warsh, have quickly discovered something we have been highlighting about over the last few months: a lack of forward guidance can have unintended consequences.

Investors worried about highly appreciated stock positions and the related capital gains exposure may avoid transitioning concentrated portfolios to more diversified tax-managed solutions. In our view, a multiphase transition may enable them to strike a balance between how fast concentration risk is diversified and the size of their annual tax bill.

In the span of a few weeks, a new college student takes on loan debt, gets their first credit card offer, and starts managing daily expenses on their own. They're buying groceries, splitting costs with roommates, saying yes to things they probably can't afford yet. No other period of life throws that many financial decisions at someone with that little experience.

On Wednesday afternoon the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for a fifth consecutive meeting, and stocks buckled: the Dow fell 1,153 points, its worst day since April of last year.

Only about 20–25% of financial Advisors have a formal, documented succession plan, despite the fact that more than a third, managing roughly 40% of industry assets, plan to retire within the next decade. That gap is more than a retirement problem.

By repeatedly describing standard inflation gauges as “imperfect measures of underlying inflation,” Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has pushed a long-running technical debate into the center of the policy conversation: What is the best way to measure underlying inflation?

This year has offered a vivid reminder of how quickly market conditions can shift—from policy uncertainty, to a sharp geopolitical shock, to a focus on an AI-driven rally. As the themes of the day changed, the case for an overlay persisted.

When we talk about inflation, we usually focus on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). However, the Federal Reserve’s “preferred” inflation measure is the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index. What’s the difference and why does the Fed prefer the PCE?

The AI question is not really a technology question for your firm; it is a documentation question wearing a technology costume. Your advisors are already using it, and the SEC has already told you it is watching how you handle it. The only open question is whether, when an examiner asks, you can show your work.

Outlining clear expectations for success — desired outcomes that are both quantifiable and qualitative. It means setting objectives to meet these desired outcomes every week and then checking in to see to see if they met them.

This article is the first in a series about implementing AI while maintaining rigorous data regulation and governance practices. It’s no secret that the SEC understands the tectonic fracturing felt throughout the advisory space. How is the SEC adapting for AI implementation among RIA firms?

One of my most controversial opinions is that the 401(k) is one of the great financial inventions of the 20th century. It is not a view shared by many people — including, apparently, the inventor himself, Ted Benna, who argues that the 401(k) has mainly benefited the wealthy.

The US Treasury on Wednesday retained its previous guidance for future debt issuance, signaling no change in note and bond auction sizes well into 2027 even as federal borrowing needs climb.

Investors hanging onto SpaceX shares after a plunge below their IPO price are bracing for the next potential hit, when $101 billion worth of stock becomes available for trading on Thursday.

High-net-worth investors and institutional managers continue to allocate heavily to muni bond ETFs to lock in attractive yields.

Developing economies must move fast in adopting artificial intelligence for their governments and businesses, the World Bank said, urging countries to adapt existing tools to local needs.

July 2026 was a flattish month for markets. The S&P 500 index was down slightly. Value did well, while momentum did poorly. Smallcaps, midcaps, and emerging markets, all of which have been the year’s best performers, had a bad month. Commodities, driven largely by oil prices, led the pack, as the fragile ceasefire in Iran failed to hold.

The greatest danger posed by AI is not the technology itself, but the race to deploy it before we know how to control it. The recent Hugging Face breach shows how seemingly minor human errors can be amplified by AI, underscoring the risks of treating safety as an afterthought.

The numbers are in, and the story of ETF adoption goes on undeterred. In July, ETFs saw their third month this year of asset inflows exceeding $190 billion. If 2025 was a record-breaking year for ETF asset creation, 2026 is promising to upstage it.

New clients frequently arrive with portfolios that have been built over many years, often across multiple market cycles and advisory relationships. While these portfolios may have generated strong returns, they can also contain concentrated positions, legacy holdings or allocations that no longer align with the client's objectives.

Many of the most critical components of AI infrastructure are produced by a small and increasingly consolidated group of highly specialized companies.

While the Fed left interest rates unchanged, Treasury yields moved notably higher throughout the week, with 30-year yields eclipsing their highest levels in nearly two decades as investors reassessed the outlook for inflation and monetary policy. The S&P 500 ended 1.06 percent higher to close a volatile week of trading, recovering from a mid-week sell-off.

Kevin Warsh considers fewer Fed meetings, the Fed holds rates steady, the Senate moves to avert a shutdown, a new BLS chief is confirmed, and midterms near.

LPL Research highlights strong corporate earnings, AI-driven growth, and a favorable equity outlook while monitoring inflation, oil prices, and risks.

July was an eventful month for both domestic and international markets, with US-Iran tensions flaring up, increasing energy prices and changing investor expectations for the Federal Reserve (Fed) cutting rates.

The financial markets expected the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates unchanged at its recent meeting, and it did just that. However, three members of the FOMC dissented, voting to raise rates by 25bps in an effort to combat stubbornly high inflation.

A period of financial recovery for US hospitals is coming to an end as healthcare systems brace for the full force of federal policy changes and a wave of aging baby boomers.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of price inflation is set for a methodological update, as the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is expected to implement revisions to its price index for Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) as early as September.

State Street's July Flash Flows report highlights record ETF inflows, and a major rotation into value and dividend strategies.

Many ESG advisors can explain what’s driving their clients’ performance, but they stop short of detailing why. When an advisor fails to reveal the reasoning behind a strategy, that’s when a client loses trust — and how accounts are ultimately lost.

The concept of the 530A accounts is sound, and the initial $1,000 deposit is worth having. So claim the seed money if your child qualifies. But before you make additional contributions, compare these accounts to the other options and choose what is appropriate for your circumstances.

A good wine tasting can reveal preferences people didn’t know they had, and a good advisory process should do the same. Because the most important time to discover that a client’s portfolio exceeds their tolerance for risk is not after the market has fallen. It is before the bottle is opened.

Social Security’s short-term financing crisis is no longer a distant actuarial projection — it is a near-term event with direct implications for current retirees, individuals approaching retirement, and younger workers. Advisors must understand not only the potential fixes, but also the hard constraints that sharply limit what Congress can realistically do in the next several years.

This summer has offered little opportunity for a lull. Investors have contended with Federal Reserve (Fed) policy uncertainty, renewed tariff-driven inflation concerns, escalating tensions in the Middle East, questions about the durability of AI-related investment spending and a packed earnings calendar.

Treasuries rose on Tuesday as signs of progress toward a diplomatic resolution of the Iran war sent oil prices lower, curbing expectations for more than one Federal Reserve interest-rate hike in the coming year.

Northwell Healthcare Inc., the largest healthcare provider in New York, is considering selling up to $800 million of municipal bonds, according to a Friday filing.

Investment firms for billionaires hailing from the US, Europe and Asia are driving a wave of deals for robotics AI businesses, defying fears about a bubble in the machine-learning sector.

SpaceX’s first earnings release following its record initial public offering is one of the most anticipated reports of the summer for traders on Wall Street and beyond. Whether it’ll give investors a reason to buy the sinking stock is another matter.

Power utilities across the US are already strained from AI data centers. But they’re increasingly facing an even bigger threat: that developers will be forced to walk away from projects, leaving households on the hook for massive infrastructure bills.

The market spent much of this week trying to interpret what Fed Chair Kevin Warsh meant rather than what he actually said and that was entirely avoidable. The decision to leave rates unchanged was defensible. What wasn’t defensible was Warsh’s lack of explanation.

Just as important, the dollar and U.S. Treasuries have continued to behave like hedges in periods of broader market unrest (driven by geopolitics or other conditions). When risk assets come under pressure, Treasury yields have generally fallen, or the dollar has tended to find support.