Advisors can help clients and their families plan for the rising costs of tuition and other educational expenses by knowing the benefits of 529 plans — and staying up-to-date on evolving rules around these investment vehicles.
Small-cap stocks tend to offer greater growth potential than their large-cap peers, but those returns have yet to materialize consistently. What will it take to turn the tide?
Stablecoins are a special flavor of cryptocurrency. Unlike Bitcoin or countless wildly traded memecoins, whose values rise and fall based on market moods, the most popular versions of these digital tokens are supposed to always be worth $1 each.
Blackstone Inc. is planning to invest as much as $500 billion in Europe over the next 10 years, underlining the continent’s growing appeal to investors during a period of geopolitical flux.
My unifying theory of finance is that everything goes seriously wrong when people start seeing something — a bond, a mortgage-backed security, a crypto exchange — as risk-free when it isn’t.
The Fear Trade is what most Western investors are familiar with. It’s the flight to safety during times of uncertainty, driven by concerns over inflation, interest rates, geopolitical risk and more.
Here’s the blunt truth: Many great investment strategies fail because of poor implementation. Robust capabilities in trading, transition management, overlays and currencies are critical to executing a strategy.
Investors looking to move big blocks of corporate bonds have long relied on exchange-traded funds listed on stock exchanges to jump in and out of positions. But now, they’re increasingly trading directly in the debt market.
The push to put private assets in the hands of individual investors is breathing new life into a relatively quiet corner of the asset management industry: interval funds.
For the first time in five months, gold-backed ETFs globally reported modest outflows in May as investors took profits.
Markets may be fretting over Federal Reserve policy and economic soft landings, but a handful of momentum ETFs have quietly been stealing the show. Across the array of factor funds, momentum has performed best this year.
After falling 0.7% in April, the S&P 500 gained 6.3% last month, marking the index’s best May return since 1990 and its best monthly return since November 2023 (see the chart).
Carolyn McPhillips, President of MFDF, sheds light on the evolving role of ETF directors and their growing importance as investment products become more complex – particularly in emerging areas like crypto and private assets. VettaFi’s Zeno Mercer explores artificial intelligence ETFs, highlighting new launches and offering tips to help investors navigate this rapidly expanding category.
VettaFi’s Head of Research Todd Rosenbluth discussed the Fidelity Enhanced International ETF (FENI) on this week’s “ETF of the Week” podcast with Chuck Jaffe of “Money Life.”
Investors nearing or in retirement who are currently defaulted into TDFs need to stop defaulting and move to safety now.
Stablecoins and the concept of digital money represent a significant shift from the current system. While there are many risks with digital money, there is also promise.
Vanguard Group Inc. is launching a low-cost fund focused on emerging-market stocks while explicitly avoiding China, muscling into a trade long dominated by BlackRock Inc.
Yale University’s $41 billion endowment, led for decades by the late investing giant David Swensen, has been the envy – and the blueprint — for many US universities eager to secure their financial future.
Retail traders using sophisticated quantitative strategies are starting to have a surprising and noticeable impact on financial prices.
Three months after the Chinese artificial intelligence developer DeepSeek upended the tech world with a model that rivaled America’s best, a 28-year-old AI executive named Alexandr Wang came to Capitol Hill to tell policymakers what they needed to do to maintain US dominance.
Increasing investor preference for actively managed strategies continues in this year’s tumultuous environment. With active ETFs taking increasing market share, advisors and investors have ever-expanding choices when looking to augment existing passive exposures.
Today we’ll continue our SIC highlight series featuring a relatively new face who is now indispensable, plus some new ones who were crowd favorites.
It would seem evident that most investors would understand that consumer spending drives economic growth, ultimately creating corporate earnings growth. Yet, despite this somewhat tautological statement, Wall Street appears to ignore this simple reality when forecasting forward earnings.
Rebounding demand from ETF investors and resilient buying from central banks and Asia retail have propelled gold prices to fresh records north of US$3,000/oz. Find out why we believe there is more room to run.
Last week, the labor market took center stage, presenting a nuanced picture of continued resilience alongside subtle signs of softening.
In sauna-like wooden meeting huts scattered around private capital’s annual marquee event in Berlin, executives are looking for the next hot spot.
The ETF market saw a noticeable slowdown of new products launched in May; however, innovation continued to be a driving force.
Treasuries fell as faster-than-expected US job and wage growth prompted traders to trim back bets that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year.
Abstract SMID-cap investing offers stronger performance and lower volatility than small-caps alone. By using the Russell 2500 index, investors can retain top performers longer, reduce turnover, and enhance portfolio resilience and flexibility.
For four decades, the USA has relied on debt-financed consumption and a service-heavy economy to mask an unsustainable model.
Given the large pool of options available to fixed income investors in the bond market, the ideal option given the current economic uncertainty is still Treasuries. With that, Vanguard has three options worthy of consideration for any portfolio.
Wall Street is cranking up the bond machine as US homeowners — finding that buying a new house is out of reach since mortgage rates started climbing in 2022 – are instead getting home equity loans and sprucing up their current properties.
Neuberger Berman has raised more than $4 billion for its latest general partner-led secondary fund, at a time when private equity firms are increasingly looking to monetize assets via continuation vehicles.
A new line of yield-chasing crypto funds is forcing the Securities and Exchange Commission to confront unresolved gaps in its regulatory framework, just as the Trump administration eases oversight of digital assets.
Since 2019 and the establishment of the ETF Rule, traditional active managers, armed with decades of expertise, have flocked to ETFs.
Early signs of diminishing economic activity and inflation could be a harbinger for bond prices to rise. If so, consider taking advantage of a potential bond rally with a pair of ETFs from Vanguard.
Stocks rallied in May 2025 as trade tensions eased, but investor confidence remains fragile.
Investors may revisit international exposure in their portfolios amidst reduced market reactions to tariff announcements, uncertain U.S. policy and lagging U.S. stock performance.
In our view, using quantitative methods in a transparent, repeatable way to extract alpha through diversified factor tilts offers a compelling alternative in this new IG environment.
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. appears to be one step closer to launching an exchange-traded fund tied to Bitcoin, joining the crowded field of crypto-investment offerings for the retail masses.
Passive capitalization-weighted index funds now surpass active management in aggregate investor allocations.
Value stocks and related ETFs have been decent performers of late. They’ve been generating buzz for a group of equities that long trailed growth stocks. Enthusiasm for value could earnestly be reborn. If so, investors should take that as a reminder to be judicious regarding evaluating value ETFs.
Closed-end funds can offer stable income streams, but also have some benefits over ETFs when it comes to fund structure.
On the trade front, investor uncertainty eased for a short time as President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs seemed to lose traction. Several key developments contributed, including a 90-day tariff pause with China, the signing of a US-UK trade agreement and progress on negotiations with other partners, including Europe.
After more than a half-decade cleaning up Wells Fargo & Co.’s scandals, the chief executive officer has cleared away the firm’s biggest impediment to growth: the Federal Reserve’s seven-year-old cap on assets.
Global equities hit a record high for the first time since February, as signs of a resilient US economy overshadowed uncertainty around trade negotiations.
Market leadership is shifting and the once-dominant Magnificent 7 may no longer be so magnificent. Our latest report reveals why broader opportunities are emerging across sectors and regions, with quality, value, and growth converging in unexpected places.
The economic narrative took a decisive turn last week. A stunning collapse in the trade deficit suggests we could be looking at near 4% GDP growth in the second quarter—a massive upward revision from the consensus of 2%.
The muted IPO market which has become commonplace in the last few years continued in that fashion through the first five months of 2025. However, the last few weeks has brought a renewed focus to dealmaking after a couple of highly anticipated IPOs began trading, and a cryptocurrency unicorn filed to IPO.
