For many high-net-worth individuals and families, access is part of everyday life. They can secure reservations at impossible-to-book restaurants, obtain tickets to sold-out events, or open doors that remain closed to most others. Healthcare often feels like it should work the same way. It doesn't.
Here are three tips for young investors setting out to build wealth but not sure where to start.
“Sound money,” in its purest form, is money whose supply a government cannot expand at will. Under a gold standard, every dollar is a claim on a fixed weight of gold. You can’t print gold. So the government can’t monetize its deficits, and the money supply grows only as fast as miners pull metal out of the ground, historically around 1.5% a year.
Given America’s political environment, you would be forgiven for thinking the country has slipped into a dark age of energy recidivism; burning oil, gas and coal left and right; and tossing wind and solar farms on the scrap heap.
A good financial plan may bring together every aspect of your financial life into a coordinated strategy, providing a clear view of where you are today and helping you prepare for where you want to go. By understanding your complete financial picture, you can make informed decisions that align with your goals, values, and long-term priorities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You spent years building your retirement savings with one goal in mind: having enough to live comfortably when you stop working. The strategy that got you here probably leaned heavily on growth. But as retirement gets closer, that same approach may not be the right one to carry you through it.
In the race to win a coveted role on the next mega US IPO and manage the ensuing riches, Wall Street’s wealth advisers are ramping up lending to founders and entrepreneurs based on the soaring values of their private companies.
Clients do not need us to predict whether the next 10% move is up or down. They need help staying invested in a way that matches their goals, their time horizon, and their actual tolerance for risk. Staying invested is easier when clients understand what each part of the portfolio is designed to do.
In the coming years, more investors will expect financial planning to be a key part of the services they receive from advisors. To be prepared, advisors will need technology to help streamline added workflows, as well as the expertise of certified financial planners to support their clients long term.
Today we’ll consider the interaction between long-term interest rates, the Fed’s limited ability to influence them, inflation and the housing market. And because home prices are the biggest concern for many households, we’ll start with a look at the latest changes there. And then look at the Federal Reserve’s likely reaction.
The global luxury industry, which has been grappling with three years of lackluster sales, may gain some relief as wealth generated by artificial-intelligence companies and their trillions of dollars of initial public offerings finds its way into fancy fripperies.
When clients, specifically, feel they matter to their advisor, they engage more deeply in the planning process, follow through on recommendations, refer more frequently, and build lasting relationships that transcend market volatility.
The buyer's journey for financial advisory services has fundamentally shifted. In 2026, prospects are making significant decisions and judgments before they ever speak to an advisor. Advisors who fail to recognize this shift are missing the most critical window in the entire client acquisition process.
Wealth management firms are aware of the looming retirement wave and have put real effort into mitigating it through recruiting, training, succession planning, and technology to modernize the advisor workflow. But what’s truly at risk of being lost is the judgment that senior advisors have accumulated over decades
The biotechnology sector is stealing the US IPO market thunder from artificial intelligence-related listings, delivering standout returns as bankers line up a steady stream of summer debuts.
When you measure home affordability today against the metric that actually governs the check you write each month, the picture flips. By that measure, buying a home may be easier now than it was for the Boomers and Gen Xers who get blamed for everything.
A holistic approach to retirement planning involves careful thinking and conversation around investment strategy, tax efficiency, income needs, and estate planning. The goal, of course, is to minimize the drag of taxation on lifetime earnings and wealth accumulation while maintaining both compliance and attention to the client’s priorities and values.
For physicians, major financial decisions may rarely affect just one area of their financial life. The real potential risk is failing to understand how those decisions impact everything else.
For many investors and families, tax planning may become a year-end exercise squeezed into November and December. But by the time the calendar turns to the fourth quarter, many of the most effective opportunities are already limited.
The median house price in Nantucket, Massachusetts, is nearly $4 million. It was just $500,000 in 1995. This sounds like a stunning increase in one of the hottest and least accessible real estate markets in the country.
It used to be a considered something of a tawdry question, although it could be flattering as well: “What’s your number?” Nowadays, your inquisitor is probably asking about retirement — as in, how much you think you need to retire. And, as it often was before, it’s the wrong question.
Widowhood does not happen on paper. It happens in the middle of grief, changing income, tax questions, family expectations, housing decisions, administrative demands, and a profound shift in identity. The math may still work, but the human operating system has changed. And that is why advisors need to stress test — not only for portfolio survival, but for survivor usability.
Right now, advisors are facing a massive generation of clients trying to navigate retirement. That’s challenging enough, but with inflation and the cost of living rising, assuaging those clients’ concerns and delivering for them has become much trickier. Income ETFs can help meet those clients’ goals, with new, daily covered call ETFs an appealing option.
Close to 40 years ago, I moved from Canada to the U.S. after acquiring a controlling interest in U.S. Global Investors. I’ve built my entire life and career here, and in all that time, I’ve never stopped marveling at my adopted country.
Six months is enough time for a lot to change. Your income, your expenses, your goals, and even the broader economy may look different than they did at the start of the year. And a plan that made sense in January might not fit the reality you're living in now.
America has proven that men and women not only can make their own history, but they can make it as they please, with circumstances chosen by themselves.
This July, the United States marks its 250th anniversary, and that has many Americans thinking about what independence really means. In many ways, genuine independence is about more than political rights. It’s financial.
Federal estate taxes may not affect most households, but state death taxes can still be significant. Learn key planning considerations and strategies to help preserve wealth.
The firms that operate rigorous vendor evaluation will compound two advantages simultaneously: They buy the right tools now, and their advisors trust them when the next generation of AI arrives. In a decade that will be defined by the industry's capacity to do more with fewer people, that trust is a strategic asset.
Acquiring a book of business is one of the fastest ways an independent advisor can grow AUM, expand a client base, and build long-term enterprise value. It is also one of the most financially consequential decisions you will ever make — and most advisors approach it underprepared.
Startup equity decisions often happen before a founder has a full advisory team in place. Formation documents get signed, vesting schedules are approved, and the tax consequences may not feel urgent because the company is still young.
The OBBBA created something the industry rarely gets: a defined planning window without a hard deadline attached. Exemptions are historically high, the law has no sunset, and there's a real body of existing work that needs revisiting. The advisors who treat this as an opportunity, rather than waiting for a client to ask, will drive much stronger outcomes compared to those who don’t.
The ETF ecosystem is always changing and growing. Thanks to the ETF’s flexibility, transparency, and tradability, it can help investors achieve plenty of bespoke goals. That even includes investing with an eye towards philanthropic causes as with philanthropic ETFs ASD and DUTY.
In a digital-first environment, reputation is no longer a byproduct of success; it is an asset class in its own right. For ultra-high-net-worth families, reputation capital can influence investment opportunities, business partnerships, philanthropic impact, and multigenerational legacy. It can also be exposed, amplified, or undermined in real time.
The most consequential decisions a founder will face, equity gifting before valuations increase, trust structures timed ahead of a sale, QSBS qualification built while eligibility still exists, all must be decided before liquidity. Once the transaction closes, much of what was available earlier is simply gone.
You know the term “Money Illusion”: mistakenly believing that today’s dollars have the same purchasing power as the dollars of ten or twenty years ago. As with any illusion, fake replaces real, image supplants fact, and fog obscures truth. We’re here to help you sort it out.
We all know that Congress is never going to allow Social Security not to be paid. This begs a number of questions. Will the shortfall be addressed by tax increases, benefit reductions, increasing the retirement age, changing the inflation measures, means testing or some combination of these and other solutions?
In an effort to streamline retirement income planning, MassMutual Strategic Distributors has launched a behavioral framework.
A massive advisor retirement wave is reshaping wealth management. Discover how $2.5 trillion in assets may fuel industry transformation.
Philanthropy conversations can open the door to multigenerational planning, as clients can bring in their children to contribute to discussions of shared values and charitable goals. For advisors, that creates an opportunity to become not just a financial resource, but a trusted partner who helps clients connect wealth with purpose.
For many investors, retirement planning becomes most tangible at the start and end of the year. Goals are set in January, then revisited during year-end tax and financial planning discussions. But the middle of the year offers an equally valuable opportunity: a chance to evaluate progress, reassess assumptions, and make adjustments before small issues become larger challenges.
The K-shaped economy has become shorthand for a tidy story. The rich pull away while everyone else falls behind. It fits the mood, and it makes for a sharp headline. The problem is that it’s mostly wrong.
Despite everything we have seen in the economic data, which can be confusing, the US consumer has refused to crack. My friend Dr. Ed Yardeni, whom I have known since '98, has the most compelling explanation I have heard for why.
For many investors, wealth management still feels segmented. Investments are handled in one meeting, taxes in another, estate planning somewhere else, and major life decisions often happen independently of all three.
We are halfway through 2026, and the planning priorities that have defined our client work this year are in focus. Some of what we are doing is recurring: fixing compliance errors, correcting quarterly estimate miscalculations, and keeping tax positions aligned with economic reality.
When someone told me recently that her favorite use of AI is for financial advice, I was horrified. I am a retirement economist, and my first reaction was self pity: Now I know how doctors feel when people use AI for medical questions.
As a symbol of economic vibrancy and opportunity, it’s hard to beat the public market. Its storied venues, where everything from butter to trillion-dollar tech companies are bought and sold, are a foundation of the modern world.
Wealth today is more complex than ever. Investments, taxes, estate planning, insurance, and even family dynamics are deeply interconnected, and decisions in one area can have meaningful consequences in another.
Every family has a money story. It gets passed down quietly, invisibly, in the way families talk around the dinner table or on long walks together.
Goldman Sachs announced a partnership with Anthropic in early May, though you probably shouldn’t view it as just a cool innovation story. It is infrastructure in motion. When institutions like Goldman move, pay attention to what problem they believe they are solving.
What is unusual about today, and I mean genuinely unusual, historically unusual, is that the people building the equivalent of Newcomen's engine today know exactly (or think they do) what they are building. They are not just pumping water. They “know” the vast potential.
Many debates in defined contribution (DC) circles focus on fees, new asset classes, and ever more complex solutions. But the biggest improvement available to plan participants may come from something far simpler: how their fixed income is managed.
May is 529 Month. As college costs rise, learn five practical ways to maximize your plan’s tax benefits, flexibility and growth potential to prepare for the future.
College costs continue to rise, and for many families, education is one of the most meaningful investments they will make. Preparing for those expenses often requires planning years, sometimes decades, in advance.
Watching your children step into financial independence is one of the most rewarding and complex milestones families experience. As young adults begin earning income, managing expenses, and making major life decisions, the habits and financial knowledge they develop can shape their long-term success.
AI is unlikely to replace wealth managers — at least not in the foreseeable future. But it now has the power to expose the gaps between genuine, client-first investment advice and other approaches in a way the industry has not yet seen.
Vanguard research suggests that one practical answer may lie in pairing traditional target-date funds with a modest allocation to deferred-income annuities (DIAs).
What do “the utilities of retirement” refer to? Buy gas and electric stocks and live off the dividends? No. Not in this article. We’re talking about utility as an economic term of art, meaning reward, pleasure, and satisfaction.
In our Q2 Equity Market Outlook, we identified healthcare as one area where artificial intelligence (AI) is having tangible benefits and presenting investors with new expressions of the AI investment theme. While healthcare may glean some luster from an AI halo, the investment case is also one of counterbalance to the AI juggernaut.
For many ultra-high-net-worth families, philanthropy is not simply about giving; it is about creating meaningful, lasting impact. A thoughtfully structured family foundation can become a powerful vehicle for aligning wealth with values, supporting communities, and engaging future generations in purposeful stewardship.
Explore how Women in ETFs & CFAOC experts believe AI will supplement, not replace, financial professionals.
America is fast becoming a country with two economies: a stagnant one for men and a growing one for women. So far this year, the US has created more than 165,000 private-sector jobs, and 72% of them went to women. To some extent this reflects a structural change in the economy, as growth is in industries more likely to employ women, such as healthcare.
The most attractive conversion opportunities appear when income temporarily drops. Early retirement before Social Security and RMDs begin is the classic window. Sabbaticals, business transition years, the gap after a company sale, years with unusually low K-1 or bonus income. These are all potential openings.
Our reading is that this is a meaningful positive at the surface — a real-time confirmation that the most pessimistic recession scripts written in March can be set aside — but it is also a print that fails to alter the structural calculus we have been describing all year. The labor market is steady. The trajectory of fiscal policy, monetary credibility, and dollar reserve status is not.
The College for Financial Planning is a degree-granting institution offering various financial certification programs. It provides graduate degree, non-degree and continuing professional education programs for students. Founded in 1972, today it is part of Kaplan Financial and has trained over 165,000 professionals.
Access to private equity, private credit, private infrastructure, and private real estate assets can potentially improve long-term investment outcomes for participants.
The inflation dragon is alive and well. Last November, Donald Trump called himself “the affordability president.” However, it appears that the message is falling flat with your average American.
Once clients’ taxes are filed, most assume the story is over for another year. For many, filing season ends with relief, frustration, or confusion — a refund that feels arbitrary, a payment that stings, or little clarity about what to do differently next time. That’s where you, as the advisor, can step in.
Early detection, I believe, is one of the smartest investments you can make, whether we’re talking about your portfolio or your health.
Scalable personalization means saving time while not sacrificing the “secret sauce” that is unique to your practice. Time savings can come from scaling portfolio construction via model portfolios or direct indexing, adding tools or talent to complement strengths, and using technology like AI.
For business owners, your company is more than an asset; it’s your livelihood, your legacy, and often your largest source of wealth. Yet too many owners delay succession planning until it’s urgent, limiting options and potentially eroding value. A well-structured exit isn’t a last-minute decision; it’s a multi-year strategy.
Opening a 529 plan is a tax-advantaged way to set aside money for college. The money you contribute can grow tax-deferred and qualified withdrawals are tax-free.
Something unusual is happening with U.S. inflation data. While the core Consumer Price Index (CPI) has looked relatively cool recently, core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation has risen sharply.
Gen Z is coming of age in a world very different from that of their parents. Advisors who want to connect with this cohort need be conscious, not only of Gen Z’s biases and unique perspectives, but also of their own preconceptions and tendencies.
Affordability is a major problem that is finally getting the attention it needs. As important is directing that attention at the root cause of America’s cost-of-living crisis: inadequate wages.
For many investors, wealth is about more than financial outcomes. It represents values, aspirations, family priorities, and a desire for a meaningful future. Aligning your investments with personal purpose means that your financial strategy reflects not only what you want to achieve financially but also the priorities that guide your life and legacy.
Women consistently report that the quality of their relationship with an advisor is their number one driver of satisfaction. They are not just looking for investment expertise. They are looking for partnership and a sense that their advisor understands what matters most to them.
It’s no secret that college is expensive. And alongside mounting costs come almost as many strategies for mitigating them. When you need money to pay for college expenses, tapping your Roth IRA is one option you might consider.
The same forces that are straining the political marriage across the Atlantic are also creating a long‑term opportunity set in Europe. Advisors should position clients’ capital so that it benefits from that structural shift, while staying disciplined about quality, valuation, and risk.
Artificial intelligence might be the most transformative technology ever devised. Exactly how its effects will work through the economy is impossible to say, but serious disruption of one kind or another seems likely. Millions of jobs — in the end, maybe most jobs — could radically change, and many will disappear entirely.
Eli Lilly & Co. surprised Wall Street by raising its annual sales and profit forecast, as demand for obesity medications soared and thousands of patients started taking its new weight-loss pill before advertising for the drug had even begun.
The long-term shift from traditional pensions to defined contribution (DC) plans puts employees in charge of their retirement savings—and needing help.
Now and then, advisors need to get a sense of how Americans of all ages approach retirement planning. Back in March, Fidelity Investments released its 2026 State of Retirement Planning Study. The report took a deep dive into how different age groups of Americans are viewing retirement preparations.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of life insurance policies lapse or are surrendered for cash. The policyholders walk away with whatever the carrier offers. Their advisors sign off. Their attorneys see nothing. And nobody asks the obvious question. Could this policy have sold for more?
No one likes that heart-drop feeling of missing an important detail. And yet, this happens all too often when it comes to healthcare planning. Healthcare and health insurance are complex topics. Without an expert or the right resources, it can be very difficult for financial advisors to do on their own.
It’s tax season, and we’ve been reading a lot about taxes — and strategies for mitigating them. In this note, we’ll take a close look at one such strategy, known as leveraged long/short direct index tax-loss harvesting (LSDI), and explain how investors being pitched the strategy can assess whether it’s right for them.
Life Events
Access Is Valuable. But It Isn't the Same as Care.
For many high-net-worth individuals and families, access is part of everyday life. They can secure reservations at impossible-to-book restaurants, obtain tickets to sold-out events, or open doors that remain closed to most others. Healthcare often feels like it should work the same way. It doesn't.
3 Tips for Young Investors Building Wealth
Here are three tips for young investors setting out to build wealth but not sure where to start.
Sound Money: Be Careful What You Wish For
“Sound money,” in its purest form, is money whose supply a government cannot expand at will. Under a gold standard, every dollar is a claim on a fixed weight of gold. You can’t print gold. So the government can’t monetize its deficits, and the money supply grows only as fast as miners pull metal out of the ground, historically around 1.5% a year.
Trump Is Aiding a Golden Age for Renewable Energy
Given America’s political environment, you would be forgiven for thinking the country has slipped into a dark age of energy recidivism; burning oil, gas and coal left and right; and tossing wind and solar farms on the scrap heap.
The Importance of Starting with a Plan
A good financial plan may bring together every aspect of your financial life into a coordinated strategy, providing a clear view of where you are today and helping you prepare for where you want to go. By understanding your complete financial picture, you can make informed decisions that align with your goals, values, and long-term priorities.
A Quant and a Korean Dentist Push the Limits of Leveraged ETFs
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.
The Financial Skills Your College Student Needs Before Move-In Day
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.
Next‑Gen Advisor Succession: Talent, Tech, and Leadership for 2026 and Beyond
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.
Social Security’s Short-Term Crisis: What Advisors Must Prepare Clients For
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.
Are Your Investments Ready for Retirement? Key Adjustments to Make Now
You spent years building your retirement savings with one goal in mind: having enough to live comfortably when you stop working. The strategy that got you here probably leaned heavily on growth. But as retirement gets closer, that same approach may not be the right one to carry you through it.
Wall Street’s Private Banks Are Vying for AI’s Paper Money Elite
In the race to win a coveted role on the next mega US IPO and manage the ensuing riches, Wall Street’s wealth advisers are ramping up lending to founders and entrepreneurs based on the soaring values of their private companies.
On AI Bubbles & Keeping Clients Invested Without Ignoring Risk
Clients do not need us to predict whether the next 10% move is up or down. They need help staying invested in a way that matches their goals, their time horizon, and their actual tolerance for risk. Staying invested is easier when clients understand what each part of the portfolio is designed to do.
Is Your Team Ready for the Growing Shift to Financial Planning?
In the coming years, more investors will expect financial planning to be a key part of the services they receive from advisors. To be prepared, advisors will need technology to help streamline added workflows, as well as the expertise of certified financial planners to support their clients long term.
Long Term Rate Headache
Today we’ll consider the interaction between long-term interest rates, the Fed’s limited ability to influence them, inflation and the housing market. And because home prices are the biggest concern for many households, we’ll start with a look at the latest changes there. And then look at the Federal Reserve’s likely reaction.
AI Riches Can Supplant Crypto to Fill the Luxury Gap
The global luxury industry, which has been grappling with three years of lackluster sales, may gain some relief as wealth generated by artificial-intelligence companies and their trillions of dollars of initial public offerings finds its way into fancy fripperies.
Making Clients Matter: How Mercurio’s Principles Can Help Your Advisory Practice
When clients, specifically, feel they matter to their advisor, they engage more deeply in the planning process, follow through on recommendations, refer more frequently, and build lasting relationships that transcend market volatility.
The Buyer's Journey Has Changed. Has Your Marketing?
The buyer's journey for financial advisory services has fundamentally shifted. In 2026, prospects are making significant decisions and judgments before they ever speak to an advisor. Advisors who fail to recognize this shift are missing the most critical window in the entire client acquisition process.
Judgment Can’t Be Recruited
Wealth management firms are aware of the looming retirement wave and have put real effort into mitigating it through recruiting, training, succession planning, and technology to modernize the advisor workflow. But what’s truly at risk of being lost is the judgment that senior advisors have accumulated over decades
Biotech IPO Gains Crush AI Listings With Standout 55% Return
The biotechnology sector is stealing the US IPO market thunder from artificial intelligence-related listings, delivering standout returns as bankers line up a steady stream of summer debuts.
Home Affordability: Better Than Headlines Suggest
When you measure home affordability today against the metric that actually governs the check you write each month, the picture flips. By that measure, buying a home may be easier now than it was for the Boomers and Gen Xers who get blamed for everything.
Integrated Tax Retirement Planning: It’s Not What You Make; It’s What You Keep
A holistic approach to retirement planning involves careful thinking and conversation around investment strategy, tax efficiency, income needs, and estate planning. The goal, of course, is to minimize the drag of taxation on lifetime earnings and wealth accumulation while maintaining both compliance and attention to the client’s priorities and values.
The Most Expensive Financial Decisions Physicians Make (And They Aren’t Investment Decisions)
For physicians, major financial decisions may rarely affect just one area of their financial life. The real potential risk is failing to understand how those decisions impact everything else.
Why July is the Perfect Time for Proactive Tax Planning
For many investors and families, tax planning may become a year-end exercise squeezed into November and December. But by the time the calendar turns to the fourth quarter, many of the most effective opportunities are already limited.
Houses Are No Longer the Best Place for Your Money
The median house price in Nantucket, Massachusetts, is nearly $4 million. It was just $500,000 in 1995. This sounds like a stunning increase in one of the hottest and least accessible real estate markets in the country.
Stop Chasing a ‘Magic Number’ for Retirement
It used to be a considered something of a tawdry question, although it could be flattering as well: “What’s your number?” Nowadays, your inquisitor is probably asking about retirement — as in, how much you think you need to retire. And, as it often was before, it’s the wrong question.
The Survivor Stress Test: When the Couple’s Retirement Plan Becomes a Widow’s Plan
Widowhood does not happen on paper. It happens in the middle of grief, changing income, tax questions, family expectations, housing decisions, administrative demands, and a profound shift in identity. The math may still work, but the human operating system has changed. And that is why advisors need to stress test — not only for portfolio survival, but for survivor usability.
Clients Nearing Retirement? Try This New Flavor of Income ETFs
Right now, advisors are facing a massive generation of clients trying to navigate retirement. That’s challenging enough, but with inflation and the cost of living rising, assuaging those clients’ concerns and delivering for them has become much trickier. Income ETFs can help meet those clients’ goals, with new, daily covered call ETFs an appealing option.
250 Years In, and the Case for America Has Never Been Stronger
Close to 40 years ago, I moved from Canada to the U.S. after acquiring a controlling interest in U.S. Global Investors. I’ve built my entire life and career here, and in all that time, I’ve never stopped marveling at my adopted country.
Mid-Year Money Check-In: Is Your Plan Still Working?
Six months is enough time for a lot to change. Your income, your expenses, your goals, and even the broader economy may look different than they did at the start of the year. And a plan that made sense in January might not fit the reality you're living in now.
America's 3.5-Second Miracle
America has proven that men and women not only can make their own history, but they can make it as they please, with circumstances chosen by themselves.
Celebrate Financial Independence Day: What True Freedom Looks Like for High Earners
This July, the United States marks its 250th anniversary, and that has many Americans thinking about what independence really means. In many ways, genuine independence is about more than political rights. It’s financial.
Planning Considerations for State Death Taxes
Federal estate taxes may not affect most households, but state death taxes can still be significant. Learn key planning considerations and strategies to help preserve wealth.
AI Washing and the Advisor Shortage: Why Getting Technology Decisions Right Has Never Mattered More
The firms that operate rigorous vendor evaluation will compound two advantages simultaneously: They buy the right tools now, and their advisors trust them when the next generation of AI arrives. In a decade that will be defined by the industry's capacity to do more with fewer people, that trust is a strategic asset.
What Most Advisors Get Wrong When Financing a Book of Business
Acquiring a book of business is one of the fastest ways an independent advisor can grow AUM, expand a client base, and build long-term enterprise value. It is also one of the most financially consequential decisions you will ever make — and most advisors approach it underprepared.
83(b) Election for Startup Equity: What Founders Need to Know
Startup equity decisions often happen before a founder has a full advisory team in place. Formation documents get signed, vesting schedules are approved, and the tax consequences may not feel urgent because the company is still young.
Estate Plans Designed Before OBBBA May Now Be Costing Your Clients Money
The OBBBA created something the industry rarely gets: a defined planning window without a hard deadline attached. Exemptions are historically high, the law has no sunset, and there's a real body of existing work that needs revisiting. The advisors who treat this as an opportunity, rather than waiting for a client to ask, will drive much stronger outcomes compared to those who don’t.
How 2026’s Philanthropic ETFs ASD & DUTY Invest
The ETF ecosystem is always changing and growing. Thanks to the ETF’s flexibility, transparency, and tradability, it can help investors achieve plenty of bespoke goals. That even includes investing with an eye towards philanthropic causes as with philanthropic ETFs ASD and DUTY.
Managing Family Reputation Capital in a Digital-First World
In a digital-first environment, reputation is no longer a byproduct of success; it is an asset class in its own right. For ultra-high-net-worth families, reputation capital can influence investment opportunities, business partnerships, philanthropic impact, and multigenerational legacy. It can also be exposed, amplified, or undermined in real time.
When Should a Founder Hire a Wealth Advisor? A Guide for Entrepreneurs
The most consequential decisions a founder will face, equity gifting before valuations increase, trust structures timed ahead of a sale, QSBS qualification built while eligibility still exists, all must be decided before liquidity. Once the transaction closes, much of what was available earlier is simply gone.
Money Illusion — A User’s Manual
You know the term “Money Illusion”: mistakenly believing that today’s dollars have the same purchasing power as the dollars of ten or twenty years ago. As with any illusion, fake replaces real, image supplants fact, and fog obscures truth. We’re here to help you sort it out.
Social Insecurity, Surprise Edition
We all know that Congress is never going to allow Social Security not to be paid. This begs a number of questions. Will the shortfall be addressed by tax increases, benefit reductions, increasing the retirement age, changing the inflation measures, means testing or some combination of these and other solutions?
MassMutual on Strategies for Maximizing Retirement Income
In an effort to streamline retirement income planning, MassMutual Strategic Distributors has launched a behavioral framework.
Navigating the Impending Advisor Retirement Wave
A massive advisor retirement wave is reshaping wealth management. Discover how $2.5 trillion in assets may fuel industry transformation.
When Clients Ask About Their Tax Bill, the Answer Might Be Philanthropy
Philanthropy conversations can open the door to multigenerational planning, as clients can bring in their children to contribute to discussions of shared values and charitable goals. For advisors, that creates an opportunity to become not just a financial resource, but a trusted partner who helps clients connect wealth with purpose.
A Midyear Retirement Readiness Check
For many investors, retirement planning becomes most tangible at the start and end of the year. Goals are set in January, then revisited during year-end tax and financial planning discussions. But the middle of the year offers an equally valuable opportunity: a chance to evaluate progress, reassess assumptions, and make adjustments before small issues become larger challenges.
The K-Shaped Economy: Why The Middle Class Moved Up.
The K-shaped economy has become shorthand for a tidy story. The rich pull away while everyone else falls behind. It fits the mood, and it makes for a sharp headline. The problem is that it’s mostly wrong.
The G-Shaped Economy
Despite everything we have seen in the economic data, which can be confusing, the US consumer has refused to crack. My friend Dr. Ed Yardeni, whom I have known since '98, has the most compelling explanation I have heard for why.
The Hidden Cost of Financial Fragmentation: Why Investment Decisions Cannot Happen in Isolation
For many investors, wealth management still feels segmented. Investments are handled in one meeting, taxes in another, estate planning somewhere else, and major life decisions often happen independently of all three.
Mid-Year 2026: 9 Tax Planning Strategies We Are Working On With Clients Right Now
We are halfway through 2026, and the planning priorities that have defined our client work this year are in focus. Some of what we are doing is recurring: fixing compliance errors, correcting quarterly estimate miscalculations, and keeping tax positions aligned with economic reality.
Can AI Financial Advice Help You Retire More Comfortably?
When someone told me recently that her favorite use of AI is for financial advice, I was horrified. I am a retirement economist, and my first reaction was self pity: Now I know how doctors feel when people use AI for medical questions.
A Universe of Potential Opportunity Lies Beyond the Public Markets
As a symbol of economic vibrancy and opportunity, it’s hard to beat the public market. Its storied venues, where everything from butter to trillion-dollar tech companies are bought and sold, are a foundation of the modern world.
The Value of an Integrated Wealth Strategy
Wealth today is more complex than ever. Investments, taxes, estate planning, insurance, and even family dynamics are deeply interconnected, and decisions in one area can have meaningful consequences in another.
How to Pass Down Your Values Along with Your Wealth
Every family has a money story. It gets passed down quietly, invisibly, in the way families talk around the dinner table or on long walks together.
Goldman Sachs Didn't Partner With Anthropic to Write Better Emails
Goldman Sachs announced a partnership with Anthropic in early May, though you probably shouldn’t view it as just a cool innovation story. It is infrastructure in motion. When institutions like Goldman move, pay attention to what problem they believe they are solving.
The Future Arrives Unevenly
What is unusual about today, and I mean genuinely unusual, historically unusual, is that the people building the equivalent of Newcomen's engine today know exactly (or think they do) what they are building. They are not just pumping water. They “know” the vast potential.
The Retirement Hack Hiding Inside Most DC Plans
Many debates in defined contribution (DC) circles focus on fees, new asset classes, and ever more complex solutions. But the biggest improvement available to plan participants may come from something far simpler: how their fixed income is managed.
May Is 529 Month: Five Action Steps Every Family Should Take
May is 529 Month. As college costs rise, learn five practical ways to maximize your plan’s tax benefits, flexibility and growth potential to prepare for the future.
How 529 Plans Can Help Fund Your Family’s Future
College costs continue to rise, and for many families, education is one of the most meaningful investments they will make. Preparing for those expenses often requires planning years, sometimes decades, in advance.
Graduation Season and Financial Independence: Helping Young Adults Build a Strong Financial Start
Watching your children step into financial independence is one of the most rewarding and complex milestones families experience. As young adults begin earning income, managing expenses, and making major life decisions, the habits and financial knowledge they develop can shape their long-term success.
AI Might Finally Level the Playing Field for Advisors, Brokers
AI is unlikely to replace wealth managers — at least not in the foreseeable future. But it now has the power to expose the gaps between genuine, client-first investment advice and other approaches in a way the industry has not yet seen.
Retirement Income Security on Your Terms
Vanguard research suggests that one practical answer may lie in pairing traditional target-date funds with a modest allocation to deferred-income annuities (DIAs).
The Many Utilities of Retirement
What do “the utilities of retirement” refer to? Buy gas and electric stocks and live off the dividends? No. Not in this article. We’re talking about utility as an economic term of art, meaning reward, pleasure, and satisfaction.
Seeking Innovation Beyond Tech? Insight on Healthcare Stocks
In our Q2 Equity Market Outlook, we identified healthcare as one area where artificial intelligence (AI) is having tangible benefits and presenting investors with new expressions of the AI investment theme. While healthcare may glean some luster from an AI halo, the investment case is also one of counterbalance to the AI juggernaut.
Structuring a Family Foundation That Endures
For many ultra-high-net-worth families, philanthropy is not simply about giving; it is about creating meaningful, lasting impact. A thoughtfully structured family foundation can become a powerful vehicle for aligning wealth with values, supporting communities, and engaging future generations in purposeful stewardship.
Will I Be Replaced? Decoding the $1.5T AI Disruption in Finance
Explore how Women in ETFs & CFAOC experts believe AI will supplement, not replace, financial professionals.
In This Job Market, Women Have the Upper Hand
America is fast becoming a country with two economies: a stagnant one for men and a growing one for women. So far this year, the US has created more than 165,000 private-sector jobs, and 72% of them went to women. To some extent this reflects a structural change in the economy, as growth is in industries more likely to employ women, such as healthcare.
Roth Conversion Strategy for High Earners: When It Makes Sense and When It Does Not
The most attractive conversion opportunities appear when income temporarily drops. Early retirement before Social Security and RMDs begin is the classic window. Sabbaticals, business transition years, the gap after a company sale, years with unusually low K-1 or bonus income. These are all potential openings.
Better Than Feared, Not Better Than Required
Our reading is that this is a meaningful positive at the surface — a real-time confirmation that the most pessimistic recession scripts written in March can be set aside — but it is also a print that fails to alter the structural calculus we have been describing all year. The labor market is steady. The trajectory of fiscal policy, monetary credibility, and dollar reserve status is not.
What Is The College for Financial Planning?
The College for Financial Planning is a degree-granting institution offering various financial certification programs. It provides graduate degree, non-degree and continuing professional education programs for students. Founded in 1972, today it is part of Kaplan Financial and has trained over 165,000 professionals.
Private Assets in Target-Date Funds: A Balanced Assessment
Access to private equity, private credit, private infrastructure, and private real estate assets can potentially improve long-term investment outcomes for participants.
Inflation Is Americans' Biggest Financial Worry and It's Not Even Close
The inflation dragon is alive and well. Last November, Donald Trump called himself “the affordability president.” However, it appears that the message is falling flat with your average American.
Tax Return Filed? Help Clients Start Planning for Next Year Now
Once clients’ taxes are filed, most assume the story is over for another year. For many, filing season ends with relief, frustration, or confusion — a refund that feels arbitrary, a payment that stings, or little clarity about what to do differently next time. That’s where you, as the advisor, can step in.
AI Could Save Trillions in U.S. Healthcare Costs. These Companies Are Leading the Way.
Early detection, I believe, is one of the smartest investments you can make, whether we’re talking about your portfolio or your health.
Setting Up Your Practice for Scaled Growth
Scalable personalization means saving time while not sacrificing the “secret sauce” that is unique to your practice. Time savings can come from scaling portfolio construction via model portfolios or direct indexing, adding tools or talent to complement strengths, and using technology like AI.
The Business Owner’s Succession Timeline: Planning Your Exit, Step by Step
For business owners, your company is more than an asset; it’s your livelihood, your legacy, and often your largest source of wealth. Yet too many owners delay succession planning until it’s urgent, limiting options and potentially eroding value. A well-structured exit isn’t a last-minute decision; it’s a multi-year strategy.
529 Plan Tax Deductions for Every State
Opening a 529 plan is a tax-advantaged way to set aside money for college. The money you contribute can grow tax-deferred and qualified withdrawals are tax-free.
U.S. Inflation Measures Tell Two Different Stories
Something unusual is happening with U.S. inflation data. While the core Consumer Price Index (CPI) has looked relatively cool recently, core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) inflation has risen sharply.
Crossing the Digital Divide: 6 Keys for Marketing to Gen Z
Gen Z is coming of age in a world very different from that of their parents. Advisors who want to connect with this cohort need be conscious, not only of Gen Z’s biases and unique perspectives, but also of their own preconceptions and tendencies.
Overpaid CEOs Are the Wrong Target for Affordability Warriors
Affordability is a major problem that is finally getting the attention it needs. As important is directing that attention at the root cause of America’s cost-of-living crisis: inadequate wages.
Aligning Investments with Your Personal Purpose
For many investors, wealth is about more than financial outcomes. It represents values, aspirations, family priorities, and a desire for a meaningful future. Aligning your investments with personal purpose means that your financial strategy reflects not only what you want to achieve financially but also the priorities that guide your life and legacy.
Rethinking Retention in the $34 Trillion Wealth Transfer
Women consistently report that the quality of their relationship with an advisor is their number one driver of satisfaction. They are not just looking for investment expertise. They are looking for partnership and a sense that their advisor understands what matters most to them.
Pros and Cons of Using a Roth IRA to Pay for College
It’s no secret that college is expensive. And alongside mounting costs come almost as many strategies for mitigating them. When you need money to pay for college expenses, tapping your Roth IRA is one option you might consider.
A NATO ‘Divorce’ in Slow Motion – And Why It Matters for Client Portfolios
The same forces that are straining the political marriage across the Atlantic are also creating a long‑term opportunity set in Europe. Advisors should position clients’ capital so that it benefits from that structural shift, while staying disciplined about quality, valuation, and risk.
Taxing Artificial Intelligence Would Be a Big Mistake
Artificial intelligence might be the most transformative technology ever devised. Exactly how its effects will work through the economy is impossible to say, but serious disruption of one kind or another seems likely. Millions of jobs — in the end, maybe most jobs — could radically change, and many will disappear entirely.
Lilly Boosts Sales View to $85 Billion on Obesity-Drug Surge
Eli Lilly & Co. surprised Wall Street by raising its annual sales and profit forecast, as demand for obesity medications soared and thousands of patients started taking its new weight-loss pill before advertising for the drug had even begun.
DC Sponsors Can Help Turn the Retirement Puzzle into a Plan
The long-term shift from traditional pensions to defined contribution (DC) plans puts employees in charge of their retirement savings—and needing help.
Costs vs. Retirement: The Case for TIPS ETFs
Now and then, advisors need to get a sense of how Americans of all ages approach retirement planning. Back in March, Fidelity Investments released its 2026 State of Retirement Planning Study. The report took a deep dive into how different age groups of Americans are viewing retirement preparations.
The Fiduciary Question Nobody Is Asking About Life Insurance
Every year, hundreds of thousands of life insurance policies lapse or are surrendered for cash. The policyholders walk away with whatever the carrier offers. Their advisors sign off. Their attorneys see nothing. And nobody asks the obvious question. Could this policy have sold for more?
Learning From Missed Opportunities: How Financial Advisors Can Be Proactive, Not Reactive
No one likes that heart-drop feeling of missing an important detail. And yet, this happens all too often when it comes to healthcare planning. Healthcare and health insurance are complex topics. Without an expert or the right resources, it can be very difficult for financial advisors to do on their own.
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: A(nother) Look at Tax Aware Long/Short Direct Indexing
It’s tax season, and we’ve been reading a lot about taxes — and strategies for mitigating them. In this note, we’ll take a close look at one such strategy, known as leveraged long/short direct index tax-loss harvesting (LSDI), and explain how investors being pitched the strategy can assess whether it’s right for them.