Vanguard research challenges four myths about women investors, revealing what female clients value from financial advisors, from expertise to collaboration.
What does Tina Turner have in common with a US Treasury bond? They both show that the meaning of safety is not always straightforward.
Advancements in technology, combined with significant stock market gains in recent years, have created a new set of opportunities—and challenges—for investors. For example, investors holding a concentrated position in a highly appreciated stock may face a difficult trade-off between the risk of a market downturn and the potentially significant tax cost of diversifying the position.
For many investors, a 401(k) is simply a retirement savings account. For high-net-worth families, however, it can become a sophisticated planning tool that supports tax efficiency, wealth accumulation, and long-term legacy objectives.
When markets become volatile, many investors gravitate toward assets they perceive as “safe.” Cash, certificates of deposit (CDs), money market funds, U.S. Treasury securities, and high-quality bonds can all play an important role in a diversified portfolio. But “safe” doesn’t necessarily mean “risk-free.”
Target-date funds have become a staple qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) because they help participants invest appropriately without requiring them to act. But as retirement nears, income needs become more pressing and financial situations diverge—a situation dynamic defaults seek to address.
The alternative is to be proactive by helping a grieving client name and address the financial concerns that loss creates, without ever rushing them. Doing that well takes two things: an understanding of how grief actually unfolds and a deliberate process for the conversation itself.
As clients come to advisory shops more informed, due to the plethora of financial advice available online, firms will need to be able to “stress test the information or bias” they arrive with. A comprehensive team, with training across advisory areas, can offer clients more depth of service.
The value of actively bringing the quieter partner into the conversation by turning toward them, making eye contact, and asking for their thoughts. Even if the answer is still a shrug, the question signals that their view belongs in the conversation.
After several challenging years, important parts of the health care sector appear to be reaching an inflection point. Policy uncertainty has weighed on pharmaceutical companies, constrained biotech funding has pressured the drug-development ecosystem and the normalization of pandemic-era has challenged select tool and device companies. More recently, however, several of these headwinds have begun to moderate.
For many investors, years of disciplined saving, equity compensation, business ownership, or a handful of exceptional investments can produce a portfolio that grows faster than expected. While that may sound like an ideal outcome, it can also create what we often think of as a wealth overhang: a situation in which the complexity of your wealth begins to outpace the financial plan supporting it.
A recent plunge in US labor force participation has sparked competing theories about whether persistent drivers — like aging and immigration — or more temporary seasonal shifts are to blame. Any evidence in upcoming jobs reports could reshape how policymakers view the labor market.
Anchoring is one of the most powerful—and underestimated—forces in financial decision‑making. Once an emotional label attaches itself to an idea, it becomes the lens through which people interpret everything that follows.
Americans like to spend money, and they’re good at it. But they also feel kind of bad about it.
Should the recent value rotation be viewed as a regime shift-driven change in market preference, or a simple reversal trade? We think there is a compelling case to be made for the former. In a regime of higher interest rates and stubbornly above-target inflation, the market is increasingly focused on capex intensity, free cash flow conversion, and the cost of capital.
An estimated $124 trillion is expected to transfer through 2048, including about $105 trillion to heirs. We have spent a great deal of time estimating the value that will transfer from one generation to the next. However, if advisors expect to maintain the value received, we should be equally interested in whether the value we provide in exchange is evolving with it.
There is a reasonable argument that population decline is not a catastrophe. Fewer people means less pressure on housing, energy, and food. Automation may cover some of the missing labor, and countries have absorbed demographic shifts before. Those adjustments take decades, though, and you will likely retire before they finish.
The first two articles in this series were about behavior. This one is about arithmetic. There are three numbers that decide most of your investing life. Let’s do the math Wall Street skips, one number at a time.
The TDF industry is an oligopoly where four firms dominate more than 75% of the $5 trillion market. Competitors that are desperate for market share have turned to “managed” QDIA accounts — a gimmick masquerading as personalization.
Funding a college education can be one of the biggest financial goals for a family, and it often requires a comprehensive approach.
I was recently asked how to instill accountability and urgency in this next generation. Set expectations and offer guidance. Remember, this is a generation that largely grew up not speaking to other people and definitely not calling anyone.
We think the gap between women’s confidence and ability underscores that effective plan communications must educate, engage and empower participants across the board. Women may worry more, but they’re clearly knowledgeable and forward-thinking—qualities that can be reinforced. Men may register more confidence but could still use refreshers on financial basics.
Macro strategists and global portfolio managers have their hands full on this final week of August. As we said recently, this is no time to mail it in before Labor Day in the U.S. And for equity traders and bottom-up analysts, NVIDIA (NVDA) writes the storyline in the sessions ahead. The world's most valuable company reports Q2 results after the bell on Wednesday.
Today, many clients expect their financial advisor to be involved in the estate planning process — and they’re willing to switch advisors to find one who offers this expertise, according to a July report by digital estate planning platform Trust & Will.
The truth about the runaway costs of healthcare turns out to be a little more complex than any single source we've named. Hospitals, insurers, private equity, administrators, pharmaceutical companies… pull the thread on any one and we land in the same overextended, bloated, extractive system.
U.S. debt may not be at an immediate breaking point, but persistent deficits, higher rates, and rising interest costs are narrowing fiscal space and market tolerance.
The headline U.S. unemployment rate has been falling for several months, but a closer look at who is leaving the workforce – and who isn’t entering or returning to it – reveals why average wages are stagnating, and why labor markets aren’t a source of inflationary pressure.
Agentic AI won't scale until it owns the meeting cycle—not by replacing advisors or acting without oversight, but by maintaining operational continuity: assembling context, preserving memory, and driving approved actions through to completion.
America remains the best country in the world to get rich. Some see this as cause for celebration, while others view it as evidence of a broken capitalist system. As an economist, I am less interested in debating whether billionaires (or trillionaires) should exist than in asking what the alternative is.
A divorce. A house fire. A serious accident or illness. The death of a family member. Caring for elderly parents. Life events like these are hard and emotionally draining. To make things worse, they also require us to deal with finances and make significant, complex money decisions.
For savers, it drives them to seek bigger and bigger returns to keep up with the government’s monetary devaluation. At first, a simple savings account with a relatively low yield will do the trick. But as the dollar loses purchasing power, you need a better return to keep up. So, maybe you stick your money in a higher-interest-yielding CD.
We are in a debt trap. Our political process can’t reduce spending and/or raise taxes enough to balance the budget, so the debt grows and grows. This has to end, and I think it will do so in the event I’ve called The Great Reset.
Recent trends are sending confusing signals about the health of the U.S. labor market. Since late 2025, the employment/population ratio has moved lower even as the unemployment rate has declined.
Life rarely stands still, and for families caring for a loved one with special needs, change can introduce both emotional and financial complexity. Marriage, divorce, the loss of a parent, an unexpected inheritance, or shifts in public policy may all significantly impact eligibility for benefits, long-term financial security, and family dynamics.
College planning begins long before college. Learn why welcoming a new child is the ideal time to build a strong financial foundation, explore education savings options and prepare for your family’s future.
Clients' financial lives don't operate in separate silos, and their advisory team shouldn't either. Well-designed partnerships should clearly define responsibilities, compensation, compliance obligations, and client communication. Transparent agreements create better experiences for both clients and professionals.
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.
Life Events
Debunking 4 Myths for Financial Advisors About Women Investors
Vanguard research challenges four myths about women investors, revealing what female clients value from financial advisors, from expertise to collaboration.
What Bond Investors Can Learn From Tina Turner’s Career
What does Tina Turner have in common with a US Treasury bond? They both show that the meaning of safety is not always straightforward.
Planning Considerations for a Direct Indexing Program
Advancements in technology, combined with significant stock market gains in recent years, have created a new set of opportunities—and challenges—for investors. For example, investors holding a concentrated position in a highly appreciated stock may face a difficult trade-off between the risk of a market downturn and the potentially significant tax cost of diversifying the position.
Advanced 401(k) Optimization Strategies for High-Net-Worth Families
For many investors, a 401(k) is simply a retirement savings account. For high-net-worth families, however, it can become a sophisticated planning tool that supports tax efficiency, wealth accumulation, and long-term legacy objectives.
The Hidden Risks in “Safe” Assets: What Investors Often Overlook
When markets become volatile, many investors gravitate toward assets they perceive as “safe.” Cash, certificates of deposit (CDs), money market funds, U.S. Treasury securities, and high-quality bonds can all play an important role in a diversified portfolio. But “safe” doesn’t necessarily mean “risk-free.”
Rethinking Dynamic Defaults to Tackle Retirement Income Security
Target-date funds have become a staple qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) because they help participants invest appropriately without requiring them to act. But as retirement nears, income needs become more pressing and financial situations diverge—a situation dynamic defaults seek to address.
What To Say When a Client Loses a Spouse
The alternative is to be proactive by helping a grieving client name and address the financial concerns that loss creates, without ever rushing them. Doing that well takes two things: an understanding of how grief actually unfolds and a deliberate process for the conversation itself.
How Firms Can Get Ahead of the Industry’s Talent Shortage Dilemma
As clients come to advisory shops more informed, due to the plethora of financial advice available online, firms will need to be able to “stress test the information or bias” they arrive with. A comprehensive team, with training across advisory areas, can offer clients more depth of service.
How Financial Advisors For Couples Can Include A Silent Partner
The value of actively bringing the quieter partner into the conversation by turning toward them, making eye contact, and asking for their thoughts. Even if the answer is still a shrug, the question signals that their view belongs in the conversation.
Health Care’s Next Act: Tailwinds Emerging Across R&D Cycle
After several challenging years, important parts of the health care sector appear to be reaching an inflection point. Policy uncertainty has weighed on pharmaceutical companies, constrained biotech funding has pressured the drug-development ecosystem and the normalization of pandemic-era has challenged select tool and device companies. More recently, however, several of these headwinds have begun to moderate.
Managing “Wealth Overhang:” What to Do When Your Portfolio Outpaces Your Plan
For many investors, years of disciplined saving, equity compensation, business ownership, or a handful of exceptional investments can produce a portfolio that grows faster than expected. While that may sound like an ideal outcome, it can also create what we often think of as a wealth overhang: a situation in which the complexity of your wealth begins to outpace the financial plan supporting it.
Fewer Americans are Working or Looking for a Job. Experts Can’t Agree on Why
A recent plunge in US labor force participation has sparked competing theories about whether persistent drivers — like aging and immigration — or more temporary seasonal shifts are to blame. Any evidence in upcoming jobs reports could reshape how policymakers view the labor market.
Rethinking High Yield: Why Old Anchors May Be Holding Investors Back
Anchoring is one of the most powerful—and underestimated—forces in financial decision‑making. Once an emotional label attaches itself to an idea, it becomes the lens through which people interpret everything that follows.
Joyful Spending Is America’s Guilty Pleasure
Americans like to spend money, and they’re good at it. But they also feel kind of bad about it.
The Cash Flow Case for Value
Should the recent value rotation be viewed as a regime shift-driven change in market preference, or a simple reversal trade? We think there is a compelling case to be made for the former. In a regime of higher interest rates and stubbornly above-target inflation, the market is increasingly focused on capex intensity, free cash flow conversion, and the cost of capital.
We’re Asking the Wrong Question About the Great Wealth Transfer
An estimated $124 trillion is expected to transfer through 2048, including about $105 trillion to heirs. We have spent a great deal of time estimating the value that will transfer from one generation to the next. However, if advisors expect to maintain the value received, we should be equally interested in whether the value we provide in exchange is evolving with it.
How Might Declining Population Affect Your Social Security?
There is a reasonable argument that population decline is not a catastrophe. Fewer people means less pressure on housing, energy, and food. Automation may cover some of the missing labor, and countries have absorbed demographic shifts before. Those adjustments take decades, though, and you will likely retire before they finish.
Loss: Why Crashes, Timing & Valuations Matter (Chapter 3 of 5)
The first two articles in this series were about behavior. This one is about arithmetic. There are three numbers that decide most of your investing life. Let’s do the math Wall Street skips, one number at a time.
The QDIA Illusion: Why Your "Managed" Account Isn't Managed
The TDF industry is an oligopoly where four firms dominate more than 75% of the $5 trillion market. Competitors that are desperate for market share have turned to “managed” QDIA accounts — a gimmick masquerading as personalization.
High School Action Plan Part 1: Freshman and Sophomore Years
Funding a college education can be one of the biggest financial goals for a family, and it often requires a comprehensive approach.
Managing the Next Generation Can Require a Thoughtful Approach
I was recently asked how to instill accountability and urgency in this next generation. Set expectations and offer guidance. Remember, this is a generation that largely grew up not speaking to other people and definitely not calling anyone.
How Can DC Plan Sponsors Bridge the Gender Gap in Retirement Confidence?
We think the gap between women’s confidence and ability underscores that effective plan communications must educate, engage and empower participants across the board. Women may worry more, but they’re clearly knowledgeable and forward-thinking—qualities that can be reinforced. Men may register more confidence but could still use refreshers on financial basics.
NVIDIA Q2 Earnings & Outlook Matter More This Time. Here's Why
Macro strategists and global portfolio managers have their hands full on this final week of August. As we said recently, this is no time to mail it in before Labor Day in the U.S. And for equity traders and bottom-up analysts, NVIDIA (NVDA) writes the storyline in the sessions ahead. The world's most valuable company reports Q2 results after the bell on Wednesday.
Why Clients Want Their Advisor Involved in Estate Planning
Today, many clients expect their financial advisor to be involved in the estate planning process — and they’re willing to switch advisors to find one who offers this expertise, according to a July report by digital estate planning platform Trust & Will.
Healthcare Pt. 2: Show Me The Incentive
The truth about the runaway costs of healthcare turns out to be a little more complex than any single source we've named. Hospitals, insurers, private equity, administrators, pharmaceutical companies… pull the thread on any one and we land in the same overextended, bloated, extractive system.
America's New Debt Reality
U.S. debt may not be at an immediate breaking point, but persistent deficits, higher rates, and rising interest costs are narrowing fiscal space and market tolerance.
Counterintuitive Labor Market Shifts Constrain Measured U.S. Wage Gains
The headline U.S. unemployment rate has been falling for several months, but a closer look at who is leaving the workforce – and who isn’t entering or returning to it – reveals why average wages are stagnating, and why labor markets aren’t a source of inflationary pressure.
Agentic AI Won’t Scale in Wealth Management Until It "Owns" the Advisor-Client Meeting Cycle
Agentic AI won't scale until it owns the meeting cycle—not by replacing advisors or acting without oversight, but by maintaining operational continuity: assembling context, preserving memory, and driving approved actions through to completion.
Is It Better to Be Rich in Europe or in America?
America remains the best country in the world to get rich. Some see this as cause for celebration, while others view it as evidence of a broken capitalist system. As an economist, I am less interested in debating whether billionaires (or trillionaires) should exist than in asking what the alternative is.
Managing Money Responsibilities During Emotional Hard Times
A divorce. A house fire. A serious accident or illness. The death of a family member. Caring for elderly parents. Life events like these are hard and emotionally draining. To make things worse, they also require us to deal with finances and make significant, complex money decisions.
Sports Betting the Newest Gen Z Investment Strategy in the War Against Inflation
For savers, it drives them to seek bigger and bigger returns to keep up with the government’s monetary devaluation. At first, a simple savings account with a relatively low yield will do the trick. But as the dollar loses purchasing power, you need a better return to keep up. So, maybe you stick your money in a higher-interest-yielding CD.
Caught in a Debt Trap
We are in a debt trap. Our political process can’t reduce spending and/or raise taxes enough to balance the budget, so the debt grows and grows. This has to end, and I think it will do so in the event I’ve called The Great Reset.
As Older Workers Retire, Labor Costs Ease
Recent trends are sending confusing signals about the health of the U.S. labor market. Since late 2025, the employment/population ratio has moved lower even as the unemployment rate has declined.
Updating Your Plan for Life’s Changes: Marriage, Divorce, Inheritance, and Policy Shifts
Life rarely stands still, and for families caring for a loved one with special needs, change can introduce both emotional and financial complexity. Marriage, divorce, the loss of a parent, an unexpected inheritance, or shifts in public policy may all significantly impact eligibility for benefits, long-term financial security, and family dynamics.
College Planning Starts Earlier Than You Think
College planning begins long before college. Learn why welcoming a new child is the ideal time to build a strong financial foundation, explore education savings options and prepare for your family’s future.
Partnerships, Not Silos: A Better Model for Serving Affluent Clients
Clients' financial lives don't operate in separate silos, and their advisory team shouldn't either. Well-designed partnerships should clearly define responsibilities, compensation, compliance obligations, and client communication. Transparent agreements create better experiences for both clients and professionals.
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.