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.
Leading with bad news can feel wrong and even confrontational at some level, but the psychology research supports it, the behavioral finance supports it, the career math supports it, and the clients who stay through multiple cycles apply the final confirmation stamp.
Some people do much better with change than others. It isn’t that they can’t change or they actively resist it. Rather, they experience more fear, more concern and they need more clarity about what the change means to them.
On May 26, 1896, Charles Dow calculated a simple arithmetic average of 12 industrial stocks and arrived at a closing value of 40.94. Now, exactly 130 years later, that same benchmark has crossed the historic 50,000 threshold.
Private markets (private equity, private credit and real estate) have historically delivered an “illiquidity premium”. Institutions and family offices have recognized this illiquidity premium and have historically allocated significant capital to capture it.
Chasing performance by deviating from a benchmark has long been the hallmark of active managers. But it may be time for a rethink. Our research suggests that investors allocating to core equities should consider refreshing the criteria they use to identify portfolio managers that can consistently beat their benchmarks.
Investors need to understand what they own, how it may perform in different environments, and why it is structured the way it is. When advisors build this education into their work, it gives clients the discipline and expectations they need to stay the course when volatility rears its head.
The percentage-of-assets fee is so embedded in advisory economics that most firms treat it as a fixed constant rather than a business decision. It shapes how you staff, how you plan, and how you define the relationship with clients. But the AUM model is neither as old nor as inevitable as it feels.
I’m all about trying to build bridges and fix things, and I am also a realist. I often tell clients there is a right way, and then there is what you can get done within your environment. I’ll always lean toward the second one.
Access to private equity, private credit, private infrastructure, and private real estate assets can potentially improve long-term investment outcomes for participants.
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.
Listening is a skill that can be taught, can be learned, and can be practiced. If a client doesn’t think their advisor is really listening to them, they might take that opportunity to find another advisor who does.
Robots are coming to the economy. It is inevitable, really, and there is nothing that will stop it. At some point in the not-so-distant future, robots will infiltrate every aspect of our lives, from office work and manufacturing to service work and trade skills, and even your home. Here are some numbers for you.
The U.S. stock market hit a record high on January 27, 2026, as investors prepared for additional Fed rate cuts, fiscal stimulus, and fading inflation.
If you read my column, you know I am a proponent of following the SHIFT format. First, get the team together to identify who you want to be as a team and what success looks like to you. Make sure everyone is headed toward the same outcome and cares about the same goals.
You don’t have to agree with Chater and Loewenstein’s “crowding-out” hypothesis or their policy prescriptions to benefit from It’s on You, which will, at a minimum, allow the reader to identify and deconstruct i-frame PR when they come across it.
For ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families, wealth brings opportunity, but also extraordinary complexity. Multi-generational estate planning, concentrated equity positions, private investments, tax-efficient strategies, philanthropic structures, and family governance decisions all intersect in ways that demand thoughtful oversight.
As the spring session for my graduate class, Leadership Lab, comes to a close I am in Chicago working with middle management leaders in the financial advisory space on leading teams. It seems appropriate at this time to offer some reminders about simple things you can do to be a better leader for your team.
Every prospect is different. They have different interests, different decision timelines, and different levels of engagement. Treating them all the same because your CRM can't segment effectively is leaving money on the table.
The stock market selloff between February 28 and April 14 produced one of the more instructive market lessons in recent memory. It isn’t because of what the market did, but because of what investors did in response.
As always, I hope you’re having a good 2026 and that all is well with you, my readers, and your family and friends. Here’s my latest.
Travel on all roads and streets increased in February. The 12-month moving average was up 0.19% month-over-month and was up 1.07% year-over-year. However, if we factor in population growth, the 12-month MA of the civilian population-adjusted data (age 16-and-over) was up 0.16% month-over-month and up 0.36% year-over-year.
For many, the statistics surrounding autism aren’t just numbers on a page — they are lived experiences. I am one of those people; I have an extended family member on the spectrum, and I’ve seen how people have slowly begun to better understand and support the neurodivergent community.
When I teach my graduate classes in leadership, we talk about the essence of motivation. Even the best leaders cannot motivate other people to do something. They can create an environment within which the person becomes self-motivated. But motivation is intrinsic.
Behavioral finance is the study of how emotions, cognitive biases, and human behavior may influence financial decisions, often in ways that can conflict with logic, data, and long-term goals.
Jason Chura, head of global consulting at Voya Investment Management, outlines a behavioral framework to help advisors project confidence, build credibility, and guide clients through uncertainty.
Learn how advisors can optimize late-start 529 plans using superfunding, SECURE 2.0 Roth rollovers, and multi-scenario modeling.
Gambling is rising in popularity, blurring lines between betting vs. investing. Misunderstanding the key differences can endanger financial security.
Given the combined weight of these markets within EM portfolios, Templeton Global Investments believe incremental improvements in capital discipline could have a meaningful impact on aggregate index-level earnings quality.
Whatever you end up doing, make sure you are authentic and honest in your approach. Clients see right through a request or ask that you are uncomfortable making. You have to know what you want, find words that are right for you, and proceed accordingly.
Generational wealth doesn’t disappear because families fail to invest well. It disappears because the knowledge, communication, and decision-making structures surrounding that wealth were never intentionally passed down.
It has now been over three years since GMO launched our Small Cap Quality Strategy in September 2022. During that period, the world has shifted, and we have navigated unexpected market conditions.
Systematic indexing removes the psychological stress of timing crypto markets by allowing advisors to capture broad asset-class returns through disciplined rebalancing.
This week’s column is dedicated to improving two of the most critical skills: asking strong open-ended questions and listening in an active and reflective way. Let’s start with the harder part — listening.
Rationally, no one should feel happy about an income tax refund. The refund is a correction of a tax overpayment; the recipient effectively gave the government an interest-free loan over the course of the prior year.
When trying to bridge the communication gap between family members, Joshua Brooks, found that studying the latest approaches in behavioral finance can help advisors. But also, simple steps, like using budgeting tools are useful so everyone can see where and how they spend.
Ask your advisors to do a time tracking sheet for two weeks. This is often annoying to people in the beginning — it’s another thing to do. However, in all cases, I have found it to be eye-opening to someone to figure out where their time goes.
If it weren’t for the financial industry, in my opinion, the United States wouldn’t be suffering the serious social ills that have worsened in the last 40 years — primarily, the hollowing out of the middle class, and all the problems that have accompanied it and resulted from it.
When you start investing, your advisor builds a portfolio aligned with your personal investment objectives. Your target allocation takes into consideration your goals, risk tolerance and time horizon, among other things. Unless something in your life changes, your portfolio should continue to align with your objectives.
If someone has deeply entrenched views — either to the right or to the left — they are not likely to change their minds because they listened to you. You could definitely offer some education here by talking about the long-term impacts of this war.
In this article, I present a framework for investment models that integrates personal risk tolerance with academic lifetime investing theory that guides risk as the investor ages.
Investing is an exercise in decision making under uncertainty. No single signal—no matter how intuitive or well supported by history—captures the full complexity of markets.
Sophisticated email marketing requires automation: welcome sequences for new subscribers, nurture campaigns based on content interests, and reengagement sequences for inactive prospects.
You might want to think about what I often call “internal PR”. Your leaders are focused on other things and are likely unaware of all that is happening directly with their advisors — and definitely with clients.
While we don’t find much reason to underweight our allocation to U.S. stocks based on the current high degree of concentration, we do believe that the valuation of the overall U.S. stock market today is consistent with low expected returns relative to safer fixed income investments.
Take an educational approach. Underscore how pleased you are about her energy and excitement and how much you want her to be an enthused member of the team. Perhaps you could guide her on how to find opportunities more aligned with your ideal client focus
GMO’s Event-Driven Strategy posted a +11.1% return, net of fees, in 2025. This result compares favorably to the returns of our benchmark (the FTSE 3-month Treasury returned +4.4% in 2025) and our peers (the HFRX Merger Arbitrage Index returned +9.6%) over the same period.
This might be the artificial intelligence era, but AI’s greatest contribution to financial services isn’t replacing advisors — it’s making them more human. Advisors have an unprecedented opportunity to focus on what their clients truly value: empathy, understanding, and genuine presence.
Our team at The Collaborative lost one of our long-time coaches this week to cancer. Cathy Manning was not only an amazing coach, she was a dear friend of mine from the time we worked at John Hancock together in Investment Marketing decades ago. This column is dedicated to some of the Cathy-isms I learned over the years watching her adeptly coach our clients.
Stripped to its essentials, finance is a race against time. What lies ahead of us is unknown, and the vast industry of banking and finance has developed to manage the risks that come with making commitments now that depend on an uncertain future.
One underused alternative sits quietly in the options market: the short box spread. When used correctly, it allows advisors to treat borrowing as a fixed, collateralized financing decision, rather than an improvised margin advance.
U.S. equities had another strong year in 2025. Returns were impressive, headlines were dominated by large-cap growth, and investor confidence remained high. Yet a quieter and more important story unfolded beneath the surface. Non-U.S. equities meaningfully outpaced their U.S. counterparts.
Not long ago, CLO ETFs were niche vehicles only talked about at credit conferences and in sophisticated bond manager circles. But fast forward to 2026, and they’ve entered the mainstream – drawing meaningful interest from both institutions and retail investors.
As long as I have been writing this column and working in this business, I’ve learned there is still a first time for everything — and this is the first time I have ever heard this dilemma from an advisor.
I often offer this advice on dealing with difficult people. We fight hard to change them, but if they don’t want to be changed the only person getting exhausted from the fight is us. Stop resisting and find another way to deal with his behavior.
Mid-sized financial services firms carry enterprise-level communication risks without enterprise surveillance capabilities. These gaps lead to regulatory fines, operational losses, and reputational damage that can destabilize even well-established firms.
If our ancestors survived two million years of predators, famines, and ice ages, we can survive a bear market. We just can’t let the fear talk us into something stupid while it's happening.
Vanguard CIO Lauren Wilkinson shares a strategic roadmap for RIAs curious about AI integration for their practice.
Bev addresses questions about fairness in compensation and offers strategies for approaching management about solutions.
Precious metals, cryptocurrency, and currency speculation appeal to fear-driven parts of us that want certainty, protection, or a shortcut to wealth. Unfortunately, for most investors, that promise is never fulfilled.
Crypto’s latest downturn looks different on the surface. There are no spectacular scandals, no bankrupt exchange, no regulatory crackdown. Yet for the industry’s biggest trading platforms, the damage is starting to look uncomfortably familiar.
Stock market volatility has a way of triggering powerful emotions. Rising prices foster confidence. But when markets fall, fear can take over, leading investors to make decisions that may undermine long-term returns.
Dealing with difficult clients is a topic I discuss often with advisors. When a client is being “difficult”, there are a few key psychological factors to understand. I’ve outlined a process below that may help you navigate these high-stress interactions.
Classical economics suggests that information is readily available, and is assimilated quickly and accurately. Reality is not that neat: the discipline of behavioral economics has consistently demonstrated that human beings are prone to a series of biases and miscalculations.
These are times in life where any sort of note, acknowledgement or thoughtful gift is likely to be appreciated. You want to be supportive, but you also want to be careful you are taking your client’s feelings into consideration in all ways possible.
Nominal thinking in investing, a form of the "money illusion" bias, is the failure to account for inflation's erosion of purchasing power. The primary problems with this approach are overestimating real returns, misjudging true wealth, and making poor long-term investment decisions based on misleading nominal figures.
It’s a brave new world for educational savers — and none too soon. In 2025, lawmakers outdid themselves by expanding ways families can help their children or grandchildren obtain a degree or certificate.
Human behavior is far and away the most challenging aspect of any team — large or small. Add in family dynamics, and there is often plenty of “crazy” to go around.
The Wall Street consensus forecast for 2026 earnings growth is strong by historical standards. Analysts are giddy and projecting another year of double-digit growth in S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS).
Retirement planning often focuses on risks: not saving enough or outliving hard-earned savings, enduring a sharp market downturn and possible surprise expenses. While these pitfalls are very real, it’s understandable that they may make individuals hesitant to spend their savings in retirement.
As we kick off the new year, here are some suggestions for areas to focus on with your team in 2026 to build momentum, enhance momentum or change direction
Here we consider an area that is less explored: the ability to implement systematic strategies like trend following within an overlay program. We see a natural opportunity for integrating overlay and trend strategies, given that both have similar architecture as predominantly rules-based derivatives strategies.
As careers advance and income increases, spending often follows suit. This is lifestyle creep: the gradual increase in expenses as your financial life expands.
No one can tell you what’s right for you, so don’t take advice from well-meaning people around you. Do your own due diligence and then decide. Often there are no “right” answers — there are only best answers with all things considered.
In the current installment of The Roundup, Oaktree experts explore the need for renewed vigilance in the direct lending market, discuss the future of private credit in Europe, identify the evolution of the high yield bond market, and reflect on the backdrop for emerging markets equities.
I don’t recommend running away from things in most cases. As Kelly Clarkson sings in “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”, we want to get stronger by facing things we are afraid of. In most cases standing up to bullies or those people who ridicule you actually feels good.
Investors should treat bitcoin as the volatile, high-risk asset it is. A look at the data, along with comparisons to the Magnificent 7 stocks, indicates a small (1% to 2%) portfolio allocation for most investors would be the safest.
During extended upward-trending markets that reward risk-takers and punish caution, everyone is a “bull market genius.” That dynamic flips investor psychology and, over time, creates a false sense of control.
This data shows we’ve just experienced one of the biggest periods of financial turbulence in the last 20 years, but are we, as financial professionals, acting accordingly and showing our clients enough support?
The year 2025 exemplifies the prevailing regime — markets driven less by fundamentals and traditional business-cycle dynamics and more by fiscal and monetary policy influence. Today, policy decisions have emerged as one of the most impactful forces driving market direction.
Two perspectives emerge when analyzing the state of US consumers. Sentiment surveys paint a picture of economic weakness, yet behavioral data tells a different story — spending remains in line with historical expansion trends.
As 2025 comes to a close, I am using this column to offer high-impact strategies for you and your team to implement before the year ends. While you are likely focused on tax planning, Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), and the other client necessities, it is equally important to address the operational and strategic health of your practice.
here’s something comforting about dividends. For decades, investors have turned to them as tangible proof that a company is generating real cash flow and is willing to share it.
Following the 2021–2022 inflation shock, the historic negative correlation between stocks and bonds—the foundation of modern portfolio diversification—temporarily broke, fueling debate over whether the "Greenspan Put" era of Fed-induced market stability has ended.
I am always concerned when partners have disagreements and there is talk about “winning,” which infers those who do not get their way are losers. This is a set-up from the beginning that chips away at collaboration, because one person is trying to show the others that they are right.
High-quality stocks have underperformed sharply across markets in 2025. For instance, in U.S. small caps, companies with negative earnings have outperformed profitable ones by about 20% since Liberation Day, while the Russell 2000’s rally has favored high-volatility, unprofitable names.
Financial wellbeing is not simply about income or net worth. Nor is it about happiness. It’s about a person’s ability to function financially with security, agency, and sustainability. Emotional enjoyment doesn’t override that, and wealth doesn’t guarantee it.
According to market theory, persistent outperformance shouldn’t exist. However, companies with high and stable profitability, strong balance sheets, and disciplined capital allocation have demonstrated the ability to deliver superior returns with lower risk over time.
This article argues that a grateful mindset is a powerful strategy for improving financial and investment decision-making, citing research that links gratitude to better outcomes and overall well-being.
Some clients don’t want to expose everything and may find it annoying to be asked deeply personal questions. I do think, with some work, everyone can come around to share more about themselves if they are approached correctly. Here are some suggestions.
Behavioral Finance
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.
Why Good Advisors Lead With Bad News
Leading with bad news can feel wrong and even confrontational at some level, but the psychology research supports it, the behavioral finance supports it, the career math supports it, and the clients who stay through multiple cycles apply the final confirmation stamp.
Does Your Team Member Have a “Bad Attitude” or a Reasonable Complaint?
Some people do much better with change than others. It isn’t that they can’t change or they actively resist it. Rather, they experience more fear, more concern and they need more clarity about what the change means to them.
130 Years of the Dow: Why It Still Matters for Advisors
On May 26, 1896, Charles Dow calculated a simple arithmetic average of 12 industrial stocks and arrived at a closing value of 40.94. Now, exactly 130 years later, that same benchmark has crossed the historic 50,000 threshold.
The Cost of Being Too Liquid
Private markets (private equity, private credit and real estate) have historically delivered an “illiquidity premium”. Institutions and family offices have recognized this illiquidity premium and have historically allocated significant capital to capture it.
How to Recognize Alpha Potential in Active Equity Portfolios
Chasing performance by deviating from a benchmark has long been the hallmark of active managers. But it may be time for a rethink. Our research suggests that investors allocating to core equities should consider refreshing the criteria they use to identify portfolio managers that can consistently beat their benchmarks.
What ‘Smart Defense’ Actually Means in Practice
Investors need to understand what they own, how it may perform in different environments, and why it is structured the way it is. When advisors build this education into their work, it gives clients the discipline and expectations they need to stay the course when volatility rears its head.
The Rise of AUM Fees: Why the Next Market Correction Puts the Model at Risk
The percentage-of-assets fee is so embedded in advisory economics that most firms treat it as a fixed constant rather than a business decision. It shapes how you staff, how you plan, and how you define the relationship with clients. But the AUM model is neither as old nor as inevitable as it feels.
At Least No One Flipped a Table
I’m all about trying to build bridges and fix things, and I am also a realist. I often tell clients there is a right way, and then there is what you can get done within your environment. I’ll always lean toward the second one.
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.
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.
You Can Often Navigate & Manage Ostensibly ‘Fatal’ Flaws
Listening is a skill that can be taught, can be learned, and can be practiced. If a client doesn’t think their advisor is really listening to them, they might take that opportunity to find another advisor who does.
A Robot Economy: Who Gets Rich, Who Gets Left Behind
Robots are coming to the economy. It is inevitable, really, and there is nothing that will stop it. At some point in the not-so-distant future, robots will infiltrate every aspect of our lives, from office work and manufacturing to service work and trade skills, and even your home. Here are some numbers for you.
Bear Market in Diversification
The U.S. stock market hit a record high on January 27, 2026, as investors prepared for additional Fed rate cuts, fiscal stimulus, and fading inflation.
How to Effectively Navigate Your Team’s Diverging Work Styles
If you read my column, you know I am a proponent of following the SHIFT format. First, get the team together to identify who you want to be as a team and what success looks like to you. Make sure everyone is headed toward the same outcome and cares about the same goals.
Blame the Victim, Inc.
You don’t have to agree with Chater and Loewenstein’s “crowding-out” hypothesis or their policy prescriptions to benefit from It’s on You, which will, at a minimum, allow the reader to identify and deconstruct i-frame PR when they come across it.
Financial Literacy at the Highest Level: Why Education Still Matters for the Ultra-Wealthy
For ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families, wealth brings opportunity, but also extraordinary complexity. Multi-generational estate planning, concentrated equity positions, private investments, tax-efficient strategies, philanthropic structures, and family governance decisions all intersect in ways that demand thoughtful oversight.
5 Ways to Take Your Leadership Skills From Good to Great
As the spring session for my graduate class, Leadership Lab, comes to a close I am in Chicago working with middle management leaders in the financial advisory space on leading teams. It seems appropriate at this time to offer some reminders about simple things you can do to be a better leader for your team.
Why You Can't Segment Your Prospects (And Why That Means You're Treating Everyone the Same)
Every prospect is different. They have different interests, different decision timelines, and different levels of engagement. Treating them all the same because your CRM can't segment effectively is leaving money on the table.
Why Panic is a Costly Mistake
The stock market selloff between February 28 and April 14 produced one of the more instructive market lessons in recent memory. It isn’t because of what the market did, but because of what investors did in response.
Newsletter March 2026
As always, I hope you’re having a good 2026 and that all is well with you, my readers, and your family and friends. Here’s my latest.
America's Driving Habits: February 2026
Travel on all roads and streets increased in February. The 12-month moving average was up 0.19% month-over-month and was up 1.07% year-over-year. However, if we factor in population growth, the 12-month MA of the civilian population-adjusted data (age 16-and-over) was up 0.16% month-over-month and up 0.36% year-over-year.
Defiance ETFs’ Autism Impact Fund Filing Makes Me Proud
For many, the statistics surrounding autism aren’t just numbers on a page — they are lived experiences. I am one of those people; I have an extended family member on the spectrum, and I’ve seen how people have slowly begun to better understand and support the neurodivergent community.
Give Your Colleagues the Chance to Show You Who They Are
When I teach my graduate classes in leadership, we talk about the essence of motivation. Even the best leaders cannot motivate other people to do something. They can create an environment within which the person becomes self-motivated. But motivation is intrinsic.
The Psychology of Money: How Behavior Shapes Financial Success
Behavioral finance is the study of how emotions, cognitive biases, and human behavior may influence financial decisions, often in ways that can conflict with logic, data, and long-term goals.
Jason Chura on Confidence, Credibility & Client Trust
Jason Chura, head of global consulting at Voya Investment Management, outlines a behavioral framework to help advisors project confidence, build credibility, and guide clients through uncertainty.
Optimizing Late-Start 529 Plans: Tactical Strategies for Advisors
Learn how advisors can optimize late-start 529 plans using superfunding, SECURE 2.0 Roth rollovers, and multi-scenario modeling.
Gambler's Blues: Betting Isn't Investing
Gambling is rising in popularity, blurring lines between betting vs. investing. Misunderstanding the key differences can endanger financial security.
Emerging Markets at a Capital Allocation Inflection Point?
Given the combined weight of these markets within EM portfolios, Templeton Global Investments believe incremental improvements in capital discipline could have a meaningful impact on aggregate index-level earnings quality.
Avoid Pressuring Clients to Help Grow Your Practice
Whatever you end up doing, make sure you are authentic and honest in your approach. Clients see right through a request or ask that you are uncomfortable making. You have to know what you want, find words that are right for you, and proceed accordingly.
Teaching the Next Generation About Wealth and Responsibility
Generational wealth doesn’t disappear because families fail to invest well. It disappears because the knowledge, communication, and decision-making structures surrounding that wealth were never intentionally passed down.
10 Takeaways from the Past Three Years
It has now been over three years since GMO launched our Small Cap Quality Strategy in September 2022. During that period, the world has shifted, and we have navigated unexpected market conditions.
Does Systematic Indexing Top Market Timing in Crypto?
Systematic indexing removes the psychological stress of timing crypto markets by allowing advisors to capture broad asset-class returns through disciplined rebalancing.
How to Understand What Really Matters to Your Clients
This week’s column is dedicated to improving two of the most critical skills: asking strong open-ended questions and listening in an active and reflective way. Let’s start with the harder part — listening.
Tax Refunds Supporting U.S. Households
Rationally, no one should feel happy about an income tax refund. The refund is a correction of a tax overpayment; the recipient effectively gave the government an interest-free loan over the course of the prior year.
How to Bridge the Communication Gap When Managing Family Wealth
When trying to bridge the communication gap between family members, Joshua Brooks, found that studying the latest approaches in behavioral finance can help advisors. But also, simple steps, like using budgeting tools are useful so everyone can see where and how they spend.
How to Nurture Time Management and Communication Skills
Ask your advisors to do a time tracking sheet for two weeks. This is often annoying to people in the beginning — it’s another thing to do. However, in all cases, I have found it to be eye-opening to someone to figure out where their time goes.
Financialization Has Corrupted the Financial Industry
If it weren’t for the financial industry, in my opinion, the United States wouldn’t be suffering the serious social ills that have worsened in the last 40 years — primarily, the hollowing out of the middle class, and all the problems that have accompanied it and resulted from it.
How Rebalancing Helps Keep Your Portfolio on Track
When you start investing, your advisor builds a portfolio aligned with your personal investment objectives. Your target allocation takes into consideration your goals, risk tolerance and time horizon, among other things. Unless something in your life changes, your portfolio should continue to align with your objectives.
Should Advisors Talk Politics With Clients?
If someone has deeply entrenched views — either to the right or to the left — they are not likely to change their minds because they listened to you. You could definitely offer some education here by talking about the long-term impacts of this war.
Personalized Investment Models for Retirement Plans & IRAs
In this article, I present a framework for investment models that integrates personal risk tolerance with academic lifetime investing theory that guides risk as the investor ages.
Why Value, Quality, and Momentum Belong Together
Investing is an exercise in decision making under uncertainty. No single signal—no matter how intuitive or well supported by history—captures the full complexity of markets.
Your CRM Doesn’t Talk to Your Email — And That’s a Problem
Sophisticated email marketing requires automation: welcome sequences for new subscribers, nurture campaigns based on content interests, and reengagement sequences for inactive prospects.
Advisors Need to Tell Their Client Stories to Management
You might want to think about what I often call “internal PR”. Your leaders are focused on other things and are likely unaware of all that is happening directly with their advisors — and definitely with clients.
Concentrating on Concentration
While we don’t find much reason to underweight our allocation to U.S. stocks based on the current high degree of concentration, we do believe that the valuation of the overall U.S. stock market today is consistent with low expected returns relative to safer fixed income investments.
Channel Employee Enthusiasm to Support Your Firm’s Goals
Take an educational approach. Underscore how pleased you are about her energy and excitement and how much you want her to be an enthused member of the team. Perhaps you could guide her on how to find opportunities more aligned with your ideal client focus
2025 Year-End Letter: Event-Driven Strategy
GMO’s Event-Driven Strategy posted a +11.1% return, net of fees, in 2025. This result compares favorably to the returns of our benchmark (the FTSE 3-month Treasury returned +4.4% in 2025) and our peers (the HFRX Merger Arbitrage Index returned +9.6%) over the same period.
AI Can Be a Catalyst for Deeper Client Relationships
This might be the artificial intelligence era, but AI’s greatest contribution to financial services isn’t replacing advisors — it’s making them more human. Advisors have an unprecedented opportunity to focus on what their clients truly value: empathy, understanding, and genuine presence.
Life Lessons From a Terrific Coach
Our team at The Collaborative lost one of our long-time coaches this week to cancer. Cathy Manning was not only an amazing coach, she was a dear friend of mine from the time we worked at John Hancock together in Investment Marketing decades ago. This column is dedicated to some of the Cathy-isms I learned over the years watching her adeptly coach our clients.
AI Roundabout Isn’t a Replay of the Internet Bubble
Stripped to its essentials, finance is a race against time. What lies ahead of us is unknown, and the vast industry of banking and finance has developed to manage the risks that come with making commitments now that depend on an uncertain future.
Short Box Spreads: An Oft-Overlooked, Lower-Cost Borrowing Tool Gains Ground
One underused alternative sits quietly in the options market: the short box spread. When used correctly, it allows advisors to treat borrowing as a fixed, collateralized financing decision, rather than an improvised margin advance.
Why Global Diversification Matters More Than It Has in Decades
U.S. equities had another strong year in 2025. Returns were impressive, headlines were dominated by large-cap growth, and investor confidence remained high. Yet a quieter and more important story unfolded beneath the surface. Non-U.S. equities meaningfully outpaced their U.S. counterparts.
CLO ETFs: The “Arms Race” Heats Up
Not long ago, CLO ETFs were niche vehicles only talked about at credit conferences and in sophisticated bond manager circles. But fast forward to 2026, and they’ve entered the mainstream – drawing meaningful interest from both institutions and retail investors.
Disarm Unreasonable Anger With Humility & Grace
As long as I have been writing this column and working in this business, I’ve learned there is still a first time for everything — and this is the first time I have ever heard this dilemma from an advisor.
How to Deal with a Senior Colleague’s Difficult Behavior
I often offer this advice on dealing with difficult people. We fight hard to change them, but if they don’t want to be changed the only person getting exhausted from the fight is us. Stop resisting and find another way to deal with his behavior.
3 Communications Surveillance Gaps That Cost Mid-Sized Financial Firms
Mid-sized financial services firms carry enterprise-level communication risks without enterprise surveillance capabilities. These gaps lead to regulatory fines, operational losses, and reputational damage that can destabilize even well-established firms.
The Two-Million-Year-Old Investor: Why Your Brain Fights Your Portfolio
If our ancestors survived two million years of predators, famines, and ice ages, we can survive a bear market. We just can’t let the fear talk us into something stupid while it's happening.
An Advisor’s Roadmap to AI Integration From Vanguard’s CIO
Vanguard CIO Lauren Wilkinson shares a strategic roadmap for RIAs curious about AI integration for their practice.
Use Data to Advocate for a Better Year-End Bonus
Bev addresses questions about fairness in compensation and offers strategies for approaching management about solutions.
Declining Dollar? Don’t Let Fear Drive High-Risk Investment Choices
Precious metals, cryptocurrency, and currency speculation appeal to fear-driven parts of us that want certainty, protection, or a shortcut to wealth. Unfortunately, for most investors, that promise is never fulfilled.
Crypto Exchanges Buckle as Stock Losses Mount Amid Exodus
Crypto’s latest downturn looks different on the surface. There are no spectacular scandals, no bankrupt exchange, no regulatory crackdown. Yet for the industry’s biggest trading platforms, the damage is starting to look uncomfortably familiar.
Why Market Timing Feels Right—and Often Goes Wrong
Stock market volatility has a way of triggering powerful emotions. Rising prices foster confidence. But when markets fall, fear can take over, leading investors to make decisions that may undermine long-term returns.
Are Your Clients “Difficult,” or Are They Scared?
Dealing with difficult clients is a topic I discuss often with advisors. When a client is being “difficult”, there are a few key psychological factors to understand. I’ve outlined a process below that may help you navigate these high-stress interactions.
Are Bubbles Brewing?
Classical economics suggests that information is readily available, and is assimilated quickly and accurately. Reality is not that neat: the discipline of behavioral economics has consistently demonstrated that human beings are prone to a series of biases and miscalculations.
The Best Ways to Show Respect for Clients
These are times in life where any sort of note, acknowledgement or thoughtful gift is likely to be appreciated. You want to be supportive, but you also want to be careful you are taking your client’s feelings into consideration in all ways possible.
Get Real in Your Investing and Planning!
Nominal thinking in investing, a form of the "money illusion" bias, is the failure to account for inflation's erosion of purchasing power. The primary problems with this approach are overestimating real returns, misjudging true wealth, and making poor long-term investment decisions based on misleading nominal figures.
What Financial Advisors Need to Know About 529 Plans
It’s a brave new world for educational savers — and none too soon. In 2025, lawmakers outdid themselves by expanding ways families can help their children or grandchildren obtain a degree or certificate.
When the Indirect Approach Works Best
Human behavior is far and away the most challenging aspect of any team — large or small. Add in family dynamics, and there is often plenty of “crazy” to go around.
2026 Earnings Outlook: Another Year of Optimism
The Wall Street consensus forecast for 2026 earnings growth is strong by historical standards. Analysts are giddy and projecting another year of double-digit growth in S&P 500 earnings per share (EPS).
Lifetime Income May Unlock a More Fulfilling Retirement
Retirement planning often focuses on risks: not saving enough or outliving hard-earned savings, enduring a sharp market downturn and possible surprise expenses. While these pitfalls are very real, it’s understandable that they may make individuals hesitant to spend their savings in retirement.
Jump Starting Your Firm’s Success in 2026
As we kick off the new year, here are some suggestions for areas to focus on with your team in 2026 to build momentum, enhance momentum or change direction
Adding Diversification with Trend Strategies
Here we consider an area that is less explored: the ability to implement systematic strategies like trend following within an overlay program. We see a natural opportunity for integrating overlay and trend strategies, given that both have similar architecture as predominantly rules-based derivatives strategies.
How to Enjoy Your Success Without Sacrificing Your Future
As careers advance and income increases, spending often follows suit. This is lifestyle creep: the gradual increase in expenses as your financial life expands.
The Pluses and Minuses of Staying— Or Leaving
No one can tell you what’s right for you, so don’t take advice from well-meaning people around you. Do your own due diligence and then decide. Often there are no “right” answers — there are only best answers with all things considered.
Top Takeaways from Oaktree’s Quarterly Letters – December 2025 Edition
In the current installment of The Roundup, Oaktree experts explore the need for renewed vigilance in the direct lending market, discuss the future of private credit in Europe, identify the evolution of the high yield bond market, and reflect on the backdrop for emerging markets equities.
How to Decide if You Need to Take a Stand in the Workplace
I don’t recommend running away from things in most cases. As Kelly Clarkson sings in “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”, we want to get stronger by facing things we are afraid of. In most cases standing up to bullies or those people who ridicule you actually feels good.
Why Investors Shouldn’t Romanticize Bitcoin, From a Financial Planner
Investors should treat bitcoin as the volatile, high-risk asset it is. A look at the data, along with comparisons to the Magnificent 7 stocks, indicates a small (1% to 2%) portfolio allocation for most investors would be the safest.
Bull Market Genius Is A Dangerous Thing
During extended upward-trending markets that reward risk-takers and punish caution, everyone is a “bull market genius.” That dynamic flips investor psychology and, over time, creates a false sense of control.
Understanding Client Fear — How Advisors Can Foster Confidence in Uncertain Times
This data shows we’ve just experienced one of the biggest periods of financial turbulence in the last 20 years, but are we, as financial professionals, acting accordingly and showing our clients enough support?
2026 Outlook: The Policy Engine
The year 2025 exemplifies the prevailing regime — markets driven less by fundamentals and traditional business-cycle dynamics and more by fiscal and monetary policy influence. Today, policy decisions have emerged as one of the most impactful forces driving market direction.
More Than a Feeling: The Disconnect Between Consumer Sentiment and Behavior
Two perspectives emerge when analyzing the state of US consumers. Sentiment surveys paint a picture of economic weakness, yet behavioral data tells a different story — spending remains in line with historical expansion trends.
The Year-End Checklist: Six Strategic Moves for Advisors Before 2026
As 2025 comes to a close, I am using this column to offer high-impact strategies for you and your team to implement before the year ends. While you are likely focused on tax planning, Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), and the other client necessities, it is equally important to address the operational and strategic health of your practice.
The Dividend Mirage: Why Yield Alone No Longer Pay
here’s something comforting about dividends. For decades, investors have turned to them as tangible proof that a company is generating real cash flow and is willing to share it.
What Fed Leadership Shift Could Mean for Stock-Bond Correlation
Following the 2021–2022 inflation shock, the historic negative correlation between stocks and bonds—the foundation of modern portfolio diversification—temporarily broke, fueling debate over whether the "Greenspan Put" era of Fed-induced market stability has ended.
How to Deal With Competitive Partners
I am always concerned when partners have disagreements and there is talk about “winning,” which infers those who do not get their way are losers. This is a set-up from the beginning that chips away at collaboration, because one person is trying to show the others that they are right.
Why We Believe Quality Stocks are Mispriced
High-quality stocks have underperformed sharply across markets in 2025. For instance, in U.S. small caps, companies with negative earnings have outperformed profitable ones by about 20% since Liberation Day, while the Russell 2000’s rally has favored high-volatility, unprofitable names.
Can You Have Financial Wellbeing If You’re Broke But Happy?
Financial wellbeing is not simply about income or net worth. Nor is it about happiness. It’s about a person’s ability to function financially with security, agency, and sustainability. Emotional enjoyment doesn’t override that, and wealth doesn’t guarantee it.
Quality: The Real Deal
According to market theory, persistent outperformance shouldn’t exist. However, companies with high and stable profitability, strong balance sheets, and disciplined capital allocation have demonstrated the ability to deliver superior returns with lower risk over time.
Gratitude: The ETF Industry’s Highest Return Habit
This article argues that a grateful mindset is a powerful strategy for improving financial and investment decision-making, citing research that links gratitude to better outcomes and overall well-being.
Respectful Communication Is Key When Dealing With Guarded Clients
Some clients don’t want to expose everything and may find it annoying to be asked deeply personal questions. I do think, with some work, everyone can come around to share more about themselves if they are approached correctly. Here are some suggestions.