In recognition of National Financial Literacy Month, we’ve crafted a financial literacy quiz and invite all financial advisors and investors to take this 10-question challenge! Click here to read the entire article. #ThoughtLeadership

Here’s a provocative thought. Index investing is not an entirely passive investment management strategy. Passive investing is rife with implicit investment decisions, many of which investors unknowingly transfer to the invisible committees that manage such indexes. Though a whole generation has grown up with the myth that indexes do not engage in stock picking, the fact is that all indexes regularly “buy and sell” individual stocks. Click here to read the entire article. #Tho

The childcare tax credit underwent significant change in 2021. The new law expanded the child and dependent care tax credit in three potentially meaningful ways for American taxpayers: Click here to read the entire article. #ThoughtLeadership

Emerging market economies have been challenged by longer wait times to receive COVID-19 vaccine supplies and by their limited ability to use fiscal stimulus to counteract the economic drag of the pandemic. As developed nations’ economies recover, interest rates are heading higher, representing a further potential headwind for emerging markets. Higher rates are typically seen as a negative for emerging markets, as they increase dollar-denominated debt burdens, trigger capital

Investment managers and other Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan fiduciaries well know that they are not permitted to sacrifice investment returns or assume greater investment risks to advance social goals. While Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria investments that don’t sacrifice returns or hold greater investment risk are permitted in ERISA plans, a 2020 U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rules modification established a higher bar for includin

The stock market in 2022 faces a number of significant headwinds, ranging from inflation and supply chain constraints to new COVID variant breakouts and geopolitical frictions. Add another one to that list—the upcoming midterm elections. Click here to read the entire article. #ThoughtLeadership

The 1981-82 recession was one of the worst economic contractions since the Great Depression. For many investors who lived through that period, today’s conditions hold some unsettling similarities. It’s easy to understand why. Mounting inflation in the early 80s prompted a tight monetary policy response from then Federal Reserve (the Fed) Chair Paul Volker. Entering 2022, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has abandoned his characterization of mounting inflation as “transitory” and has s

Since the beginning of 2020 through the second quarter of 2021, sustainable investing has attracted over $90 billion in new cash flow, raising the AUM of equity Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria funds to an estimated $537 billion. Despite the massive interest in ESG investing on the part of individuals and institutions, there remain some challenges for investors and advisors alike. For instance, there is no standard definition of what ESG represents. Can a f

China has approximately 65 million empty homes—equal to about the number of households in France and the U.K., combined. As of the second quarter of 2021, Chinese property developers owe about $5 trillion, which equates to one-third of China’s GDP. And, some 70% of the Chinese population has money invested in residential property, accounting for 40% of all assets owned by Chinese households. Click here to read the entire article. #ThoughtLeadership

There isn’t much historical experience with bond tapering. The first and last time it happened, it didn’t go so well, though it did give birth to one of those great Wall Street alliterations—the “taper tantrum.” Before we examine what investors might expect with the Powell version of tapering, let’s examine what the first one looked like under Federal Reserve (the Fed) Chairman Ben Bernanke in 2013. When tapering plans were announced on May 22, 2013, markets reacted swiftly a