Financial advisors that are transitioning into running their own practice — and may not have dedicated investment strategists or staff who do economic forecasting — will need trusted sources of information they can rely upon.

The absence of a conversation does not eliminate referral activity; it simply leaves it unstructured. In many cases, clients assume that if the advisor has not raised the topic, it is not something they are looking to do. Others default to passing along contact information because it feels less intrusive than facilitating a direct connection.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, about a third of all American workers had a gold-plated pension: When they retired, someone paid them nearly their full salary for the rest of their lives. They didn’t have to worry about the market, or inflation, or running out of money.

With the Middle East in flames and a fifth of the world’s supplies of oil and gas in limbo thanks to the uncertain status of the Strait of Hormuz, it’s tempting to imagine that a clean-energy world might leave such conflicts behind.

Intel Corp. has quickly become one of the hottest stocks in the S&P 500 Index thanks to a nine-day surge that has added more than $100 billion in market value.

A manager who underperformed last year during a high-correlation stretch but shows consistent alpha opportunity alpha over three years is demonstrating something specific: They can do the job when conditions allow, and conditions did not allow it much last year. A manager who shows weak alpha opportunity alpha across three years and a high-stress period that happened to cut in their favor is demonstrating something different.

Late last month, Blackstone Inc. announced the first inbound Gulf private equity deal since Iran started attacking Middle Eastern hubs, while Citigroup Inc.’s top boss fired off a 600-word memo underlining the bank’s enthusiasm for its business in the region.

The idea that this would be enough for “new UMG” to almost double the current one’s valuation doesn’t add up at a time when artificial intelligence is creating doubts about the industry’s future. And it’s unlikely on its own to tempt dominant shareholders such as French tycoon Vincent Bollore. The proverbial fat lady has yet to sing.

Every twist in the Iran conflict — every ceasefire bet, every missile strike, every shift in tanker traffic — shows up almost instantly in a $65 million exchange-traded fund that most investors have never heard of.

While families have limited control over rising tuition, certain college tuition tax deductions may help ease the overall cost of higher education.

US stocks rallied after President Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war spurred relief across markets.

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.

Financial therapy can help men explore their internal parts to learn to recognize and begin to heal the emotional beliefs driving their economic behavior. The point of financial therapy is not to dampen ambition, but to heal beliefs that may be souring it.

Finance has been moving fast. From crypto to prediction betting to exchange-traded funds to private credit, new markets—and risks—are proliferating.

Call it the season of IPO prep. Recent launches and announcements from OpenAI and arch rival Anthropic are aimed at laying the groundwork to go public in late 2026 or early 2027, and for OpenAI, which just closed a $122 billion funding round that values it at $852 billion.

BlackRock Inc. is setting its sights on a corner of the $13.7 trillion US exchange-traded fund industry long controlled by Invesco Ltd: tracking the Nasdaq 100 Index.

US equities and crude oil prices edged higher as investors focus on signs of a potential diplomatic push toward a ceasefire in the Iran war.

Exchange-traded fund issuers are shutting new products at the fastest pace in years as competition for investor money intensifies.

Big names in crypto, payments and cloud infrastructure are racing to build the financial plumbing for a world in which AI agents — not humans — handle transactions on the internet.

When Edward Jenner inoculated an eight-year-old boy with cowpox in 1796, the principle was radical: Expose a healthy body to a mild, manageable version of harm, and it builds the defenses to survive something far worse. The cowpox patient never got smallpox. Markets work in much the same way.

What makes shadow advisors so powerful is the trust they carry. You may respect your financial planner, but you love your sister. You’ve known your college roommate for 30 years. The emotional weight of those relationships can easily override professional guidance, especially when the professional guidance involves patience, complexity, or sitting with uncertainty.

Saving for education can feel like a race against rising tuition costs, but 529 college savings plans offer families a powerful way to stay ahead.

Sportsbooks profit from customer losses, making them structurally predatory. Kalshi, by contrast, operates as a peer-to-peer exchange: customers bet against each other, Kalshi takes fees from both sides, and the house has no stake in the outcome. It's a financial market, not a casino.

Wall Street strategists expect the Federal Reserve to take a slow and careful approach to winding down a program meant to help ease pressure in funding markets.

While artificial intelligence is unlikely to replace financial advisors, it can certainly enhance both the quality and the productivity of advisors who embrace it. In fact, Vanguard’s Global Chief Economist, Joseph H. Davis, examined how AI and other megatrends will shape the economy in his book, Coming Into View (Wiley, 2025).

Apple can easily self-fund AI innovation on a massive scale, as its competitors are doing. Yet it hasn’t. Rather than mimicking its peers, Apple appears content to let the AI landscape mature before committing significant capital.

US equity futures stalled after a seven-day rally as investors weighed whether a fragile truce between Washington and Tehran can hold, and oil headed for its biggest weekly loss in nine months.

After months of sluggish returns, Nvidia Corp.’s stock is rallying again and close to breaking out of its narrow trading range, which market technicians see as a bullish signal.

In essence, the IPO is an acknowledgement that the ChatGPT-maker, which just raised $122 billion from investors at a valuation of $852 billion, needs what seems to be an endless amount of money to fund its race for artificial general intelligence.

For centuries the so-called cannon shot rule determined who controlled the seas. The legal concept, codified by Dutch jurist Cornelius van Bynkershoek in 1702, was simple: The distance a cannonball reached from shore set the maritime boundary of a coastal state.

European stocks soared the most in a year as investors rushed to buy stocks in the wake of the US and Iran agreeing to a two-week ceasefire in exchange for Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Many advisors assume they have a referral problem. They look at their growth, consider how infrequently new clients arrive through introductions, and conclude that clients simply are not inclined to refer as often as they might.

When a client or COI makes a referral, your response is critical. A prompt and sincere “thank you” goes a long way, whether a phone call, handwritten note or thoughtful gesture of appreciation.

Wall Street’s biggest ETF issuers are circling Invesco Ltd.’s Nasdaq 100 franchise, threatening to end its near-exclusive hold on the index.

TBD

Bond traders kicked off the week betting that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates on hold for the coming year, with the Treasuries market holding steady ahead of President Donald Trump’s extended deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The debate over ETFs versus mutual funds has never been particularly useful for advisors who actually build portfolios. In practice, the question was never which vehicle is better — it was always which vehicle is better for this objective, in this sleeve, for this client. In 2026, that discipline matters more than ever.

SpaceX has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter, bringing billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket, satellite and AI company closer to delivering the biggest-ever listing.

Less than two months ago, projections showed the US government on track to borrow some $2 trillion this year with budget deficits exceeding 5% of gross domestic product indefinitely. Since then, this dire outlook has worsened — thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs, the war with Iran, the prospect of slowing economic growth and rising interest rates.

For your next meetings, force yourself to step out of your comfort zone a bit. Review your standard list of questions to see if you can incorporate something new. Practice listening at a deeper level, and get really good at reflective listening.

The advisors who thrive in this environment will be those who've made tax integration a core competency — not an annual event, not a checklist, but an ongoing discipline embedded in how they build and manage portfolios every day.

A strong professional network does far more than provide camaraderie. It’s a growth engine, a source of expertise, a safety net, and often a long-term competitive advantage. For financial advisors seeking to elevate their practice, the path forward might not be another software upgrade or marketing campaign — it might simply begin with finding the right peer group.

With the Middle East in flames and a fifth of the world’s supplies of oil and gas in limbo thanks to the uncertain status of the Strait of Hormuz, it’s tempting to imagine that a clean-energy world might leave such conflicts behind.

Accelerating earnings are protecting the S&P 500 from deeper losses and masking a broader pullback in US equities, according to strategists at Morgan Stanley.

Inflation fears are not new, but the current path is beyond alarming. The U.S. is spending its way into a rampant inflation catastrophe. That is why gold and commodities are being bid up in price and will likely continue to be bid up. Investors see the inflation threat and are protecting themselves.

Bond traders held onto wagers that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates once this year after data confirmed that US inflation quickened in March as the Iran war led to higher gasoline prices.

By at least one metric in the $9.5 trillion foreign-exchange markets, demand for the dollar is ebbing amid the tenuous ceasefire between the US and Iran.

Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remained blocked Thursday, even as a handful of Chinese vessels lined up to escape, with a very fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran yet to improve traffic flows in the region.

Tesla Inc. and its Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk are a font of big numbers, real or imagined: A million robotaxis deployed, 20 million electric vehicles sold per year, “tens of billions” of Optimus robots stalking the Earth.

Global bonds surged Wednesday on news that the US and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire, pausing a war that roiled markets for weeks by delivering the worst oil shock in years.

Writing a book can bolster your credibility as a financial advisor, but it does something else that’s equally as valuable: It tells people who you are before you ever meet them.

Fresh data on the US labor market and new research from the Federal Reserve suggest that the conventional wisdom around employment growth being sluggish is wrong.

Cybersecurity stocks have sold off this year alongside the rest of the software sector, but with artificial intelligence increasing the potential threats from bad actors, investors risk missing out on the burgeoning demand for their services.

The defining statistic of the so-called K-shaped economy is a little hard to define.

Cities such as New York and Chicago are in deep financial trouble. Broadly speaking, they have two options: Make the difficult but appropriate choice to raise taxes and reduce the scale of government, or continue to live in a state of denial, increasing their pension obligations while also promising their residents more services.

The next 12 months are expected to bring a bumper crop of mega initial public offerings to market. Billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket, satellite and AI company SpaceX has reportedly filed for a potentially record-breaking offering.

When investors want to reduce risk, one commonly used tool is beta. For instance, an investor may sell higher-beta stocks and replace them with lower-beta ones to cushion against an expected market decline. Such a strategy is intuitive and widely used; however, it can be greatly flawed.

The stock market is looking past the sharp interest rate hikes priced by Europe’s bond market, risking losses for investors backing the wrong outcome.

Unilever Plc’s Fernando Fernandez haslucked out by selling the company’s food businesses, including Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Knorr stock cubes, to McCormick & Co. But Fernandez, who’s been chief executive officer for just over a year, shouldn’t squander his good fortune; he needs a clear vision for what comes next.

Firms need a compensation structure that is appealing to advisors; scalable, so it can apply to a team, the members of which will inevitably talk to each other about how they’re being paid; and aligned with long-term business goals.