Insurance & Annuities

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The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank heightens the Federal Reserve's policy dilemma over fighting inflation while maintaining financial stability. We analyze what the crisis means for the banking system and the economy.

The Federal Reserve’s higher interest rates, the work from home trend, ESG distractions, increases in crime, etc., are having far reaching effects on our economy and investors.

Inflation has proven sticky, even as growth weakens. Markets are realizing that policy rates are set to stay higher for longer. We like quality in stocks and bonds.

If you were doubting whether the age of AI has arrived, NVIDIA’s stock performance this week may have given you second thoughts.

While we don't expect the U.S. government to default, the uncertainty may heighten market volatility in coming days. Here are answers to some of the questions we're hearing most often.

Bonds issued by government-sponsored enterprises can offer slightly higher yields than U.S. Treasuries, without requiring investors to take on too much additional risk.

Stocks are having a great year, but gold is doing even better. Year-to-date global equities are up roughly 9% in dollar terms; gold has advanced more than 10%.

Over the past decade or so, there has been a broad trend in the industry toward closing and freezing defined benefit plans.

Cities and states may have their work cut out for them as they explore solutions to preserve their commercial tax bases and maintain the vibrancy of their downtowns.

Most of us spent moments of our childhood, crayon in hand, connecting numbered dots that gradually revealed a picture that we couldn’t deduce simply by looking at the separate dots. With experience, we got better at looking at those isolated dots and mentally connecting them into a coherent “gestalt.”

We prefer private to public credit long term on better return potential. It’s the mirror image in equity: We prefer public stocks as risks fade in the medium term.

According to Buffett, the US economy just went through the “most extraordinary economic period since World War II.” That’s a heck of a statement.

Banks and financial institutions are big issuers of preferred securities, so the recent banking industry volatility has had an impact. Our guidance on preferreds is unchanged but with some caveats.

What generally follows that expression is a succinct synopsis. We’re always trying to be concise;
however, distilling complex economic and investment matters usually requires several pages.

When markets turn volatile, it’s not time to despair. Stephen Dover, Head of Franklin Templeton Institute, offers some judicious perspectives on how to turn volatility into opportunity.

We think the U.S. debt limit showdown will spark renewed volatility in markets. That risk reinforces why we stay invested and cautious by going up in quality.

The Banking emergency arising with mid-sized, regional banks is a direct consequence of policy decisions. Examine the causes of bank failures in 2023 and the potential for larger contagion.

We are presented with this decision in finance a lot. There is a small probability of something bad happening and a large probability that everything will be fine. What do you do to insure yourself against something bad happening? Because there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Financial cracks from rate hikes have led to jitters over commercial real estate. Yet granularity is key. We see opportunities in some U.S. industrial properties.

The U.S. regional banking crisis is intensifying as rising interest rates put smaller banks at risk, leading to significant losses in the sector. Amid the turmoil, gold and gold mining stocks may offer investors a potentially safer alternative to manage risk.

Along with identifying your goals and time horizon, assessing risk is a key part of building a holistic financial plan. And while affluent investors generally have higher risk tolerances, determining their individual risk profiles isn’t straightforward.

Though equities have proven resilient, more of the long-expected effects of the Federal Reserve’s (the Fed’s) rapid interest rate-raising policy arrived in April.

Lending standards are a lot like carbon monoxide since they operate in the back ground. When the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOOS) showed that banks significantly increased lending standards in the third quarter, no one on Wall Street noticed.

There have been glimmers of hope in 2023 that the inflation fixation of 2022 was a transitory phenomenon. In particular, the market has begun to more closely monitor jobs market data releases to try to spot signs of a labor market and wage slowdown.

Cryptocurrency adoption in the U.S. increased amid fears of a full-blown banking crisis, a new poll finds. According to Morning Consult, 22% of Americans, over one in five, said they owned at least one form of crypto in April, representing a four-percentage-point increase from January.

A few months ago, the internet was filling up with predictions that we’d have a 2008-style crash in home prices. The thinking was that the increase in interest rates would cause mortgage payments to skyrocket and price out an entire generation of homebuyers.

Amid the overabundance of economic opinion, unexamined clichés, and unverified assertions, and nutrient-free word salad dispensed by talking heads on television, market observers, and even Federal Reserve officials, I often wonder how many of them have ever taken the time to carefully examine historical data.

Corporate bond investors may be wondering if banking sector turmoil will affect financial institution bond issuers. Here's what to know now.

Technology enhancements have increased the speed of panic.

In his latest memo, Howard Marks discusses the significance of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. He argues that it likely doesn’t portend a wave of banking failures but may amplify preexisting wariness among investors and lenders, leading to further credit tightening and additional pain across a range of industries and sectors.

The Northern Trust Economics team shares its outlook for U.S. growth, employment, interest rates and inflation.

2023 has already been an eventful year, featuring a banking crisis and more Fed rate hikes. In our view, this is not a “set it and forget it” type of market – investors need to stay vigilant.

After the market selloff in 2022—a period that was particularly hard on growth stocks—we think our companies are attractively priced for the next five years, which is our baseline investment horizon.

The Federal Reserve Board reduced banking reserve requirements to zero in March 2020. So banks in the United States are technically not required to back customers' deposits with anything.

During his spring break, Johnson Financial Group Portfolio Manager Brian Schaefer had the time to read “A Gentleman in Moscow,” which got him thinking about the how the current market moves could impact the American experiment. In this investment commentary, Schaefer discusses the MOVE and VIX indexes and what they might say about the markets.