Tax Planning

As we enter the final quarter of 2026, the investment backdrop remains constructive but increasingly differentiated. Economic growth and corporate earnings have remained resilient, while continued investment in artificial intelligence (AI) and other productivity-enhancing technologies has supported capital spending and market sentiment.

In more normal periods like today, hiring broadly matches the labor force growth, and unemployment holds steady. Labor force growth has slowed to about 0.5% a year, so payroll gains have slowed too. Payrolls rose only 29,000 in September and averaged about 45,000 a month over the past year, yet unemployment is still a low 4.2%.

We agree that the economy has appeared remarkably resilient at the aggregate level, and that modest further rate increases may not put overall growth at risk. But the more important question for portfolios is not the level of inflation; it is its sensitivity to rates.

Panic is never a good investment strategy—nor is greed. Here's how disciplined investing helps navigate through volatile environments.

An income projection can provide an important starting point for year-end tax planning. Explore key 2026 tax brackets and income thresholds that may help inform planning decisions before year-end.

Central banks are tightening, and stocks are still within reach of their highs. The Fed hiked on September 16 for the first time since 2023, and the 10-year Treasury yield touched 5.34% this month, its highest level since 2002. Even so, the S&P 500 sits within roughly 2.5% of its record, and Japanese equities recently set fresh all-time highs.

As we round the three-quarter pole and head into the final stretch of 2026, the prevailing investment narrative has, of course, been AI, along with its pros and cons. Since March, when the Iran conflict began, there has been a secondary drumbeat that continues to get louder and louder: the narrative surrounding bond prices, interest rates, inflation, and the economy.

Q3 was a period of transition in the bond market thanks to Federal Reserve changes, a surge of AI-driven debt issuance, and rising interest rates.

As AI in wealth management becomes more prevalent, recent research from Vanguard suggests that technology may actually increase investors’ appreciation for human expertise.

Last week, the NEOS Nasdaq-100 High Income ETF (QQQI) crossed $15 billion in assets under management. This major milestone was the result of investor demand. In the first nine months of 2026, the tax-efficient options-based ETF had $7.0 billion in net inflows. With the help of the $13 billion NEOS S&P 500 High Income ETF (SPYI), NEOS has firmly established itself as a premier manager for enhanced income ETFs.

Many investors underestimate the AI exposure already embedded in diversified portfolios. Michael McNurney explains how to evaluate AI enablers, creators and beneficiaries while balancing long-term opportunity against short-term valuation and concentration risks.

While redemption pressure in nonlisted BDCs (funds that invest in small and midsize private U.S. businesses) has eased from its peak, it remains materially above the industry standard 5% quarterly redemption threshold. As a result, capital continues to leave the asset class, forcing managers to look to preserve liquidity, moderate deployment, and, at the margin, tighten financing conditions.

One of the hallmarks for the U.S. economy over the last few years has been its resiliency. This calendar year has been no exception as the war in the Middle East led many a market prognosticator to pencil in the potential for a recession stemming from the effects of the Middle East war.

Gold and silver finally put a winning week on the board. But the more revealing development is what happened while prices were falling: investors poured billions into gold-backed funds, and China stepped up its purchases of physical gold.

Every time I clean out my wardrobe, I find items I have not worn in years but cannot quite bring myself to give away. Maybe they will come back into fashion. Maybe they’ll fit again one day. Or maybe getting rid of them simply feels harder than buying them did.

Global income strategies offer a compelling value proposition for investors: a steady stream of income generated from dividend-paying equities, government bonds and structured instruments like equity-linked notes (ELNs) from around the world.

We see a reason for advisors to evaluate the support surrounding the strategy. Questions about onboarding existing holdings, applying restrictions, monitoring tax budgets and managing ongoing trading belong with the implementation provider. Understanding exposures and portfolio fit is where our consultation team can help.

While the current bull market celebrates its fourth birthday next week, the average bull market lasts about five and a half years. Yet there has been nothing average about this one.

Bank lending rarely commands the attention that payrolls, inflation or consumer spending do. But it helps determine how much momentum the economy can sustain. The Role of C&I Loans: Commercial and industrial (C&I) loans, the workhorse of corporate finance, pay for everything from working capital to machinery and software.

The Northern ETF SKOR crossed the $1 billion AUM threshold following $247 million in recent inflows amid surging corporate bond yields.

With the 10-year Treasury yield at its highest level since 2002, buying bonds at 5% is the first real alternative that stock investors have had in nearly two decades.

Our Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Global Sustainable Investing, Kris Nelson, sees markets balancing several competing forces this week, from renewed oil-price volatility to softer labor data and increasingly demanding expectations around AI earnings.

Taylor Topousis and Christian Galipeau discuss high-conviction insights that go beyond media headlines.

Earlier last week, a supertanker loading crude in the Gulf of Oman was fixed at $1.01 million a day for a voyage to Asia, with another deal reportedly agreed at $1.16 million.

Higher interest rates are dominating the news of late, raising more questions than answers. Why are they moving up? Can they be tamed? And in the credit world, the question has arisen: as rates rise, are we at risk of loans underperforming?

As Election Day approaches, investors may be asking what the upcoming midterm elections could mean for policy and markets. While there may be potential shifts in control, the policy impact is likely to be limited. Meanwhile, political rhetoric tends to heat up as elections draw closer, which could lead to an uptick in market volatility.

By generation, Gen Z and Millennials now make up 88% of online betting activity. Gen X trails at 9%. Boomers barely register. As recently as this spring, Millennials were the bigger group. Then Gen Z passed them, and Bank of America called it a “turning point.”

Global investing is changing. Geopolitical tensions, shifting trade relationships, energy costs and divergent central-bank policies are increasingly influencing which companies and markets are best positioned to navigate the environment.

We have a number of logistics routes that run close to our home, which can snarl traffic. Freight rail lines cut across local roads, and long columns of trucks crowd local highways. Transit delays are frequent, and their duration always seems proportional to how much of a hurry I am in.

For insurance investors, bond yields play a defining role in long-term planning, with the effects of their levels and movements rippling across balance sheets. Liabilities may move inversely to asset values, and today’s investment decisions have implications far into the future. That makes bond yields critical variables for prudent insurance investors. There are also insights in the “why” behind higher rates.

The Fed's recent rate increase may not develop into a hiking cycle as extensive as the one that began in 2022 because much of today's inflation pressure comes from supply constraints rather than broad economic overheating, where demand exceeds the economy's productive capacity.

Western Asset’s Ion Dan explains why he thinks the fundamental case for agency mortgage-backed securities has strengthened.

US Treasury yields have moved sharply higher, with the 10-year yield rising roughly 45 basis points over the past month to about 5.25%. That has understandably revived concerns about what higher bond yields could mean for equities.

The S&P 500 hit a new record high in 3Q as strong earnings offset headwinds from oil returning to $100/bbl, the Fed hiking rates, and the 10-year Treasury crossing 5%.

Emerging markets (EMs) have historically been associated with commodity exports and low-cost manufacturing. Those characteristics remain relevant in parts of the investable universe, but the sources of competitive advantage have broadened materially.

With markets around the globe rattled by the bond sell-off, it may be time to pivot towards safe havens that still generate strong yield.

September ETF launches highlighted active strategies and an AI hardware ETF as year-to-date inflows reached a record $1.54 trillion.

In 1954, golfer Tommy Bolt won the inaugural Rubber City Open at Firestone Country Club in Akron. Four years later, he returned to Akron as the reigning US Open champion, where in the third round he was paired with an 18-year-old amateur making his tour debut.

The U.S. economy is handing investors a muddled picture. Housing is stuck, hiring is lopsided, and households feel worse than the jobs data suggest. Add a string of geopolitical shocks and a Federal Reserve (Fed) under new leadership still establishing its reaction function, and the signals markets rely on are harder to read. Investors will have to adjust to this market, where clarity is scarce.

Investment performance is often measured by what a portfolio earns. But for investors with substantial assets across taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free accounts, what they keep after taxes can be just as important.

ClearBridge Investments: With the economy still resilient, a gradual Federal Reserve hiking cycle could help broaden market leadership beyond the Magnificent Seven.

Is now the time for senior loans? Shifting yields and rising pressure make the floating rate yield vehicles an intriguing place to watch.

On the surface, the municipal bond market may not check the “dynamic” box. After all, individual muni bonds and ETFs such as the ALPS BBH Intermediate Municipal Bond ETF (MNBD) are positioned, rightly so, as conservative, income-bearing investments.

Stocks chopped this summer as high hopes for AI product and infrastructure development were offset by rising inflation and an increasingly hawkish Federal Reserve.

For decades, investors have used growth and value allocations as a foundational block of equity portfolio construction. The distinction has been intuitive and practical. Investors expected growth to provide exposure to faster-growing companies, often with higher valuation multiples and greater sensitivity to earnings expectations.

After a nine-month rally in equity markets and a recent spike in bond yields, some investors may see fit to reduce their exposure to stocks. On the surface at least, bonds appear to offer better value than equities. The gap between stocks' earnings yields, the inverse of the price-to-earnings ratio, and bond yields is narrower than it has been in two decades.

AI's labor-market impact remains limited but uneven, as productivity and profits outpace hiring and import-heavy investment dampens U.S. job growth.

Rising interest rates can affect more than investment portfolios. Explore how changing IRS interest rates may influence several estate, charitable and tax-planning strategies.

As globalization recedes, governments and businesses have stronger incentives to invest in building more resilient societies and supply chains. That imperative has coincided with the emergence of artificial intelligence, creating a powerful interaction between technological innovation and economic security.

The discipline of running a succession-ready firm makes every aspect of a business stronger, not just the eventual transaction. Advisors who operate this way attract better talent, serve clients more consistently, and create businesses that hold their value regardless of market conditions.

Inflation progress remains uneven: The latest Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index showed some improvement after revisions, but several measures suggest price pressures remain sticky and above the Federal Reserve’s target

Only one month ago the big story about the US economy was how strong it was. The August jobs report, which arrived in early September, showed that payrolls were up 162,000 for the month. Meanwhile, at one point the Atlanta Fed’s “GDP Now” model was estimating real GDP would grow more than 5% at an annual rate in the third quarter.

This year has marked another remarkable chapter for the global economy and financial markets. Investors have navigated no shortage of challenges, from geopolitical conflicts and trade tensions to elevated energy prices and shifting interest rate expectations. Yet despite these headwinds, the economy continues to expand, corporate earnings remain resilient and markets have steadily climbed the proverbial wall of worry.

Long before modern scanners and monitors became common, doctors often checked a patient's health with something as simple as a finger on the wrist. A pulse could reveal a surprising amount about a person's condition. Economists have their own version of this practice. Rather than relying solely on complex statistical models, they often look for signals that offer a quick health check.

In this month’s issue, AI, energy and robotics are creating new opportunities in emerging markets, but selectivity remains key as policy, cost and execution risks evolve.

Industrials are supported by increased capital spending in electricity capacity, construction around the artificial intelligence-related (AI) infrastructure buildout, defense, and energy, although higher costs and possible delays in data center construction could temper growth.

We understand that you can’t forecast the sequence of returns, but we CAN build a plan that survives a bad one. As Howard Marks puts it, you can’t predict, but you can prepare. These are the rules of engagement once you’ve crossed from saving into spending.

If you only looked at the price of gold in September, you’d be forgiven for believing the bull market had run out of steam. The yellow metal fell 6.3% during the month, and some in the financial press were quick to say it had failed as a safe haven.