4 Signs Your Employee Is Ready to Become A Manager
Are you spending more time managing your team than helping your clients? If that’s not what you were looking for when you started your independent financial services firm, there’s one thing that might keep you out of that trap if you have an employee who is ready to step up to the plate and become […]
Global Portfolio Perspectives on the Dollar, Gold, and International Stocks
Global events have been at the center of financial market activity, with high oil prices, geopolitics, and new tariff rules capturing investor attention. Behind many of these trends, however, is the level of the U.S. dollar. While currency movements have received less attention in recent weeks, they continue to have important effects on portfolios by […]
First Quarter 2026 Market Summary
The first quarter of 2026 illustrates the importance of preparation when it comes to financial planning and investing. After strong gains in 2025, markets faced a combination of geopolitical shocks, higher oil prices, and renewed economic uncertainty. The conflict in Iran became the dominant market story, pushing oil prices sharply higher and sparking the first […]
How Rising Gasoline Prices Affect Consumers and Investors
For most Americans, the price of gasoline at the pump is one of the direct ways the conflict in Iran affects their everyday lives. Gasoline prices are prominently displayed and updated frequently, and filling up on at least a weekly basis is a basic necessity to commute to work, school, buy groceries, and more. Diesel […]
Market Pullbacks and Achieving Portfolio Balance
The ongoing conflict in Iran and rising oil prices have been the primary drivers of stock market swings in recent weeks. Brent crude oil has climbed back above $100 per barrel, raising questions about whether higher energy costs could slow economic growth while also pushing inflation higher. This adds to existing concerns such as the […]
Stock Market Sectors: How Oil and AI Affect Portfolios
When investors think about the stock market, they tend to focus on broad indices like the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Industrial Average. While this is a natural starting point, it’s often helpful to look one level deeper at the sectors within each index. For instance, the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500 […]
Are You Building Trust with Your Clients?
Any time you are dealing with someone’s money, that relationship needs to be built on trust. There’s no shortage of bad actors in the financial industry, and everyone has a horror story, which can make it harder for those of us in financial services to gain the trust of our prospective clients. Fintech can help […]
Special Update: How $100 Oil and the Middle East Conflict Affect Investors
The ongoing conflict in Iran and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz have pushed oil prices sharply higher. Both Brent crude and WTI have jumped from around $70 per barrel to around $100 in just a few days, approaching levels last seen in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine. This has driven significant uncertainty […]
Special Update: Iran and Long-Term Investing
As you have seen in the news, the U.S. and Israel have launched military strikes against Iran, targeting its leadership, military assets, and nuclear infrastructure. Iran’s Supreme Leader is confirmed to have been killed, and Iran has retaliated with missile and drone attacks across the Middle East. President Trump has stated that the goal of […]
Supreme Court Tariff Ruling: Key Takeaways for Investors
After nearly a year of trade policy uncertainty, the Supreme Court’s ruling that recent tariffs are unconstitutional has reset the policy landscape. Yet, as is often the case in Washington, when one chapter closes, another opens. President Trump has already signaled a switch to an alternative legal framework for tariffs, and markets are still digesting […]
