Planning a Thoughtful Wealth Transfer
May 6, 2024 There are many ways to harness the step-up in basis while ensuring financial security — and avoiding many pitfalls. As published in Rethinking65 By Mallon FitzPatrick Wealth transfer starts with a comprehensive wealth plan to analyze the whole financial picture, including the balance sheet and cash flow. One goal of the transfer […]
FOMC Commentary – May 1, 2024
By Chief Economist, Jeanette Garretty May 2, 2024There is very little that was surprising in the May 1 interest rate announcement by the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). It was acknowledged by a number of Federal Reserve members weeks ago that progress toward the 2% inflation target slowed in the first quarter; the FOMC statement reiterated […]
The Problem with Productivity
April 2, 2024 By Jeanette Garretty, Chief Economist Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything. A country’s ability to improve its standard of living over time depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker. –Paul Krugman, The Age of Diminishing Expectations (1994) Every five or six […]
FOMC Commentary – March 20, 2024
March 20, 2024 What Just Happened? By Chief Economist, Jeanette Garretty The just-concluded March meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) ended with an unsurprising statement leaving the target Fed Funds at 5.25%-5.5% and citing a need for more data on inflation before initiating a series of interest rate cuts. The accompanying Summary of […]
FOMC Commentary – January 31, 2024
By Chief Economist, Jeanette Garretty The FOMC statement released today is, in its language, quite benign. Notably, any language indicating a bias towards hiking interest rates (should inflation pressures return and/or inflation fail to continue to decelerate) has been removed from the statement. Overall, the message of the statement is that the Fed does not […]
2024 Investment and Wealth Planning Outlook Webinar
January 25, 2024 – Chief Economist Jeanette Garretty hosted Chief Investment Officer Stuart Katz and Head of Wealth Planning Mallon FitzPatrick as they discussed the end of 2023 and their outlook for 2024. Disclosures Investment advisory services offered through Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, LLC (“Robertson Stephens”), an SEC-registered investment advisor. Registration does not imply any […]
Q4 2023 Economic Commentary
By Jeanette Garretty, Chief Economist The fourth and final quarter of 2023 saw a resolution of a number of important questions: Would inflation decelerate as hoped? Would the US economy falter? Would the Federal Reserve ever stop raising interest rates? These three questions dominated investor sentiment for much of 2023 and, in keeping with economics being […]
Wealth-Planning Moves for 2024
As published in Rethinking65 Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) provisions are set to expire in less than two years. Making changes to position clients may take a lot of time. By Mallon FitzPatrick and Alicia Denton January 26, 2024 – Last year brought higher yields, changes to retirement and 529-plans, high inflation, and hopefully […]
Preparing Grads For A Future In Investing
By Karen McClintock, CFA June 30, 2023 – About four million people will graduate from college this year* and begin establishing careers. For graduates, their relationship with money can change significantly once they have a job and pay their own bills. For families, a new set of worries emerge. Can the kids make it on their […]
Women Can Find New Voice as Rising Power Donors With a ‘DAF’
By Lauren Sigman, CFP and Karen McClintock, CFA March 21, 2022 – Several months ago, a director who sits on a number of nonprofit boards shared an eye-opening story with us concerning an organization’s recent fund-raising activity. A development officer from a board had received a bizarre call, possibly a hoax, last year from someone […]
After Exxon: Seeing ESG Investing Through a New Lens
By Christopher Knapp, Robertson Stephens, and William Page, Essex Investment Management September 16, 2021 – If there’s one thing the recent boardroom showdown over Exxon Mobil Corp’s stance on renewable energy has demonstrated to the world, it’s that environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investing is no longer child’s play. In that clash, BlackRock and Vanguard, […]
Investing in ESG Webinar
April 21, 2021 During our Investing in ESG webinar, our CEO, Raj Bhattacharyya sat down with Chief Investment Officer, Stuart Katz, and Head of ESG and Impact Investing, Christopher Knapp, to discuss our philosophy, approach to ESG and how we integrate ESG themes into client portfolios. To learn more about ESG, please do not hesitate to […]