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On November 8, 2016, millions of Americans will cast their votes for the next U.S. President. In considering how the new political environment in 2017 will impact the investment landscape, it’s important to keep in mind the words of legendary investor Benjamin Graham: “In the short run the market is a voting machine, but in the long run it is a weighing machine.” Graham was warning investors to avoid focusing on a single-event outcome to the exclusion of other factors.

Chief Investment Officer David Donabedian recaps the first half of 2016 and provides an outlook for economic activity and financial markets in the third quarter of the year. The issues that will have the most impact on the financial markets over the next 12 months are:

For insights on integrated wealth planning, this issue of The Advisor presents a view from the top with Joe Kahn, The New York Times Managing Editor, the impact of globalization 2.0, and the U.S. presidential election 2016 and the candidates’ tax platforms. Also in this issue are the best practices in providing age-appropriate transparency when it comes to discussing a family’s wealth plan. Following it is the takeaway on the advantage of Delaware’s laws on directed trusts.

With the U.S. elections front and center in the minds of most investors around the world, we focus this edition of Global Foresight on the potential outcomes of the November 8, 2016 vote and discuss how the elections could impact the composition of the Supreme Court, legislative priorities for the next Congress and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School was a New York Times best-seller that highlighted ingredients to success absent from America’s business schools. In today’s negative interest rate environment, there may be an even more important consideration for business school grads—to consciously forget much of what was taught in business school. This paper identifies several investing concepts broadly taught across the nation and preached on Wall Street.

For eight years the Federal Reserve Bank has held interest rates abnormally low. The Fed's dual mandate of moderating unemployment and inflation seems to have morphed instead into keeping stock prices high. That has helped Wall Street tremendously but has punished the average person saving for retirement. What we need now is economic growth, and fiscal and monetary changes from Washington, D.C. to reverse the low return environment.

In this quarterly investment insights report—“The Economic Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”—is an examination of the uncertainty in the financial markets. It identifies and delves into key themes for investing in the current environment. The main concerns for investors revolve around the rising U.S. dollar, monetary policy changes and the probable introduction of fiscal stimulus, and the path of earnings. Deciphering these themes will be important to investors, and only time will tell how they play out.

The earth faces a tremendous challenge when it comes to water due to the supply and demand imbalance, the lack of substitutes, and the United Nation’s declaration that drinking water and sanitation are a human right. Investors are also increasingly focused on water-related challenges, recognizing the market’s potential to provide solutions for this expanding global problem while generating competitive financial returns.

This webinar and presentation provides an overview of where we are today and views from the investment management industry on the impact of the election across the US, developed and emerging markets.

We expect the markets’ knee-jerk reaction to sell gold post a Trump victory will reverse with the bottoming process beginning this week. Framed around the well documented bearish arguments of Stan Druckenmiller on gold last week, there are reasons why gold will be more important as the generational bond bull market now closes. As investors begin to look for portfolio diversification and wealth preservation in the new rising rate cycle, gold’s uncorrelated liquid returns will have increasing appeal, particularly with foreign investors hurt by dollar strength.