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Interest in sustainable investing is growing each day as wealth owners, families, and family office professionals start down the path of sustainability investing. This paper details the typical path these investors take, the questions many of them face, and the way many of them successfully develop a winning strategy that generates both returns and impact.

U.S. equity performance relative to other equity markets has been unusually strong for the extended period since 2009. As is typically the case, investors have developed a battery of reasons why the lofty valuations of U.S. equities are justified and why they will continue to outperform other markets for the long run. In this edition of VantagePoint, four of the most common inaccuracies about U.S. equities are uncovered.

In practice it can be challenging to find an advisor who is truly independent and has your best interest at heart. As part of your due diligence and investment advisor selection and oversight process, it’s a good starting point to check if the advisor has a Code of Ethics—one that underscore the importance of avoiding activities, interests, and relationships that might interfere with, or give the appearance of interfering with placing the interest of clients first.

One core belief held about the blockchain industry is that every stock, bond, currency, and commodity will eventually be digitized (also known as tokenized). This investment thesis is one that has large-scale implications, but the rewards will only be realized by those who are patient enough to stick around for a long time. As Bill Gates says, “We overestimate what we can accomplish in one year, but underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years.”

Cannabis is one of the most promising industries emerging today and has the potential to impact and reshape the global, social, and business landscape. In this report, a spotlight is shined on the most pressing investment issues and trends facing the cannabis industry to help investors, companies, and investment banks navigate risk in the fast-moving market. The report also examines the industry from a private market perspective, including a growing ecosystem and the valuation of cannabis startups.

Lawmakers are well aware of the significant contributions to economic and job growth made by small businesses. As a direct incentive for starting and investing in small businesses, Congress has provided varying levels of beneficial treatment in the tax code for Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) since 1993. With the recent tax laws, including the reduction of the C Corporation tax rate to a flat 21%, it has made C Corporation status and QSBS treatment more attractive.

Over the past 40 years, creating and maintaining financial security has become more of a personal endeavor. Despite record aggregate levels of U.S. wealth, large portions of the population appear quite vulnerable. Avoiding late-cycle overconfidence as it relates to both spending and investment decisions is key.

Stocks and bonds delivered spectacular performance in the first six months of 2019. The S&P index of large-cap U.S. stocks returned 18.5% for the year through June 30, while the Barclays Aggregate index of investment-grade bonds delivered an equally impressive 6.1% return. Declining interest rates—sparked by the Federal Reserve—deserve most of the credit for the impressive performance. But what should we expect for the second half of 2019? On the one hand, economic growth in the U.S. remains reasonably healthy, if not robust.

If central banks do not cut rates, their authority could start to be undermined because they have raised expectations about lower rates to the point where it would be awkward to backtrack. This may provide an incentive to cut rates—good news for markets in the short term, but not necessarily in the long term.There is also a non-optimal solution in that central bank action is partly being used to counter the effects of an esclation in the trade dispute. This situation has a direct bearing on the six investment themes for 2019 and the macroeconomic forecasts for 2020.