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Interest in environmentally focused investment strategies is growing. For example, the Low Carbon Investment Registry launched in 2014 has shown that total investments have increased from $24bn in 2014 to $57bn through March 2017. Among the plethora of strategies aimed at addressing climate change risk, divestment—electing not to invest in co...

For many wealthy individuals, meeting their annual lifestyle needs is their top priority. Having a Portfolio Reserve—a mix of risk-control assets and high-quality bonds—helps fund the core lifestyle while protecting the spending during times of market distress. Deciding when to activate it is a personal decision that, in part, depends t...

The time has arrived when you are about to retire or transition your business, bringing a reliable source of income to an end. Do you have adequate sources of funds available to replace that income so that you can maintain your current lifestyle? This is a common planning question among the millions of Americans approaching retirement, ...

Now is a good time to review the developments in the economy and financial markets. In some areas, we are very encouraged by developments that further embolden our initial views, whereas we have been surprised in other areas and have adjusted portfolios accordingly. Overall we remain comfortable with our overweight to risk assets and underweight to...

The 5th edition of the Social Divide index reveals that FTSE 100 companies are sharing more and better financial results-related posts on social media, assembling the right mix of social ingredients to achieve significantly higher levels of engagement than ever before. Indeed, in a clear indication of increasing stakeholder appetite for receiving r...

Economic and demographic strengths have combined to make India the world’s fastest growing major economy for three years running. In 2016-2017, the country’s GDP, ranked seventh globally the year before, is projected to grow by 6.6%. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, embodies a “can do” spirit and champions a pro-business environment. Buoyed b...

Last year, the Hong Kong government established two sovereign funds to stimulate private investments and increase deal flow in local Hong Kong technology start-ups. Given the intense competition for good opportunities, high quality assets and the great responsibility that these funds hold in their hands, there has been greater transparency and reco...

Investing in a changing world can be challenging. Looking at the current environment, there is a wide array of possible outcomes due to heightened political uncertainty in Europe related to a number of key elections in the region and policy upheavals at home. These changes carry the potential to disrupt and dislocate markets. To this end, investors...

Over time, and as more investors allocate capital to private equity, the market has evolved to become increasingly sophisticated and competitive. As a result, there has been an expansion of investment scope and a profusion of specialized sub-strategies (for example, co-investing, direct investing, sector-focused strategies) and managers expanding i...

The start of the year is always a good time to focus on personal improvements with resolutions. Sharing in the same spirit with an investment outlook in mind, there are ten temptations to resist in 2017, including resisting the macro and political developments, investing while looking through the re...

Looking at the outlook of the major asset classes, there is potential for a break in the clouds. But overall, the things we have been worried about for some time—high valuations for certain risk assets, record-low interest rates, slow economic growth—have not gone away. We remain concerned that investors are stuck in a low-return world ...

The swishing of the President’s pen on paper to sign protectionist measures into law or executive orders could unwittingly cause a financial storm. So far, investors seemed to have shrugged off the risk of protectionism. Markets also do not seem to expect the proposed border adjusted tax to get enough support in the Senate. However, policy un...

While the financial markets have moved well beyond the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, the public trust of a very large sector of the global economy is still severely marred due to continued bad behavior, lack of corporate transparency, accountability and proper risk management, as well as risky business practices. To overcome these shortcomings, ...

While currency traders were fixated throughout 2016 on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s outlook for short-term rates, we expect that changes in the value of the U.S. dollar in 2017 will be driven more by geopolitical events: most notably, the French Presidential election, a potential national election in Italy, as well as U.S.-China relations. In t...

The acceleration of technological innovations and the challenges associated with adapting to them seem to point toward a tumultuous future. That future appears to be approaching faster than ever. Companies are finding it harder to maintain their positions in industries that are increasingly subject to disruption. And while investors may not be able...