Wealth Management
Despite their volatility, natural resources remain an essential part of a diversified portfolio, both for their growth potential amid the energy transition and their inflation-hedging qualities.
The Morningstar Global Upstream Natural Resources Index, which tracks companies tied to energy, metals, agriculture, timber, and water, shows that while commodities can be unpredictable, they tend to outperform when traditional assets falter. In 2022, for example, as stocks and bonds plunged together, the index gained more than 15% thanks to surging prices in oil, metals, and timber driven by inflation and supply disruptions.
Recent years have favored technology-driven markets and left resource exposure underrepresented, inflationary pressures, geopolitical tensions, and the green energy shift may revive their relevance.
Finsum: Ultimately, natural resources offer diversification and resilience, qualities that matter most when the rest of the market is under stress.
Sales of fee-based annuities are growing rapidly, reaching about $8 billion this year, though they still represent a small fraction of the $430 billion total annuity market. LIMRA projects $6.9 billion in fee-based variable annuities and $1.1 billion in fee-based fixed-indexed annuities for 2025, nearly doubling since 2022.
Industry experts noted that while most sales still come from traditional 1035 exchanges, a rising share now involves new money, signaling growing advisor engagement. Insurers like Jackson National are developing fee-friendly products such as Jackson Income Assurance, which allows advisors to draw fees directly from contracts without reducing client benefits.
Prudential Financial is also expanding in this space with ActiveIncome, an insurance overlay built for RIAs that preserves asset control while providing lifetime income.
Finusm: These innovations aim to reduce friction between insurers and advisors, marking a structural shift toward fee-based, client-aligned annuity solutions.
Technology and Communication Services stocks continue to dominate markets in 2025, gaining 23% and 25% respectively—well above the S&P 500’s 15% return. Together, these sectors now account for nearly 45% of the S&P 500’s market cap, with Broadcom, NVIDIA, and Alphabet leading gains among the “Magnificent Seven.”
Despite volatility earlier in the year due to competitive AI platforms like DeepSeek, resilient consumer demand and strong corporate profits have kept indexes at record highs. Analysts from U.S. Bank Asset Management Group note that AI and cloud computing remain major growth drivers, even as investors scrutinize valuations and capital expenditures.
While elevated prices could leave tech stocks vulnerable to earnings slowdowns, experts see continued upside as innovation fuels productivity and structural growth.
Finsum: Technology remains the market’s core engine, volatile yet essential for long-term investment performance.
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As markets decline amid tariff concerns, investors are increasingly turning to structured notes for downside protection, income generation, and help staying invested through volatility. These tailored instruments combine features of debt and derivatives to offer asymmetric returns, limiting losses while allowing partial participation in market gains.
Structured notes with “static buffers” can, for instance, protect against a 15% market drop while providing steady coupon payments. They also enable investors to enhance yield potential by reallocating portions of cash or fixed income holdings into structured products.
Historically, structured notes with downside buffers have preserved principal in more than 90% of 20-year backtests, illustrating their resilience during turbulent markets.
Finsum: While not maybe for all investors, structured notes can serve as a strategic tool to maintain exposure and stability when uncertainty runs high.
A new TIAA survey finds that two-thirds of Americans believe retiring between ages 65 and 70 is no longer realistic, with only 37% confident they can retire “on time.” Financial strain is widespread—20% of respondents aren’t saving for retirement at all, and nearly a quarter expect to work longer just to cover basic expenses.
Some are even turning to unlikely strategies, such as the 10% who see playing the lottery or buying luxury goods as potential retirement solutions. TIAA executives warn that many Americans lack both adequate savings and access to financial guidance, underscoring the need for guaranteed income products and professional advice.
The survey shows 92% of respondents want a steady income stream beyond Social Security, yet 25% feel too uninformed to invest in annuities despite growing interest.
Finsum: Advisor should help clients to understand supplementing Social Security with long-term income strategies is essential to ensure financial security in retirement.
LPL Financial’s new Advisor Growth Study (AGS) analyzed six years of data from more than 14,000 advisory practices to uncover the behaviors that drive consistent, sustainable growth. Using supervised machine learning and explainable AI, LPL developed the Advisor Growth Index, a diagnostic tool that benchmarks advisor performance across client acquisition, development, and retention.
The research found that firms demonstrating even two of the four core growth habits outperformed peers by fivefold. These high-growth advisors build a strong foundation by focusing on scalable operations and long-term clients, with a balanced client age mix under 60 and fewer than 35% in decumulation.
They also segment clients strategically, prioritizing service to those with high assets or complex needs, while maintaining deep engagement with existing relationships to strengthen retention and generational continuity.
Finsum: Data-driven client acquisition, leveraging M&A, digital marketing, and centers of influence, can help grow new client assets.