It is a rite of passage: Grow old enough and you earn the privilege to stereotype the younger generation. Oh, the kids these days. When it comes to the current crop of people in their 20s and early 30s — the 77 million young Americans referred to as the millennials because they came of age after the turn of the century — the typecasting has proved no different. We have all heard the generalities: hooked on social media, distracted, spoiled. As is often the case in these situations, hardly any of it is true.

The rich get richer.

That is an American maxim. It is true of many societies around the world. I have long said that Americans like that we have a system skewed toward the rich because we all think we are going to hit the jackpot one day — and we want those tax-code goodies and upward wealth distribution mechanisms in place for us to benefit from when our lottery numbers hit the mega-millions.

Very early in the career of a financial adviser, he or she is faced with a situation in which a client is clearly acting outside of the client’s best financial interests, and is either unable or unwilling to change. This could include overspending, under-saving, buying high and selling low, or not following through on financial planning advice. Often the adviser gives sound suggestions but the client will not act on them. Financial psychology can help advisers understand their clients’ beliefs and behaviors and equip advisers with tools and techniques to help.

One of the turning points in Lisette Cooper’s life was the evening Robert Rubin flew into Cambridge for a cocktail party with Harvard Business School students. Cooper recalls walking up to the former Treasury Secretary for the Clinton administration and partner at Goldman Sachs, to ask him what someone like she could do on Wall Street.

Not too many people enjoyed the rollercoaster ride in oil prices over the past year. The speed was too fast, the ups-and-downs dizzying, and when it was all over we all felt a little … unsettled.

So, do we climb back on for another ride?

Probably not. It appears the road ahead will flatten, although by how much is really just guesswork. Most folks in the oil or investment business will admit the $115 per barrel for Brent crude oil in June 2014 was too high, but the correction to about $45 per barrel in January was too low.

Green investing. Sustainable investing. Socially responsible investing (SRI). Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investing. Impact investing.

No matter how it is described, a movement is slowly taking hold among investors. They no longer want to invest simply for returns. They want to invest to do good while realizing those returns. In the past, investors wanting to do good often simply avoided investments in companies that were involved in activities at odds with their values. Now, they are not just avoiding coal, blood diamonds and tobacco, they are looking to promote positive change by supporting investments that support their values, such as firms that use sustainable farming practices or environmentally sustainable building management practices or ethically sourced raw materials.

U.S. hotels are hot properties this year, with another luxury hotel changing hands recently. Host Hotels & Resorts has acquired the 643-room Phoenician resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., for $400 million.

The CREO Network and Cleantech Syndicate are merging and will operate their combined organizations under the name CREO Syndicate.

The merger creates one of the largest private networks serving family offices and private investors within the global environmental, energy efficiency and clean energy marketplace.

Until recently, high commodity prices and low interest rates helped sustain double-digit gains in farmland values, garnering the attention of farmers and investors alike. In fact, investors started paying closer attention to the agricultural asset class in the previous commodity bull market of 2006–2008, first by pouring money into agricultural commodities, then venturing into direct farmland investments.

Real assets, also known as hard assets, are to Yale’s and Harvard’s endowment investing model what logs are to cabins. Real assets — the umbrella term for real estate, commodities, energy, infrastructure, natural resources and master limited partnerships — are a crucial component of the endowment model of investing because of their response to economic cycles and their fundamental merits. They are not just for institutional investors; they belong in the portfolios of individual investors as well.

The investment characteristics of infrastructure are attracting a surge of capital to the asset class, with long-standing Australian and Canadian investors now being joined by pension funds and sovereign investors from the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. As the institutional market grows, demand rises for tools to better monitor and benchmark the asset class, particularly from the perspective of risk managers and capital allocators.