As a financial adviser, clients often come to me and say: “My children do not know what is required to build the wealth they were born into.” Rather than diving into financial strategies, my first reaction is to ask the client what values they hold for themselves and their children. Have they written them down? Do the parents exemplify these values in both word and deed? What about the children themselves, have their individual values been listened to and observed as well?

How should the SEC and FINRA modernize their regulations to better serve the interests of RIAs, broker/dealers, and individuals and family investors?

Is traditional retail truly in demise? Is online retailing truly the force that is driving legacy retailers into bankruptcy? Where are savvy brick-and-mortar retailers finding new spaces to sell their wares?

The United States is the world’s largest student-housing market, attracting the highest volume of investment capital each year. Annual student housing investment volume has more than tripled since 2014, reaching $11 billion during 2018, reports CBRE. And the prices for U.S. student housing investments have never been higher, reports Real Capital Analytics in June 2019.

The professional turning point in Michelle Mathieu’s career came in March 2007 while attending a keynote address by T. Boone Pickens at the New York Athletic Club. Pickens was talking about oil prices, which were going crazy at the time, to a group composed almost entirely of men. Mathieu, who was CIO of a trust company at the time, had flown from her native Seattle to New York City to attend the strategy and research conference, geared toward institutional investment managers. She was sitting at a table with a group of big-city men donned in slick, dark suits listening to them banter with one another. It was then an epiphany struck with “crystal clarity.”

Positive and negative assessments of investments in designated opportunity zones have been proliferating since those zones were created as part of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017. The main argument in favor of investment in low-income communities that have earned that designation, according to the act, is they protect investors from taxation. Another is that creating opportunity zones encourages investment in neighborhoods that have potential for growth, but would not ordinarily get consideration from investors.

There’s growing evidence that private equity markets are beginning to overheat after several high-profile IPO flops. Investors in stocks should pay attention because private funding troubles are also a very public market affair.

Apartments have been the darling of real estate capital markets for the past seven or eight years. This deep into an outstanding run, some investors have begun to worry if the clock is approaching midnight for Cinderella. However, an examination of underlying demand dynamics suggests the United States will require an extraordinary number of rental units over the next five to 10 years, even beyond. If supply remains in check, the following long-term lifestyle and demographic trends should allow apartments to remain the belle of the ball for some time to come.

Investment markets are not what they used to be. In a RiskFirst survey reported on by Pensions & Investments, the vast majority of U.S. pension funds indicated to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators they have abandoned hopes of 8.00 percent return targets and have scaled back those expectations to 7.25 percent.

The professional turning point in Michelle Mathieu’s career came in March 2007 while attending a keynote address by T. Boone Pickens at the New York Athletic Club. Pickens was talking about oil prices, which were going crazy at the time, to a group composed almost entirely of men. Mathieu, who was CIO of a trust company at the time, had flown from her native Seattle to New York City to attend the strategy and research conference, geared toward institutional investment managers. She was sitting at a table with a group of big-city men donned in slick, dark suits listening to them banter with one another. It was then an epiphany struck with “crystal clarity.”

There has been much speculation about the way electric and autonomous vehicles will change urban planning and reshape city real estate markets. Mark Dunec, a managing director in the real estate solutions practice at FTI Consulting, argues that electric vehicles will inevitably bring about the end of gasoline stations and change the financials of those pieces of real estate as property holders seek to repurpose them.

If you liked 2019, then settle back and enjoy 2020. Despite being hit by volatility from all sides — politics, stock prices, trade wars, weather patterns, energy supplies, the price of avocados — the 2019 economic climate was relatively calm, especially for real assets. Gross domestic product (GDP) continued to grow, albeit at a snail’s pace. Consumer confidence remained strong. Unemployment was at its lowest in the past 50 years. Jobs were added at a good clip. And numbers released in early November show these trends are continuing, though possibly at a bit slower pace. There is, therefore, no obvious reason to believe we won’t continue to see a slowly expanding economy, happy consumers and employed workers in the new year.