Our readers have been wondering about the M&A activity they’ve witnessed recently. They want to know why it’s happening and what it means for the industry. First, I should note that firms acquiring and merging with other firms is a theme we’ve witnessed for more than 40 years — certainly since 1979, when I first entered the business. Being small means being nimble. But investors have grown dramatically in sophistication in the past 44 years, while the size of the portfolios they manage has ballooned — in many cases into the billions of U.S. dollars.

Bradley Tusk, venture capital and political consultant: Elon Musk, for all of his accomplishments, really benefits from the status quo. He is a genius at acting like he is subverting the status quo, and yet what does he want? He wants government contracts for SpaceX, he wants Section 230 preserved so X can make more money, he wants lots of tax incentives for electric vehicles and Tesla, so this is a guy who very much has a strong economic interest in keeping things the way they are, and he's betting on who he thinks will be the winning candidate because it translates into a lot more money for him and his companies.

The world of registered investment advisers is a land of opportunity. But it is also a minefield of regulations. A single misstep can lead to hefty fines, reputational damage and even legal trouble. We have seen it all, and in our latest industry insight, we unveil the top 10 compliance failures that can befall even the most seasoned RIA.

In the first quarter, 57 office markets tracked by CBRE experienced negative net absorption, meaning more space was vacated than leased. That pushed the total office vacancy rate to a fresh 30-year high of 19 percent. As the latest quarterly leasing data for major cities across the United States becomes available, it is clear vacancy has remained elevated across many markets throughout the second quarter, and some are continually registering record highs.

Talent matters, but talent has a broad definition. Those were the words spoken by tennis legend Roger Federer during his 2024 commencement address to the graduating class at Dartmouth College. Among those sitting in the audience was Lawrence Calcano, CEO of iCapital, and himself a product of the esteemed Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. He was visiting the campus to see the youngest of his three children graduate with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and, serendipitously, found resonance with Federer’s comments.

Youth sports has become a big-league playing field for investors. The numbers are compelling. The Aspen Institute put out a report in 2022 saying the average American family spends around $880 per child per sport every year between fees, equipment, travel and instruction. It pegged the youth sports market — participated in by kids 5 to 15 years of age — at $30 billion to $40 billion.

When constructing a portfolio, active managers should have a clear investment philosophy that outlines the types of companies that will align with their strategy. Growth investors typically seek companies that will outgrow the economy, their peers, or the market at large. Emerging growth investors want to find those same companies early in their development. The challenge lies in sourcing these prospective companies, as they are often small, undiscovered, or not widely covered by Wall Street. This is where “thematic investing” can be a valuable tool, offering a strategic approach to finding these hidden gems.

What could be more calm and obscure than the bottom of the deep blue sea? But in March, communication cables lying on the bed of the Red Sea were cut, disrupting 25 percent of data traffic between Asia and Europe. How the cables were cut is uncertain, but the waters have become a war zone as Yemen’s Houthi militants targeted civilian vessels and U.S. Navy ships plying the international sea lane.

How can you best plan for the tax responsibilities of generational wealth? It all starts at the intersection of two tax systems: income taxes and transfer taxes (estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes). Balancing the impact of these two systems is critical to the wealth planning process.

Is there a more effective approach to equity income? Is there a better way to earn income from equities? ProShares writes there are many approaches investors can take when seeking income from their equity holdings, but these generally fall into one of two main categories: high-yielding equity and derivative strategies. Learn more here.

Many global equity investors have historically held limited positions in Middle Eastern countries, which barely registered in emerging market benchmarks. But new investment opportunities are drawing attention as transformation of the region accelerates. Since the global pandemic ended, rising oil prices have flooded the Middle East with cash. From a low of less than $20 per barrel in 2020 to a peak of more than $120 per barrel in 2022, oil revenues have boomed. But this has also raised questions about how long the region’s dependence on fossil-fuel income can continue.

A seismic shift is taking place in corporate America as even more companies announce plans to relocate from blue states to more business-friendly jurisdictions like Texas. Elon Musk recently announced he would be moving the headquarters of two of his companies, X and SpaceX, from California to Texas. The “final straw,” according to Musk, was a new California law that blocks schools from notifying families if students change their gender identity.

Ground was broken on the world’s first potential coal-to-nuclear power plant transition in June. Existing transmission lines and water infrastructure (necessary for cooling both coal-fired power equipment and nuclear reactors), means developers could cut significant time and costs off of plant construction. The World Nuclear Association finds that costs associated with the lifespan of nuclear plants are heavily weighted toward the capital required to construct the facility, making up at least 60 percent of their levelized cost of electricity. A 2022 Department of Energy report found new nuclear power plants could cut construction costs by more than one-third.

Research from Goldman Sachs shows that a 1 percentage point increase in U.S. inflation has historically led to a real return gain of 7 percentage points for commodities. Meanwhile, the same trigger caused stocks and bonds to decline by 3 percentage points and 4 percentage points, respectively. This data supports the potential of commodities as an inflation hedge. In times of rising prices, tangible assets such as silver, oil and gold often retain their value better than paper assets.

For all the headlines about automakers dialing back their plans for electric vehicles, there have been some pockets of surprisingly positive news on EV adoption the past few months. On the passenger vehicle side, it is estimated EVs reached 20 percent of global vehicle sales in the final quarter of 2023. China and Europe are way out ahead, but it was a record quarter in other markets as well.

Capital Group’s plans to partner with KKR in launching two interval funds in 2025 is only the latest sign of interest from two well-known asset managers in this increasingly popular structure. To help investors navigate interval funds’ strengths and weaknesses while considering their role in a portfolio, Morningstar manager research analysts recently published an extensive guide to interval funds. This column draws from that report to help investors make informed decisions about interval funds.

The top floor of any skyscraper is the crown jewel, often home to penthouse homes and office suites that command premium rents. At The Spiral, a 66-story office tower in Manhattan, the top floor has become a trademark amenity not only for a few elite tenants but for the entire building.

During her chemistry Nobel Prize lecture in 2018, Frances Arnold said, “Today we can for all practical purposes read, write and edit any sequence of DNA, but we cannot compose it.” That isn’t true anymore. Since then, science and technology have progressed so much that artificial intelligence has learned to compose DNA, and with genetically modified bacteria, scientists are on their way to designing and making bespoke proteins.

Though many real estate development firms have sought to revitalize underserved communities, they have found the challenges complex and the obstacles numerous — including lack of financial resources, trust issues that revolve around preserving existing culture, lack of long-term commitment and so on. One person who believes she and her colleagues have cracked the code is Robin Zeigler, founder and CEO of MURAL Real Estate Partners.