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The Resilience of a Learning Family

The Resilience of a Learning Family

If we’ve learned anything over the past several months, it’s to expect the unexpected. The global pandemic has challenged us all to learn new ways of communicating and collaborating effectively, and it has highlighted the need for businesses, organizations, and individuals to lean into their creativity, flexibility, and resilience in the face of change.   The same is true for families. At Matter, we help build “learning families” because we believe they exhibit the behaviors and characteristics that help them remain successful in
Firm News

Matter Celebrates Twelve Promotions

People Matter At Matter, we are grateful to work with great families and great team members every day.  We believe that investing in our combined human capital creates a virtuous cycle for all parties. By fostering a people-centric culture of continuous learning and professional advancement, we aim to empower our team members to reach their full potential in serving families for generations. This fall, Matter is thrilled to announce the well-deserved promotion of twelve team members. Their dedication, hard work,
Investing

Investment Themes: Seeing Beyond the Headlines

Investment Themes – What Matters? There is no absence of storylines vying for investor attention as we enter the last quarter of the year and review the investment themes. The Fed shifted its policy stance in September and markets are now trying to process the outlook for interest rates in the near term. To make the situation more complicated, we are also less than a month away from elections here in the United States. Despite this, portfolios are faring well
Investing

Mid-Year Review

Volatility Ahead Over the first half of the year, we’ve seen a bifurcation of experiences across our three major asset categories: Equities, Bonds and Real Assets.  For equity investors, the story has been the resilience of the economy, the growth of profit margins and the momentum behind AI—evident in Nvidia’s 150%+ return so far in 2024.  Fixed income markets have been comparatively volatile due to the moderation of rate cut expectations and the growing consensus surrounding a higher for longer
Investing

Investing in the Sustainable Transition

The world is an uncertain place—it always has been and always will be. The recent past is a perfect reflection of that reality—a global pandemic, multiple military conflicts, monetary policy shocks, natural disasters, and the list could go on. Yet the power of human ingenuity and the resilience it has helped develop means that we are constantly improving the way in which we face these dynamic challenges. In a period of time when optimism seems scarce and criticism and concerns
Investing

Making Sense of It  

How should investors make sense of what is happening in the markets and what is happening across global economies?  It’s admittedly THE million-dollar question.  Short-term interest rates are the highest they’ve been since the global financial crisis in 2008/2009.  As the two charts below illustrate, companies in the US are facing declining profit margins and are taking a cautious approach to future capital expenditures.  Lastly, real estate markets across the US are having to contend with a financing market that
Investing

2022 Year-End Recap and Outlook

There has been a lot for investors to digest throughout this year—the war in Ukraine, persistently high inflation, one of the fastest rate hiking cycles in history and the residual impact of a globally disjointed COVID response and reopening policy.  The result has been broad-based asset class declines, in which—as the chart below highlights—only commodities and cash have been spared.  The magnitude and the breadth of the decline stand out when viewed through the context of the last decade.  In
Family Culture & Learning

What’s in a Name?

Legacy and Learning Matter has recently made a decision that has significant meaning even if the result seems like an insignificant change. We take a comprehensive, integrated approach to managing wealth and have framed this as follows: Investment Management, Wealth Planning & Coordination, and Culture & Legacy. Truth be told, as we have learned more about what makes families successful and thrive, the word legacy does not capture the entirety of this critical aspect. The Oxford Dictionary defines legacy as
Investing

The Search for Equilibrium and a Path Forward

As the third quarter draws to a close, we find ourselves in one of the first prolonged down markets since the global financial crisis.  In a way, it is natural to believe that “this time is different” because, it has been.  The previous bear market during COVID and the “almost” bear market in Q4 2018 were very quickly resolved—in both cases, the markets had recovered from their lows within about 3 months.  Ironically, we are now faced with the consequences
Investing

Market Decisions: Seeing the Relationship between Risk and Opportunity

While the official advance release of Q2 GDP from the Bureau of Economic Analysis will not be until later this month, the Atlanta Fed produces their GDPNow forecast, which is designed to be a “live” tracker of economic growth that adjusts to various data releases throughout the quarter.  Based on the latest release this week, it estimates Q2 GDP as having declined by 1.2%.  If this estimate holds true—which is admittedly a big “if”—this would imply, by the most basic
Investing

Assessing the Risks in Equity and Bond Markets

Earlier this year, we wrote about the implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the markets were reacting negatively to the news of the conflict, in reality inflation and Fed policy had already been weighing on investors’ minds.  With the news of the FOMC’s decision to raise interest rates by 50bps last week and the corresponding volatility that has returned in both equity and bond markets, it seems investors have awoken to the reality that the economic conditions moving forward
Investing

The Implications of War between Russia and Ukraine

When you’ve been investing long enough, you develop a certain resilience and respect for the volatility of the markets as they swing between periods of fear and euphoria.  The day to day swings make for anxious moments, but should rarely (if ever) represent the justification for making any long-term investment decisions.  Today, we are faced with the fact that the predicted military conflict between Russia and the Ukraine has become a reality. Before we go into the investment analysis, I
Investing

How to Navigate a Lower Returning Investment Environment

“What can I expect my portfolio to do for me going forward?”  This is one of the most common things we hear from Matter families. While the question seems simple enough, the answer is often layered with nuance, disclaimers, and numerous variables. Unlike the weather, in finance, the closer the time horizon, the less reliable the forecast is. It’s simply impossible for anyone to know what’s brewing in the near term. Howard Marks of Oaktree wrote a great memo on forecasts a few months back and it is