Insights matter.

At Matter, we believe successful families truly thrive when they develop their human capital along with their financial capital. We are committed to helping them do both by continuing to expand and evolve our innovative, industry-leading family culture and learning services.  On October 1st, Matter added a chief learning officer (CLO) to our leadership team and began a search for a family learning consultant. These new team members will lead our culture and learning work and develop new services, programs,

We spent a lot of time last year discussing estate and income tax planning in anticipation of possible tax law changes hinging on the outcome of the United States Presidential and Senate elections. While we now have clarity on the election outcomes, we are still in a position of needing to make significant estate and income tax decisions without complete clarity around potential changes in tax law. It feels like the new normal …     What we do know is the proposed tax bills provide an indication that higher estate and income tax rates are

The evolution of blockchain technology and its more fashionable relatives, cryptocurrencies, has been nothing if not fascinating. We’ve watched as the headlines have spanned from an asset with nefarious potential, to a democratizing technology, to a meme-worthy currency alternative. If you ask blockchain disciples, it is “the” technology of the future, whereas skeptics compare it to Dutch tulips or snake oil.  Before we go any further, we should start with a confession: we are not cryptocurrency experts. We are, however, intellectually curious investors,

At Matter, we believe great investments aspire to great purposes. We work to find investments that positively impact all stakeholders—customers, communities, and shareholders.  Sustainable investing represents the intersection of evolving social and investment perspectives that creates an opportunity to more fully align investments with the vision, values, and wealth purpose of each of our client families.  A sustainable or impact lens is an integral part of the investment strategy we use to build and manage portfolios for Matter families. We

Prenuptial agreements can cause tension and anxiety for successful families with children who are moving toward marriage. Prenups are complicated for a variety of reasons, from emotional to technical, and it can feel awkward (at best) to talk about divorce while planning a wedding.  At Matter, we have helped many families navigate the prenup landscape. Although every family is different, and people approach the process with a wide variety of expectations and goals in mind, one thing is very consistent:

We’ve all seen the headlines over the last several weeks—I will paraphrase—Robinhood and its band of Merry Reddit Traders have come together to take down the greedy Hedge Fund Barons of Wall Street. While it makes for a compelling storyline and elicits many questions regarding how such things could happen, the reality of the plot is slightly less sensational, though there are some important implications to keep in mind. The story is really one of momentum, dislocation, and risk management,

At Matter, we strive to bring our best selves to the work we do, with families and each other. As we continue to navigate the opportunities and challenges of this year, in particular, we’re deeply grateful for our exceptional team and for the professionalism, optimism, humor, and resilience Matter employees bring to work every day.  We’re thrilled to promote nine team members this fall and to celebrate Matter’s continued growth as we toast our 30th year of helping families thrive. 

If the only two things in life that are certain are death and taxes, a close third would be presidential election cycles. Now, not all election cycles are equal. Some are highly contested, whereas others have a clear front-runner. Some elections involve an incumbent and a challenger, while others involve two candidates who would be new to the presidency. Each election takes on a life of its own, but sure as the sun rises in the east, every 4 years, Americans head to the

Planning anything in 2020 has been quite challenging – so it should be no surprise that we may have to spend a lot of time planning soon for something that may not be clear until after the election and possibly well into 2021 or beyond: potential Federal estate and gift tax changes.  Anticipating a year-end Federal estate planning tax crunch is not new – it seems to happen every few years. Here’s just a short summary of the past decade:   2009: We were awaiting clarity on the potential estate

We are on the cusp of an unprecedented shift in the US financial landscape.   By the numbers: From 2010 to 2015, private wealth held by women grew from $34 trillion to $51 trillion. By 2021, women are expected to hold $72 trillion.   Source:  <Economist Intelligence Unit (2018) study>  Some of this change is due to the fact that women are earning more than we ever have. We’re running companies, launching startups, and helping to drive innovation and evolution across the global marketplace.

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

Can you imagine getting the chance to tell our January selves a little bit about where we would be at the halfway point of 2020? Would we believe it? The chart below by our colleagues at ACG identifies the drastic changes in the economic circumstances in our country from the beginning of the year.  First Quarter of 2020: Exogenous Shocks  A Change is Gonna Come  The period we are currently living through will likely result in some meaningful changes in the business landscape of the country. The degree to