Investors and advisors often look for the holy grail of investing. Performance, diversification, high quality, low cost and accessibility within their preferred wrapper. While it’s true that you often can’t have it all, you can have all those components with a trusted asset manager that offers portfolio construction expertise and a record of consistent long-term investment returns.

Bonds have continued to flex the power of income. They not only provided stability during the tariff-related volatility, but returns have been solid.

More and more investors and financial advisors are building portfolios that align with individual goals by combining multiple index ETFs. While this approach offers many benefits, it may harbor a hidden risk: The varying rules for constructing indexes among different providers can lead to significant deviations from benchmark exposures. This can inadvertently increase portfolio volatility and affect returns, making it crucial to understand these differences before blending ETFs from different index families.

The financial advice industry has traditionally focused on the money management benefits it offers to investors, such as portfolio construction and monitoring. However, this emphasis can overshadow the broader and often intangible benefits that investors derive from professional guidance. Beyond the numbers, paid financial advice offers emotional benefits and significant time savings, allowing investors to manage the complexities of their financial lives by turning to trusted experts.