US Equities plummeted amidst the Fed rate hike, the war in Ukraine, and a contraction of Real GDP. The S&P 500 fell nearly 9% while the Nasdaq 100 had its worst month since 2008. US Oil prices have been temporarily stabilized with the release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Personal Consumption Expenditures rose by 6.4% YoY, the fastest pace of inflation since 1982. Value equities held up better than Growth equities through this month and year and fixed income returns continued to tumble in April as the market adjusted to expected rate hikes.

Volatility returned to both the equity and fixed income markets in a dramatic fashion in the first quarter. As a result, the landscape of valuations, interest rates, and inflation shifted quite quickly. In this quarterly market update, Pathstone’s Managing Director of Strategy, John Workman, reflects on the macroeconomic picture and what that means for bottom-up portfolio construction.

Estate planning can be an intimidating process. With this in mind, we have gathered seven questions about the estate planning process and have provided answers in a Q&A format.