What does the term “security” mean to you? It may mean turning on the alarm system before you go to sleep at night or entering a password to get into your phone. It’s something you do that makes you feel protected. Every day, we all do something that contributes to our feeling of security, even if it’s as small as locking your front door when you leave the house. Women tend to think about their personal security more often than men and take more proactive steps to ensure they feel safe on a daily basis. Financial security isn’t just a conversation about how much you need to reach your goals; it’s about carefully protecting what you already have. In a world dominated by the internet, we believe that financial security is more important than ever.

Lessons from the Theranos scandal…and a new study shows around 70% of funds with an ESG mandate are inconsistent with Paris Agreement goals. These stories and other ESG news in this issue of the Sustainable Investing Highlights.

The Federal Reserve’s September meeting wrapped up on 9/22/21 with a statement followed by commentary from Chairman Powell.  After much speculation and anticipation, we are still “almost” there.  Almost ready to take the training wheels off this heavily “administered” economy.  The Fed stepped in to stabilize the economy as we faced the global pandemic last year and effectively kept the economy upright by adding training wheels for balance.  Those training wheels included low interest rates, expansion of its balance sheet and several other measures that led to purchases of investment grade and high yield corporate debt and provided a boost to global liquidity to keep markets functioning.  While the monetary turning-point we face may be ever so slight, it is a turn, and we won’t be able to rely on the training wheels anymore.  Fundamentals will matter again, and investors would be wise to consider how the investment landscape is likely to change going forward.  We will tackle this in more detail in our Quarterly Client Deck, Tactical Memo and Stress Test updates in the weeks ahead.  The remainder of this memo is included to provide the latest context from the Fed including the important data points that will affect decision making.