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As with any function that impacts the public domain, environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing has become political. Media commentators opine that ESG investing warps free market capitalism by stressing non-investment criteria and, therefore, weakens the dynamism of the economy. These criticisms and the counter arguments favoring ESG investing reached a climax over President Biden’s veto of Congress’ attempt to invalidate a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) rule that allowed retirement plans to consider ESG criteria in selecting investments...

Perhaps one of the most important, yet often overlooked, metrics by clients of, and prospects for, financial advisory firms is the value-added that advisors provide well beyond the return on an investment portfolio. For decades, professional investment managers have provided prospects and clients with mounds of historical investment performance graphs and statistics as the principal, and perhaps sole, reason to engage their firms. Portfolio outperformance on a risk-adjusted basis over a benchmark has been dubbed “Alpha,” and is frequently reported to firm clients. Arguably, Yale University Professor Charlie Ellis (1975)…

Adobe Inc (ADBE) and Chubb Ltd (CB) are both industry leaders trading at very different valuations. ADBE trades at about 25X 2023 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) and CB trades at under 11X 2023 EPS, while the S&P 500 trades for just under 19X 2023 EPS. The difference in valuation exists despite similar projected earnings growth over the next 3 to 5 years of about 14%. ADBE’s products include Photoshop and Illustrator, which are considered the industry standard for editing digital images (Photoshop) and designing digital graphics and illustrations (Illustrator).…

College endowments are a critical source of funding for higher education institutions. These funds are invested to generate returns that can support various initiatives, including scholarships, faculty research, and infrastructure development. The funds are managed professionally by experienced and knowledgeable investors. Many of those professionals use an aggressive strategy that should lead to higher long-term returns. In this blog post, we will explore this aggressive investment philosophy and whether it is appropriate for an individual investor. First, let's define what we mean by an aggressive investment strategy. This refers to…