Estate planning varies significantly by net worth, with high-net-worth individuals requiring complex trust-based strategies to reduce estate taxes and control asset distribution, while mass-affluent clients generally need simpler documents like wills and healthcare directives. 

Because legal costs can be a barrier for these simpler needs, tech startups such as Wealth.com and Trust & Will have emerged to help financial advisors offer affordable estate planning at scale. Charles Schwab recently acquired a minority stake in Wealth.com to provide self-directed estate planning tools for its mass-affluent retail clients, potentially competing with RIAs that use Schwab as a custodian. 

While this move could delay when clients feel they need to hire an advisor, many RIAs haven’t widely adopted estate planning tech due to low client usage and unclear ROI. Some advisors view Schwab’s actions as retail encroachment, but others see minimal threat since clients rarely update estate documents and often don’t view the service as highly differentiating. 

Finsum: Ultimately, Schwab’s investment reflects a growing DIY market segment, raising strategic questions for advisors about how and when to compete—or collaborate—with such tools.

A shifting economic and demographic landscape is prompting financial advisors to evolve their strategies, particularly as women are set to control $34 trillion in U.S. assets by 2030. Yet, advisors currently manage a smaller share of female wealth, with many women engaging financial planners later in life. 

Remote work has also changed the profession, with more advisors and clients opting for virtual meetings, while new talent is emerging in nontraditional markets. Advisors are increasingly launching independent RIA firms and exploring complex tax strategies like delayed RMD withholding to better serve clients. 

Building strong, trusting relationships is now seen as more valuable to clients than investment advice alone, according to recent surveys. 

Finsum: As the great wealth transfer accelerates, buying and selling books of business is also gaining importance, with success hinging on transition planning, client retention, and profitability.

The bond market is undergoing a profound transformation as actively managed fixed-income ETFs gain traction among investors looking for more agile solutions. These funds combine strategic bond selection with the flexibility and transparency of the ETF format, offering a powerful tool for navigating an environment defined by volatility and uncertainty. 

Unlike passive strategies tied to static benchmarks, active managers can explore underfollowed sectors of the bond market, aiming for higher yields and stronger risk management. The ETF Rule of 2019 opened the floodgates for innovation, helping fuel a surge in actively managed ETF launches and inflows, particularly in fixed income. 

Investors are drawn to the structure’s real-time trading, lower embedded costs, and resilience in stressed markets—traits that are increasingly valuable in a dynamic rate environment. 

Finsum: Active fixed-income ETFs are becoming a key component of modern portfolio construction, reshaping how investors engage with the bond market.

Private credit has grown so large and intertwined with banks and insurers that it now poses a systemic risk in future financial crises, according to a new Moody’s Analytics study co-authored by economists and regulators. 

The report warns that the opaque nature of private credit and its deepening ties to traditional finance could amplify financial shocks due to increased interconnectedness. Since the 2008 crisis, banks have reduced lending amid tighter regulations, creating room for private credit funds—often lending to riskier, heavily indebted companies—to flourish with less oversight. 

Researchers used business development companies as a proxy for the sector and found their market behavior is now more correlated with broader financial stress than in the past. Although private credit firms argue they are less prone to panics due to their long-term investor base, banks are still deeply exposed through indirect relationships like fund financing and risk transfers. 

Finsum: While private markets tend to be insulated from recessions compared to their public counter parts it’s important to keep this risk in mind when investing

Despite recent political pushback, institutional support for ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing remains strong, with many large investors continuing to prioritize sustainability. 

This is good news for ESG-focused ETFs like the Invesco ESG Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQMG) and the ESG Nasdaq Next Gen 100 ETF (QQJG), which could see more adoption as political resistance fades. A 2025 BNP Paribas survey found that 87% of institutional investors have not altered their ESG goals, and 84% expect sustainability progress to continue or accelerate through 2030. 

Furthermore, 85% of respondents said they now integrate sustainability criteria into their investment processes. However, challenges persist, including concerns about ESG data reliability, greenwashing, and balancing short-term performance with long-term sustainability. 

Finsum: ETFs that aim to address those concerns by tracking transparent, sustainability-aligned indexes with performance in line with their non-ESG benchmarks.