Commentary

Tax Optimized Ladders: Elevating Taxes as a Crucial Element of Customization in Fixed Income Portfolios

Parametric’s tax optimized ladders (TOL) solution may help to enhance after-tax yield by seeking to optimize the allocation between tax-exempt and taxable bonds, based on an investor’s own tax rate and the relative value between sectors.

Commentary

Is Eliminating the Tax Exemption on Municipal Bonds Worth the Cost?

The municipal bond tax exemption is back in focus. We believe the threat to infrastructure investment outweighs the modest revenue benefits, which could keep the risk of elimination or significant curtailment low.

Commentary

Bond Ladders: Unlocking Direct Indexing Opportunities in Fixed Income

The managed account industry has seen tremendous growth and client adoption, with assets increasing by 28% over the last year and 50% over the past two years.

Commentary

2025 Commodity Outlook: Three Areas to Watch

How will potential trends in inflation, the US dollar and supply deficits across many raw material markets affect the environment for investing in commodities?

Commentary

2025 Equity and Volatility Outlook: Is the US Equity Investor at a Crossroad?

Investors may be at a crossroad in early 2025. US equities have recovered from the 2022 bear market with two exceptional years of +25% returns.

Commentary

Harvesting Tax Losses When Markets Keep Posting Positive Returns

US equity markets rallied just enough to round out 2024 with all four quarters posting positive returns. The S&P 500® Index finished the fourth quarter up 2.41%, bringing the year’s total return to 25.02%.

Commentary

Is Your Fixed Income Manager Delivering Tax Alpha?

Reflecting ongoing uncertainty around inflation and the trajectory of monetary policy, yield volatility posed challenges in 2024. Yet it also highlighted the importance of tax-efficient strategies like loss harvesting in fixed income portfolios.

Commentary

How Parametric Strives to Stay Ahead in Direct Indexing

Direct indexing has been around for more than 30 years, yet many people still don’t know what it is or how it continues to grow and evolve.

Commentary

2025 Fixed Income Outlook: Monetary and Fiscal Crosscurrents May Create Volatility, Yet Opportunity Persists

As investors continue to step out of cash and potentially rebalance out of equities following their strong performance, we expect bonds to play a larger role in diversified portfolios next year.

Commentary

How to Manage Taxes in Direct Indexing Portfolios

In an actively managed portfolio, there’s no way to escape capital gains taxes altogether. But understanding the importance of tax efficiency is crucial to long-term success for investors and advisors.

Commentary

Tax Loss Harvesting in a Straight Up Market

In an equity market that has mostly moved straight up this year, the logical question is, how have we been realizing losses? Our analysis of potential tax benefit1 may provide the answer.

Commentary

How to Create a Personalized Portfolio with Direct Indexing

When it comes to personalized investment strategies, multiple perspectives come into play: the client, the provider and the advisor.

Commentary

How Direct Indexing Can Make the Difference for Taxable Investors

A year-round focus on taxes can unlock value for investors in higher brackets—and it can help advisors prove their own value.

Commentary

Ins and Outs of Tax-Managed Charitable Giving

As the year winds down, many investors focus on year-end charitable giving and tax planning. Finding a charity and donating money is the easy part. Taking slightly different approaches to gifting can yield dramatically different results from a tax perspective.

Commentary

Look at Duration During Fed Rate Cutting Cycles

Volatile interest rates have spurred investment capital into motion. Clients often ask where they should allocate on the yield curve.