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At the turn of the fourth quarter, it was safe to call 2021 a record-breaking year with $88B raised by US venture capital funds and the US VC dry powder at an all-time high of $212B. While the dizzying pace of investment is expected to slightly slow down in the coming months, the innovation economy is by and large healthy, even as the ecosystem faces some macro headwinds.

The notable increase in consumer prices has sparked concerns around the effect of inflation on investor’s portfolios, wealth plans, and ability to fund goals. For investors, the best offense remains a good defense, and it is not too late to revisit your portfolio with an eye toward protection against the impact of inflation. We answer nine questions on fortifying your portfolio and wealth plan in the face of uncertainty.

People care about ESG, want ESG outcomes and will make major decisions on where to invest, where to work, and what to buy based on those outcomes. So, when companies make claims about their ESG performance, it should be easy for stakeholders to verify those claims. But the reality is that ESG reporting is often opaque, subjective, and even outright fraudulent. This report provides an in-depth look at the issues and offers guidance on avoiding fraud and how to develop a sound ESG reporting process.

Index investing has been a boon to investors seeking accessible, diversified portfolios. However, many index-based portfolios have become notably more concentrated in recent years, in terms of both individual stock positions and sector representation. Given this reality, it’s understandable why many investors are looking at other options to build more diversified portfolios.

U.S. inflation is at its highest in four decades due to COVID-19-induced spending on goods, supply-chain issues, fiscal stimulus from the government, and very accommodative monetary policy from the Federal Reserve. But unlike last time when inflation was high, some key drivers of the current inflation are expected to fade. However, several forces are likely to be more enduring, including the high wage growth.

Most of us are familiar with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as the headline measure of inflation. However, at the January 2012 Federal Open Market Committee, the Fed declared it would use the Personal Consumption Expenditure price index (PCE). Since the indexes are calculated differently in weight, scope, and formula, it will yield different measures of inflation. The difference will impact how investors plan to fight the rising inflation that is spurring fears of currency devaluation.

Investors may be familiar with the many different ways the sale of a stock can be taxed, but the complexity of the code means there are optimal and suboptimal ways of navigating it. Using the five basic tools for building a comprehensive tax-management strategy is key to delivering highly tax-efficient investment performance.

Investors have shown renewed interest in President Biden's twin infrastructure proposals—the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan—and what they will mean for their portfolios. With a focus on the tax changes that more directly affect equity investors, the road ahead should have fewer dangerous curves than some initially feared.

The perceived benefits of put options as a tool to protect against equity drawdowns are often outweighed by their complexity, implementation, and ongoing costs (both economic and behavioral). Investors are better served by adjusting a portfolio’s asset allocation. For those investors who must pursue a tail-risk hedge, a list of potential pitfalls and solutions is provided in the form of a case study.

When the artist Beeple sold a digital work of art for $69 million, it caught the world’s attention especially because that one-of-a-kind digital art was a non-fungible token (NFT). In this episode, we’re taking a look at this emerging blockchain technology and exploring how NFTs are transforming digital artwork. What We Discussed in This Episode: