November 11, 2026 | 1:00pm ET | 1 CE Credit
Build a Better Path Part Three: The Past, Present, and Future of Income
The world of income investing looks a lot different today. For decades, falling interest rates fueled strong bond returns, dependable income and diversification. The tailwind helped make the 60/40 portfolio an investing cornerstone. But times changed. Years of near-zero rates and negative real yields challenged bonds' traditional role. The pandemic and a series of historic inflation shocks that followed ushered in an environment of higher rates and more volatility—along with strongly renewed opportunities for income investors.
Today, fixed income is at a crossroads. That calls for a modern playbook.
Join us Wednesday, November 11, to explore a fresh approach to portfolio construction that’s designed to navigate today’s shifting fixed-income landscape. You’ll gain perspective on:
- The Crossroads for Bonds: How did fixed income evolve from a decades-long tailwind to an era of negative real yields? And how has post-pandemic inflation reshaped the market?
- Tapping Income From Across the Portfolio: Investors have many ways to generate income strategically, from capital preservation to return generation. And they can do it more efficiently.
- The New Rules of Fixed Income: Use debt’s “Big Four” risk premiums—real yields, inflation expectations, credit spreads and liquidity—to build more resilient portfolios for today’s market.
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Build a Better Path Part Three: The Past, Present, and Future of Income
The world of income investing looks a lot different today. For decades, falling interest rates fueled strong bond returns, dependable income and diversification. The tailwind helped make the 60/40 portfolio an investing cornerstone. But times changed. Years of near-zero rates and negative real yields challenged bonds' traditional role. The pandemic and a series of historic inflation shocks that followed ushered in an environment of higher rates and more volatility—along with strongly renewed opportunities for income investors. Today, fixed income is at a crossroads. That calls for a modern playbook.
When “Stay the Course” Isn’t Enough: Helping Clients Understand the Path Ahead
The Challenge of Delivering Advice in Uncertain Capital Markets: The capital-markets landscape is brimming with questions, and external and geopolitical shocks are emerging more often. This poses a stiff challenge for advisors: guiding portfolios to support increasingly dynamic retirement plans. The stakes are high. With longer lives, finish lines are distant and there are no restarts. Emotion adds complexity: advisors must help clients overcome short-term impulses that may lead them off track.
Build a Better Path Part Two: 3-D Investing
The critical role of the path of returns in portfolio design: In part one, we zoomed across a half century of financial markets chapters to highlight one of investors’ biggest challenges: defending long-horizon portfolios from sequence-of-returns risk.
Build a Better Path Part One: What’s Past Is Prologue
Lessons from capital-markets history hold critical insights for portfolio design today. In the first installment of the Build a Better Path series, we adjust our lens. Instead of zooming into a specific topic, we’ll zoom out, assessing the big picture of investing today. Market dynamics have been shifting—and not for the better—amid structural headwinds, years of sequential inflation/affordability shocks, and recurring geopolitical flare-ups. The challenge for investors? Designing portfolios to deliver return paths that make the most of what markets have to offer.
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Guiding Clients Through Market FOMO: Investing with Intention
When markets move quickly, clients may start asking the familiar question: “Am I missing out?” That instinct can make it harder to stay focused on the portfolio choices designed to support their long-term goals. For advisors, those key moments are where their value can shine.
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