Welcome to “The Summit,” the official First Ascent blog.

If you’re looking for ways to build your practice, investment insights, or advice on how to communicate more effectively with clients and potential clients, then you’ve come to the right place.

 

The financial markets have been volatile since the beginning of the year.  After three great years, the stock market has been down significantly in 2022.  Interest rates have risen causing bond prices to fall too.  That’s a double whammy we haven’t seen too often recently. In the face of this bad news, what, if anything, … Read More

Scott's Column

You have to feel sorry for active managers.   According to the year-end 2021 SPIVA Scorecard research from S&P Dow Jones, here is the percentage of actively managed US equity funds that underperformed the S&P 1500 Index over various time periods ending December 31, 2021. It paints a grim picture. 72% for the three-year period … Read More

Scott's Column

Later this quarter (Q1 2022), First Ascent will be introducing a direct indexing offering to the advisors we work with. We call our new offering Customized Index Portfolios. Customized Index Portfolios hold individual stocks and can be designed to reflect the investment goals, values, and preferences of clients with $250,000 or more to invest. In … Read More

Scott's Column

What is Inflation? Inflation is a measure of how much prices for goods and services are rising in an economy. Inflation can be caused by a number of factors. Demand-pull inflation occurs when there is more demand for goods or services than the current supply can meet. This allows companies to raise prices in the … Read More

Scott's Column

Fees Eat Up Return Fees and expenses are two of the most important factors to consider when investing. You can’t control the direction of the financial markets, but you can control what you pay to invest. Every mutual fund or exchange traded fund (ETF) in your portfolio has what’s called an “internal expense ratio.” This … Read More

Scott's Column