One of the most challenging aspects of evaluating opportunities at this point in the market cycle is the tendency of the market to be rather binary in its assessments.

Boston Private today released the "Why of Wealth", a comprehensive survey unveiling the psychological factors playing into how Americans interact with their wealth. This new report aims to unearth the emotional relationship we have with our finances: why we pursue wealth, how wealth makes us feel, what are the ‘costs’ of wealth, among others.

A strong U.S. economy, continued global growth improvement, a concerted effort by global central banks to remain accommodative as long as possible, and a general sense of complacency about valuations in the equity markets provided the backdrop for 2017’s wins.

While the new law simplified some tax provisions for individuals such as replacing most itemized deductions with a larger standard deduction, it made the law murkier for one of the most valuable tax benefits for small businesses — the special tax rate for businesses organized as pass-through entities.

Boston Private Wealth Chief Investment Officer Tom Anderson offers views on inflation, The Fed, and the outlook for 2018 in The Wall Street Journal.

While the 24-hour news cycle careened from one potential political crisis to the next, from North Korea, to the Affordable Care Act repeal, to Supreme Court changes, and finally to tax reform, volatility in the equity markets remained subdued, and the pace of the upward climb continued throughout 2017...

As 2017 closed, it has become clear that the "animal spirits" that guide the markets can shake off natural disasters, populist uprisings, a nuclear threat, and an ongoing stream of fodder for what once would have been Presidential scandals, but now pass for business as usual in the Trump Administration...