When was the last time you thought about the effectiveness of your company's data protection program and its ability to fend off a cyber attack?

The challenge for investors, and for us as advisors, is to balance the need for a long term, goals-based perspective and approach with the reality that markets are constantly moving and adjusting, creating new risk/reward tradeoffs, and frankly, challenges for us in meeting those objectives.

As we move deeper into this long expansion, each economic data point is being scrutinized for signs of deterioration. We expect to hit cyclical highs in areas such as manufacturing and employment at some point next year, but we have yet to see evidence of that in 2018.

As we move into the final quarter of 2018, the landscape is dotted with both opportunities and challenges, created by a combination of Federal Reserve policy, the Trump Administration, and frankly, time.

As we entered the second half of 2018, markets appeared to be hitting an inflection point. On one hand, economic data remained robust, with the consumer fully engaged, wages growing at a modest pace, industrial production steady, and the corporate tax cut creating the opportunity for meaningful investment.

By using a disciplined business cycle approach, investors can identify key phases in the economy to achieve active returns from sector allocation.

Amy Born has joined the firm as a Senior Wealth Advisor. Based in Beverly Hills, Ms. Born will focus on managing and creating customized financial plans for the firm’s high-net-worth clientele. She will report directly to Gerald Graves, Executive Managing Director at Boston Private Wealth.