Insights

These strategies can help make family meetings an effective tool in wealth-transfer planning.

You can preserve family harmony and your wishes for your estate with careful planning and open conversations.

Global equities have been directionless over the past few weeks. One notable economic development was the Canadian inflation report for May, which contained higher-than-expected numbers for the first time this year.

Global equity markets have trended higher in recent weeks. Regions outside of the U.S. have been notably stronger.

The second half of the summer has brought a slight decline in both equity and bond markets. Investors’ immediate attention is on third-quarter results from Canadian banks and takeaways from a major conference of global central bank leaders.

Investors have been tasked with interpreting a flurry of global economic data over the past two weeks, including signals of resilient but moderating growth in North America, broadening economic weakness in Europe, and a stalled recovery in China.

It has been a busy start to the summer. This week, the Bank of Canada raised its policy interest rate by 0.25%, as expected. Inflation figures released this week in the U.S. suggested that pricing pressures continue to ease.

The volatility of equity prices in global markets has recently been near multi-year lows, despite renewed uncertainty regarding the path of interest rates.