Accretive Wealth Blog

After all the recent headlines about the European fiscal crisis and the impending doom of the euro, investing in the European equity markets may sound like folly. Taking a closer look at the developed markets of Europe, however, we think we’re approaching a good time to buy their equities. We don’t think these markets are going to turn around overnight, but we do agree with Wall Street powerhouses such as Credit Suisse and Bank of America Merrill Lynch that European equity markets are a good bet for the future.

In this blog post, we’re going to take a look at the international markets represented in the MSCI EAFE Index. “EAFE” stands for Europe, Australia, and the Far East, but the index actually includes only the developed countries in these regions: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Continue reading “European Equities Offer Promise” »

Our clients are concerned about where to invest during these volatile economic times. Should they seek the stable haven of fixed-income securities or should they go into the more volatile equity markets? And if they have the stomach for equities, should they flee from emerging market indexes that have seem to have lost their luster or should they stick with the US equity markets that have posted outstanding returns?

Here at Accretive Wealth, we believe the best long-term strategy for our clients is to remain with the domestic equity market but very gradually begin increasing their emerging markets allocation. We think emerging markets are somewhat undervalued at current levels and have more robust growth prospects in the long run. Continue reading “Why We Still Like Emerging Markets” »

Many individual investors wonder whether they should invest in “passive” index funds or in their actively managed cousins. In this post, we will take a look at the differences between them.

Index funds, whether exchange traded (ETFs) or mutual funds, are constructed to reflect the components of a market index, such as the S&P 500 or the Russell 2000. Their goal is not to outperform the selected index but to mirror its performance. These funds provide broad exposure to a market index by including a representative group of securities. Continue reading “Is Active Management Worth the Cost?” »