Bob Schneider - Wealth Advisor, CFP, RICP

Investors need to process, understand and recognize financial fear. Director of Wealth Strategy, Joe Maier, shares his perspective on financial courage and behavioral economics in his latest article. Read it here:

Why is no one talking about financial courage? Johnson Financial Group's Joe Maier discusses the importance of financial courage and it's affects on financial planning. 

In Part 2 of a two-part series, Johnson Financial Group advisor Kelly Mould shares her perspectives on the financial advisor’s role in helping people navigate “gray divorce.” Kelly zeroes in on the critical topic of financial disclosure. Read the article here:

Part II of II: Why financial disclosure is central – and often challenging – in “gray divorce” This is the second part of a two part series on gray divorce. The second part will foucs on the critical topic of financial disclosure.

For many across the country, family traditions and celebrations during the Fourth of July weekend were affected by price hikes passed on to consumers. Johnson Financial Group portfolio manager Kyle Tripp reflects on how this trend may manifest in the markets in this week’s investment commentary.

Margins and Your Money As we approach the period when publicly traded companies begin to report earnings and set expectations for the future, much of the conversation is going to be around which companies can pass on those prices and which cannot. Will consumers still decide to purchase the product in question, or will th...

In our latest investment commentary, Johnson Financial Group wealth portfolio manager Kelsey Ellsworth recounts struggling to find furniture last year for her new house…and now sees discounts everywhere. The interplay of falling consumer demand, corporate profits and inflation bears close watching

Too Much Stuff! Inflation may be peaking, but at the same time, the consumer-confidence index is edging down. With earnings season just around the corner, we will see how excess inventories affect companies’ bottom line and will gain greater insight into how consumers are choosing to spend their money.

The Johnson Financial Group investment team just issued its Mid-Year Economic & Market Outlook. It digs into the volatility and lays out our base case for continued growth…and continued volatility. https://brev.is/tk8AQ

2022 Mid-Year Economic & Market Outlook View Brian Andrew, Jason Herried, Ron Alberts and Jonathan Henshue's interview on the economy, our outlook on the equity and fixed income markets and how alternative investments can play a role during times like these.

“So what are you doing?” That’s the most common client question when markets get rough. Johnson Financial Group CIO Brian Andrew offers a detailed answer. https://brev.is/O1WIo

“What Are You Doing?” When markets are volatile and asset prices in decline, “What are you doing?” is the question most asked by our associates and clients. To provide an answer, we’ll discuss our investment philosophy, approach to investing, planning and what we’re doing now.

Johnson Financial Group CIO Brian Andrew tackles the impact of rising interest rates on housing, and what that means for investors. https://brev.is/Jz2mg

Rising Rates’ Impact on Housing This week the Federal Reserve took another crack at raising rates and outlining its path forward, so let’s look at that and how the housing market may play out through 2022 and into next year.

Johnson Financial Group's latest investment commentary comes from wealth portfolio manager Kelsey Ellsworth, who likens “earnings season” to the jigsaw puzzles she assembled early in the pandemic. Read it here: https://brev.is/poaNE

Earnings season: Putting together the puzzle pieces About one-third of companies in the S&P 500 and about half of companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average are expected to report earnings. Earnings season is usually accompanied with volatility, something that is not new to investors this year. However, the bar is set low given the short-term risk...

Johnson Financial Group CIO Brian Andrew reflects on new leadership in golf—as evidenced at the Masters last weekend—and how leadership can persist in both golf and the markets. https://brev.is/u6UC2

New Leadership…in Golf & the Markets The Masters golf tournament, as its name suggests, is played by the best talent golf has to offer. During the tournament last weekend, I couldn’t help but think about the change in leadership of golf’s greatest players. Global markets are exhibiting a change in leadership as well. Thinking about...

A traditional 60/40 portfolio just ended its best 10-year stretch since 1954. So why diversify into complementary asset classes? Read our latest investment commentary is from analyst Jonathan Henshue. https://brev.is/KhXmW

Complementary asset classes: Why now? As the first quarter drew to a close, Wisconsin residents looked out their windows to find gray skies and recurring snowfall. Meanwhile, investors in a traditional 60/40 portfolio looked at their accounts and saw an even more disappointing sight: negative figures for both the 60 (stocks) and the 40....

Johnson Financial Group CIO Brian Andrew talks about “unlearning to learn”—whether that’s his son improving his tennis game or investors grappling with rising interest rates. We experience change every day. How will we react? https://brev.is/IUTR9

Unlearning to Learn To learn something new, you need to unlearn something you know well. That starts with understanding why it is needed: to help with accuracy, speed and to reduce the potential for injury. To make the change, the new approach has to be broken down into the smallest steps so you can learn each one befo...

View our 2021 Annual Report for a few highlights and what we’re looking forward to in 2022.

With clients like you, we experienced another strong year – despite the unique challenges we all faced. We can’t thank you enough for the trust and confidence you place in JFG to help you make some of the most complex and important decisions for you, your family and your business. https://brev.is/M8LxS

In this week’s investment commentary, Johnson Financial Group portfolio manager Kyle Tripp explores why the U.S. economy is far more resilient to energy price shocks than back in the 1970s. (Unfortunately, that doesn’t take away the pain at the pump.) https://brev.is/QePfJ

Not Your Grandparents' Oil Shock Many people are feeling shocked by the recent increase in oil prices. However, the oil shock of today should not be as impactful in the United States as it was in times like the 1970s. Our economy is more resilient because U.S. consumers now spend less of their budget on energy, and we produce more....

The day has finally arrived on which the Fed raises rates. Now that it’s here, what does that mean for investors? CIO Brian Andrew walks through implications in our latest investment commentary. https://brev.is/0y5G6

Plus 0.25%! After this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting (the Federal Reserve’s decision-making body), the Chairman announced an increase in the Fed Funds rate to 0.25%. A quarter of one percentage point. Doesn’t sound like much, but if you follow market pundits, you know that they have obsesse...

Though nearly all bond indexes are down so far this year—and though it may not feel like it in this time of turmoil—bonds are actually doing their job for investors. In this investment commentary, Johnson Financial Group fixed-income portfolio manager Brian Schaefer explains why. https://brev.is/bfPzM

Bonds Are Doing Their Job It may not feel like it, but bonds are doing their job. In this time of turmoil, U.S. Treasuries and high-quality municipal bonds remain a haven. Although nearly all bond indices are down year-to-date, they are providing important diversification benefits. Even emerging market bonds, which have take...

Johnson Financial Group's latest investment commentary comes from wealth portfolio manager Kelsey Ellsworth, exploring recent volatility with a long-term perspective. https://brev.is/pqLZX

How We Seek to Build Resilience into Long-Term Portfolios Markets have consistently declined over the past few weeks as a result of the Russia and Ukraine conflict. Specifically, markets largely unwound the initial reaction of Russia’s invasion, safe haven currencies lost ground, and Treasury yields rose. The Dow Jones Industrial average finished with it...

What might geopolitical strains at the Russia-Ukraine border mean for financial markets and investment portfolios? CIO Brian Andrew addresses stocks, bonds and energy markets in our latest investment commentary. https://brev.is/s5c7S

Russia vs. Ukraine: Portfolio Implications Pundits, diplomats and politicians around the world are trying to decide whether the Russian move into the Donbas region of Ukraine constitutes an invasion and, regardless of the terminology, what should be done about it. Most of Europe and the U.S. have agreed that some form of sanctions would be l...

Commercial real estate is far more than failing malls and empty office buildings. The REIT landscape also includes data centers, cell towers & more. We think opportunity abounds. Read Johnson Financial Group's latest investment commentary, from analyst Jonathan Henshue.
https://brev.is/33yZQ

Commercial real estate: Far more than failing shopping malls & empty offices The last few years have produced many outsized market winners, some with periods of eye-popping results. For example, the pandemic propelled video communications provider Zoom Video and e-commerce platform Shopify into our lives, and these companies experienced fast-tracked growth, condensing multip...

Johnson Financial Group CIO Brian Andrew acknowledges that while “You May Hate Math,” it’s worth a little study to understand just how impactful expectations about growth and interest rates are to stock prices. https://brev.is/zzNJq

You May Hate Math Markets have been very volatile since the year began. Whether you are invested in stocks, bonds, real estate, cryptocurrency, or any other asset, you’ve seen tremendous volatility in prices. It may seem like everything is down. However, that is not the case. Let’s explore where this volatility i...

Our market outlook for 2022 is positive, though we expect slower growth as the economy shifts from one driven by stimulus to one standing on traditional fundamentals. Read our wrap-up of 2021 and views on portfolio construction for the new year in Johnson Financial Group's First Quarter 2022 Economic & Market Outlook: https://brev.is/ImcNc

Q1 2022 Economic & Market Outlook In our Q1 outlook economic and market outlook, Johnson Financial Group’s Jason Herried and Ron Alberts discuss how we believe the economy is poised for another year of solid growth as the recovery transitions from stimulus-driven to one based on traditional fundamentals. 

Credit fundamentals for municipal bonds are as strong as they’ve been in years—including well before the pandemic started. Yet they’ve lost some of their luster for investors used to turning to them for tax advantages. In this week’s investment commentary, Johnson Financial Group fixed-income portfolio manager Brian Schaefer explains why. https://brev.is/BsRk4

Do Munis Still Make Sense? 2021 was a great year for equity investors but a bit of a dud for bond holders. Most stock indices rose double digits while high quality bonds were flat to slightly negative. The wide performance gap between the two asset classes means that many investors’ long-term asset allocation will have shif...

“Big Change” is the theme of CIO Brian Andrew’s new investment commentary. A big change in the Fed’s direction means big changes for asset prices and potentially portfolio allocations. https://brev.is/w1yPv

Big Change As we begin 2022, we are seeing the action plan for the Federal Reserve as they change course on their low interest rate policy, to get the U.S. economy over the pandemic. This change will have broad reaching impact on the global economy and markets. There’s a lot to consider here.

CEO Jim Popp was recently recognized in Milwaukee Business Journal as a 2021 Milwaukee Power Broker. Check out the article to learn more about Jim and other key movers and shakers in southeastern Wisconsin’s business community. https://brev.is/gm36H

Find out why these business leaders are 2021 Milwaukee-area power brokers Milwaukee Tool group president Steve Richman, Nadiyah Johnson, who started the Milky Way Tech Hub in Milwaukee, and Laura Gutierrez, executive director of the United Community Center, are among the executives who are new to the Milwaukee Business Journal's 2021 Power Brokers list.

Chief Information Officer, Tim Brown, shares his thoughts for business executives on “future-proofing” their business. Tim’s advice? Learn and fail fast, find and deliver your true value proposition, and treat your data with the respect it deserves.

Read the full article in InBusiness: https://brev.is/RIF2B

Thoughts for business executives on future-proofing a business Tim Brown, chief information officer at Johnson Financial Group, discusses "future-proofing" a business - though that may not mean quite what you'd expect. 

In this week’s investment commentary, analyst Jonathan Henshue likens portfolio “complements” (real estate, real assets, private debt and more) to the sweet potatoes and stuffing on a Thanksgiving table. Read his take on “Football, Food and Forecasts.” https://brev.is/e0RiM

Football, Food, and Forecasts The investment world has its own end-of-year rituals, specifically the release of the latest return expectations across asset classes. While no two sets of forecasts are the same, the bad news for investors is the agreement that the strong returns of recent years suggest muted future returns for bot...

Worried inflation will force the Fed to remove the punchbowl prematurely? Fixed-income portfolio manager Brian Schaefer thinks holiday punch won’t be in short supply. Read this week’s investment commentary. https://brev.is/nxEM7

Fed Watch: Still Plenty of Punch to Go Around This Holiday Season Investors are wondering if stubbornly high inflation will force the Fed to accelerate its plans for tapering asset purchases and raising interest rates. While this is possible, it’s important to understand that accommodative monetary policy is unlikely to go away anytime soon.

What can we expect from the economy heading into 2022? Listen to CIO Brian Andrew’s recent conversation on the GoGedders podcast where he shares his insight on various factors, including the labor shortage, supply chain issues, surprisingly good market health, and more.
https://brev.is/lqYum

2022 Market Outlook with Brian Andrew of Johnson Financial Group Chief Investment Officer Brian Andrew joined a recent episode of the GoGedders podcast He shared his thoughts on how the on a variety of topics impacting the economy in the post-lockdown environment. Brian explores the economic effects of the pandemic, the labor shortage, skills gap, supply chain is...

In this week’s investment commentary, portfolio manager Eric Trousil circles back to the “meme stock” craze, asking “where are they now?”—and how does their performance this year compare to the overall market? https://brev.is/MnHdZ

Meme Stocks: Where Are They Now? Early this year, it was a rare occurrence to have a conversation about stocks and investments without wandering down the path of “meme stocks” such as GameStop and AMC.  There are various theories on how the meme-stock craze started, but we know that it resulted in some incredible price movemen...

Johnson Financial Group CIO Brian Andrew explores the potential for an “echo boom,” in which strong consumer spending matches up with unsnarled supply chains, leading to an echo of the strong recovery following the initial Covid lows. Read on to learn more: https://brev.is/VIOEs

Echo Boom During a recent meeting with 15 business owners, we discussed how their businesses are doing, what their biggest problems are and how they feel about the future. Almost everyone there was saying that business is great, or would be, if they could find supplies, get them to their businesses and find t...

Energy, Inflation & Supply…Oh My! This week Johnson Financial Group wealth portfolio manager Kelsey Ellsworth looks at recent equity-market activity and shares our views on portfolio positioning amid inflation and supply-chain pressures.
https://brev.is/AqwWw

Energy, Inflation, and Supply, Oh My! Third-quarter corporate earnings season is well underway. Last week, the stocks returned their biggest weekly gains in months after a strong streak of earnings reports, particularly from banks and healthcare companies.