It is estimated that the SpaceX IPO created more than 4,000 millionaires. That is roughly 20% of the company's employee base, and those workers have needed the help of good financial planners. SpaceX, which joined the Nasdaq-100 index on Tuesday, isn't likely to be the only mega IPO this year. OpenAI and Anthropic have confidentially filed S-1s for their own offerings. With OpenAI and Anthropic waiting in the wings to go public, pre-IPO wealth planning is suddenly urgent.
In other most-read wealth management articles this week:
BlackRock joins the QQQ fray . The popular Invesco QQQ exchange-traded fund has been around for more than 25 years, but all of a sudden it is facing stiff competition. BlackRock disclosed this week that it planned to launch the iShares Nasdaq 100 ETF, and the new fund started trading Thursday. That comes just two weeks after State Street launched its own ETF to rival the QQQ: the State Street SPDR Portfolio Nasdaq 100 ETF.
Advisors name their favorite funds . There's good reason to be optimistic about the market these days. Corporate earnings and consumer spending have held up better than many people expected, powering the S&P 500 to a gain of around 10%. But a pessimist might point out that growth is uneven, inflation is a tad high, and volatility can still reappear quickly. For this week's Barron's Advisor Big Q column, we asked wealth managers to identify a fund they really like in the current market environment. And it turns out that those they picked have something in common: In different ways, they can each contribute to a portfolio's resilience.
Longevity is a big risk . Many Americans work hard and squirrel away money for retirement, but not all of them are paying attention to an important element of financial planning: the potential they could live longer than previous generations and outlast their savings. Guest columnist David Nason, the chief executive officer of TIAA Wealth Management & Advice Solutions, writes that it is crucial for advisors, employers, and policymakers to ensure that people are taking longevity into account when drawing up their retirement plans.
Thumbs down for SEC proposal . When the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed allowing public companies to issue earnings reports twice a year instead of the current quarterly schedule, the agency billed it as one step forward in its broader objective of creating greater regulatory flexibility and reducing administrative burdens. Many investors and other public commenters who have responded to the rule disagree, however. The SEC hasn't made public some of the comments submitted on the final day of its comment period, but an analysis of thousands of comments and form letters reveals 99% opposition to relaxing quarterly reporting requirements.
Assets flood into ETFs . Investors have been pouring money into exchange-traded funds, and asset flows into ETFs are now forecast to top $2 trillion for 2026, which would beat last year's record of $1.5 trillion, according to a new report from State Street Investment Management. The report shows investors continue to favor ETFs, including actively managed and fixed-income funds.
Trusts for "blended" families . Today's ultrahigh-net-worth families come in all shapes, sizes, and levels of financial complexity. The combining, unwinding, and recombining of families and the assets they bring with them require skilled communication and precise technical planning on the part of the financial advisor, a guest columnist writes. Marital trusts remain highly useful in second and third marriages, particularly in balancing lifetime support for a spouse and wealth preservation for children from previous relationships.
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July 10, 2026 17:23 ET (21:23 GMT)
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