On May 3, 2025, at the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK) annual shareholders meeting, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Warren Buffett announced he would be stepping down at the end of the year. Buffett will be succeeded by Greg Abel, the current Vice Chairman of Non-Insurance Operations at Berkshire. Buffett is stepping down after more than half a century, 60 years to be exact, at the helm of one of the largest investment conglomerates in the world.

In 1965, Buffett took over a struggling Berkshire, once a textile company, and transformed it into one of the most successful holding companies’ globally, strategically investing in compani

The classic 60/40 portfolio has weathered its fair share of storms (and criticisms) in recent times, and 2025 is shaping up to be a year defined by complexity, volatility, and recalibration for asset allocators. As we move through the second quarter, the LPL Research Strategic and Tactical Asset Allocation Committee (STAAC) has made several recent adjustments to our Tactical Asset Allocation (TAA) 60/40 strategy, which aligns with our Growth with Income (GwI) Investment Objective (IO), to reflect the evolving macroeconomic and market landscape. While economic and policy uncertainty remains high, we believe opportunities persist for those willin

The equity market’s recovery over the past month has been extraordinary in terms of both speed and scale. A turnaround of such magnitude is highly unusual, and the sudden shift in investor sentiment is among the fastest I have observed in my 25-year career. While it may be tempting to interpret this powerful rally as a definitive signal that risks have subsided, the reality is that plenty of uncertainty remains.

Reflecting on the steep market drop in early April, it seems much of the reaction stemmed from a policy shock rather than a clear deterioration in economic conditions. Specifically, the April 2 tariff announcement s

On May 12, President Donald Trump signed the “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients” executive order aimed at making prescription drugs more affordable for Americans. The premise driving the initiative is that drug manufacturers have deeply discounted their products in foreign markets and subsidized profits with elevated prices within the U.S.

Government subsidies for research and development, along with differences in prices between countries, have created a free-rider problem where the global benefits of improved pharmaceuticals are paid for disproportionately by the U.S. This