Insights & Perspectives from Commons Capital
June 26, 2026
The Hidden Concentration in "Diversified" Portfolios: What This Week Showed About Owning the S&P 500
On Tuesday afternoon, three stocks moved enough to pull the entire S&P 500 down 1.4 percent in a single session. Most investors holding "the market" through a passive index fund or ETF watched their balance dip and concluded, reasonably, that the market had a bad day.
Retirement Planning
June 24, 2026
TIAA-CREF in Retirement: Income, Growth, and Legacy Without Spending Down Principal
For a retiring academic with TIAA-CREF, the decision usually arrives framed as a binary. Leave everything at TIAA and draw it down across retirement, the way most colleagues do. Or roll the whole balance out to an IRA and start over with a new advisor. Both options miss the better answer.
Commons University
June 15, 2026
Three Ways to Build a Child's Financial Foundation
Signed into law on July 4, 2025 as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Trump account (the new §530A account) is a tax-advantaged retirement account opened in a child's name. Any child under 18 with a Social Security number is eligible — there are no income limits on contributors and no earned-income requirement.
Private Wealth
May 28, 2026
The Fiduciary Reckoning, Part III: The Public Record on Merrill Lynch and Bank of America
In Parts I and II of this series, we walked the public regulatory record of Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley.1 Two firms. Combined documented federal and state enforcement and admitted misconduct: approximately $13 billion across the windows the two installments covered. One word still on the marketing materials at both firms: fiduciary. Part III turns to Merrill Lynch and Bank of America.
Private Wealth
May 20, 2026
The Fiduciary Reckoning, Part II: The Public Record on Morgan Stanley
The five major U.S. wirehouses — Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan Chase — all market themselves as fiduciary-minded, client-first institutions. Their regulatory records, all of which sit in public databases at the SEC, DOJ, CFPB, OCC, FINRA, and the Federal Reserve, tell a different story.
Private Wealth
May 9, 2026
The Fiduciary Reckoning, Part I: The Public Record on Wells Fargo
The five major U.S. wirehouses — Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and JPMorgan Chase — all market themselves as fiduciary-minded, client-first institutions. Their regulatory records, all of which sit in public databases at the SEC, DOJ, CFPB, OCC, FINRA, and the Federal Reserve, tell a different story.
