Listen in on an in-depth discussion about the growing demand for and personalized tax-efficient strategies from wealth-management clients — driven by technological revolution and the coming, intergenerational transfer of wealth.

The concept of tax alpha can help a wealth manager explain a client’s after-tax performance. We propose two frameworks to provide transparency around the after-tax attribution calculation used to measure tax alpha.

Direct indexing and ETFs can both play a part in designing a tax-efficient investment strategy. We compare those roles in a U.S.-domiciled portfolio.  

Selling a capital asset at a loss to reduce your tax liability is one side of the coin. The other side is thoughtfully selecting the security that replaces it.   

We analyze a framework for wealth managers considering the impact of managing their clients’ investment preferences alongside different tax-management approaches. 

Wealth managers now have the option to complement domestic allocations with direct indexing using the 370 constituents of the MSCI EAFE Expanded ADR Index.

Prior MSCI research has shown that ESG momentum — a measure of year-over-year changes to a company’s industry-adjusted ESG score — has been an impactful financial indicator, but it’s important to reassess its validity in the current market environment.

Direct indexing has prompted wealth managers to evaluate their implementation choices for individual clients. Our research focuses on aspects of the wealth manager’s implementation of direct indexing as well as tax optimization.

The largest source of many companies’ carbon emissions come from their suppliers. We look at how firms across industries approach this challenge as they work toward their net-zero goals, including the efforts of HP and MSCI.

Given the complexity of U.S. tax regulation, wealth advisers continue to grapple with how to build tax-efficient portfolios while balancing clients’ other objectives. We propose a rules-based way of doing so and analyze its benefits and trade-offs.