Asset Servicing

Wealthy families are no longer anchored to a single country, and neither are their assets. As heirs disperse and capital flows across jurisdictions, succession planning is shifting from domestic estate structuring to cross-border patrimonial engineering, a transition that is quietly reshaping Luxembourg’s role in European wealth management.

The Federal Reserve has little appetite to cut interest rates in the near term. Minutes of the January meeting show policymakers are increasingly concerned that inflation could stay above the 2 percent target for longer than expected. Markets might have to reprice their expectations, economists say.

Since Trump’s reelection as president of the United States, the world has been on edge. Geopolitical tensions are dominating the markets, and the role of the dollar is once again under discussion. Still, I find it difficult to translate that into the idea that this is the moment for the euro to step out of the greenback’s shadow. There are simply too many loose ends.

The European ETF market grew in January by a record 46.9 billion euro. In the shadow of that growth, a price war is taking place: mainstream ETFs are now being offered with an expense ratio of 0.03 percent. Will Europe soon welcome the “free” ETF, as in the US?

Listed real estate has become one of the most conspicuous laggards in global markets. After four consecutive calendar years of underperformance against the MSCI World, valuations now sit below their historical median relative to broader equities, according to Cohen & Steers. For long-term allocators, the question now is whether this reset offers a cyclical entry point or a structural repricing.

Investments in private markets are still characterized by limited information and imperfect transparency, particularly when compared with public assets. Asset managers increasingly see economic value in addressing that gap, turning greater transparency into a business model in its own right.

This week’s overview of industry appointments in Luxembourg and elsewhere in Europe.

As European regulators reassess what Ucits funds should be allowed to hold, Luxembourg’s fund industry is drawing a clear red line: do not compromise a global brand that already works. The Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry cautioned that proposals to tighten eligibility rules could push the framework backwards rather than modernise it.

The already downward-trending stock prices of major US private credit firms took another hit this month amid the markdown of the software sector and concerns about AI. While executives are trying to contain those concerns, analysts say market participants may already be pricing in risks that could affect clients later.