Finance
Americans moving past taboos about family financial planning, study finds
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Americans have historically been averse to discussing financial matters among family members, but a recent study by Fidelity Investments found that attitudes toward taboo wealth topics are shifting.
Fidelity’s State of Wealth Mobility study found that 56% of Americans didn’t discuss family finances with their parents when they were children. Of that group, 82% wish that they had, because they think it would’ve been beneficial to have received a financial education at an earlier age.
It also found that Americans’ attitudes to those talks are changing, with 83% of respondents saying that it’s important to talk about money management with children, and 67% of parents already talking to their children about family finances.
“Money and wealth is one of the topics that, notoriously, we just don’t like to talk about historically,” David Peterson, head of advanced wealth solutions at Fidelity Investments, told FOX Business. “Wealth is like a deeply personal experience, so in some respects, it’s not surprising that people have historically been uncomfortable talking about it.”
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Americans’ attitudes toward once-taboo financial conversations are easing, Fidelity’s study found. (iStock / iStock)
“The study indicated that people are starting to sort of break that cycle of avoiding the family discussions. And so clearly, if we relate that then to the intergenerational wealth transfer, that is sort of a generational difference, and what we found is that older people generally – they’re just not as comfortable talking about it,” Peterson said.
Peterson said that many Americans have experienced the complications that can arise when a parent who hasn’t been as open about their finances begins to decline, and family members have to step in to help take care of their finances.
“When people start reaching end of life, and they suddenly can’t manage their own finances or they no longer have the capacity to make decisions around it, this is where you start to see things kind of go sideways a little bit, because they haven’t shared with their families what their wealth is, where the wealth is, what it’s made of,” he said. “And you can find yourself very quickly in a situation where, during a really emotional time of life, people are now worried about, well, how do we actually manage mom and dad’s finances when they can no longer do it themselves?”
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Peterson suggested that families approach financial conversations as a process, rather than trying to take care of it all at once. (iStock)
He said that it’s important for families to have documents including a health care proxy or health care power of attorney to help navigate the health care system, as well as a living will with instructions about the individual’s hopes around that. A financial power of attorney that entrusts someone to act on their behalf on financial matters is another key document.
Families should also consider other documents and designations needed for end-of-life, Peterson said. Brokerage accounts that can be jointly titled with rights of survivorship can be transferred very easily to the surviving owner, while beneficiary designations can also be included to transfer accounts on death to the beneficiary.
“You need a will, which is going to account for all the things that don’t really have a title to it or a beneficiary designation on it,” he added. “And then, in some cases, it might be beneficial to have a trust and put assets in that trust so that they can pass, similarly to an account with a beneficiary designation. The trust will then define who gets all those assets that are in the trust.”
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Fidelity’s study found that people with financial plans have more confidence about building and protecting their wealth. (iStock / iStock)
Peterson suggested that to get the ball rolling it can be helpful to do so with the understanding that it’s not likely to be a one-off conversation and more of a process to ease some of the pressure and emotions surrounding those talks.
“I think for some people, having a very strict itinerary of what you’re going to talk about works very well; in other cases it doesn’t, and my recommendation is not going into the conversation thinking that it’s going to be a one-and-done kind of conversation. These are hard conversations to have,” Peterson said. “Look, I’m in the business, and I remember having the conversation with my dad, who’s now passed, and you would think it’d be easy for me, but it’s not, because these things are wrapped up in all sorts of emotions.”
Sharing some details about financial accounts and points of contact can also be a good first step, even if it doesn’t necessarily lead to full disclosures about the specifics of an older person’s wealth, he explained.
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“Given particularly older generations aren’t as willing to reveal necessarily all the specifics of their wealth, what I often recommend is that you at least share what it is, not necessarily the amount, but where it is; who are the key people to contact in the event that a family member has to know more about it. And keep all these things in a place that’s easy for people to find,” Peterson said.
“Probably the first step is just doing a really robust inventory of what’s there, a balance sheet, a wealth statement, a net worth statement, whatever you want to call it – but just this list of things so that when someone has to act on it, they at least know where to go,” he explained. “And that way, you sort of protect this sensitivity around how much is in all of these different accounts or banks or financial institutions.”
Regardless of the process individual families use to build their financial plans, Fidelity’s study found that having a plan is a confidence booster. While about four in 10 Americans are worried about losing their wealth, 78% with a financial plan said they’re confident they’ve taken the right steps to build and protect their wealth, compared to 26% and 27%, respectively, of those without plans.
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For the generation that should be in its “peak savings years,” the prospect of retiring on time has shifted from a plan to a prayer.
A newly released Employee Financial Wellness Survey by PwC found that nearly 50% of Gen X employees are pushing back their retirement dates, citing stagnant wages, rising everyday costs, and a lack of liquid savings.
Additionally, only 38% of Gen Xers believe they can retire when they originally planned, and more than half of this demographic expect to withdraw funds from their retirement accounts early to cover short-term costs.
“For employers, this isn’t a future problem. Financial anxiety during peak career years can affect focus and engagement,” PwC researchers write. “If the risks are clear, the question is why more employees aren’t taking action. It’s not a lack of desire. Most employees want stability, confidence and to feel in control. But many don’t feel equipped to get there.”
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The primary driver of this retirement delay is the inability to save as inflation eats away at monthly expenses, the report notes. Twenty-five percent of the total workforce is living without a buffer, and nearly half cannot meet basic household expenses.
Nearly half of Gen X workers are delaying retirement, PwC reports. (Getty Images)
“[Forty-nine percent] say their compensation isn’t keeping up with costs. As expenses rise faster than income, day-to-day trade-offs are becoming routine. Employees aren’t just feeling squeezed. They’re making difficult financial decisions to stay afloat,” the PwC report continues..
As a result, when Gen Xers cannot afford to leave their current jobs, the entire corporate ladder stalls, creating business risks, with companies facing higher costs as older talent remains on payroll longer than expected.
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“When employees dip into retirement funds early or delay retirement altogether, it affects more than personal finances and retirement plan leakage,” the report says. “It may also influence workforce planning, healthcare costs, succession timing and overall organizational stability.”
The findings also show that a significant portion – 41% – of the workforce feel they were never given the tools to manage a crisis of this magnitude, leading to a sense of being “overwhelmed” by financial choices.
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PwC provided a call to action for employees and their employers, encouraging them to reduce the stigma around financial education, foster trust through human coaches, emphasize skill building and focus on day-to-day finances before long-term goals.
“Employees define financial wellness simply: less stress, fewer surprises and the freedom to make financial choices with confidence. For employers, that’s the opportunity.”
Cybersecurity and enterprise software stocks have been market dogs in 2026, with fears that AI will wipe out a wide range of companies in the enterprise space dominating the narrative. But they snapped a brutal losing streak this past week, joining in the broader market rally that saw all losses from the U.S.-Iran war regained by the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500.
Cybersecurity has been “a victim of some of the AI-related headlines,” Christian Magoon, Amplify ETFs CEO, said on this week’s “ETF Edge.”
It wasn’t just niche cybersecurity names. Take Microsoft, for example, which was recently down close to 20% for the year. Its shares surged last week by 13%.
A big driver of the pummeling in software stocks was a rotation within tech by investors to AI infrastructure and semiconductors and some other names in large-cap tech, Magoon said, and since cybersecurity stocks and ETFs are heavily weighted towards software companies, they were left behind even as those businesses continue to grow on a fundamental basis.
But Wall Street now has become more bullish with the stocks at lower levels. Brent Thill, Jefferies tech analyst, said last week that the worst may be over for software stocks. “I think that this concept that software is dead, and then Anthropic and OpenAI are going to kill the entire industry, is just over-exaggerated,” he said on CNBC’s “Money Movers” on Wednesday.
“Big Short” investor Michael Burry wrote in a Substack post on Wednesday that he is becoming bullish about software stocks after the recent selloff. “Software stocks remain interesting because of accelerated extreme declines last week arising from a reflexive positive feedback loop between falling software stocks and changes in the market for their bank debt,” he wrote.
The Global X Cybersecurity ETF (BUG), is down about 12% since the beginning of the year, with top holdings including Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Akamai Technologies and CrowdStrike. But BUG was up 12% last week. The First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF (CIBR) is down 6% for the year, but up 9% in the past week.
Piper Sandler analyst Rob Owens reiterated an “overweight” rating on Palo Alto Networks which helped the stock pop 7% — it is now down roughly 6% on the year. Its peers saw similar moves, including CrowdStrike.
Performance of Global X cybersecurity ETF versus S&P 500 over past one-year period.
Magoon said expectations may have become too high in cybersecurity, and with a crowding effect among investors, solid results were not enough to to push stocks higher. But the down-and-then-back-up 2026 for the sector is also a reminder that when stocks fall sharply in a short period of time, opportunity may knock.
“Once you’re down over 10% in some of these subsectors, you start to see the contrarians start to say, ‘well, maybe I’ll take a look at this,'” Magoon said.
He said AI does add both opportunity and uncertainty to the cybersecurity equation, increasing demand but also introducing new competition. But he added, “I think the dip is good to buy in an AI-driven world,” specifically because the risks to companies may lead to more M&A in cyber names that benefits the stocks.
For now, investors may look for opportunity on the margins rather than rush back into beaten-up tech names. “I think investors are still going to remain underweight software,” Thill said.
But Magoon advises investors to at least take the reminder to keep an eye on niches in the market during pronounced downturns. “The best-performing are often the least bought and do the best over the next 12 months versus late-in-the-game piling on,” he said.
While that may have been a mindset that worked against the last investors into cybersecurity and enterprise software in mid-2025 when the negative sentiment started building, at least for now, it’s started working for the stocks in the sector again.
Meanwhile, this year’s biggest winner is also a good example of what can be an extended trade in either a bullish or bearish direction. Last year, institutional ownership of energy was at multi-year lows, Magoon said, referencing Bank of America data. “Reverse sentiment can be a great indicator,” he said.
But he cautioned that any selective buying of stocks that have dipped does have to contend with the risk that there is a potentially bigger drawdown in the market yet to come in 2026. That is because midterm election years historically have been marked by large drawdowns. “If you think it is bad right now, it could get a lot worse,” Magoon said. But he added that there’s a silver-lining in that data, too, for the patient investor. The market has posted very strong 12-month returns after midterm election drawdowns end. So, for investors with a longer-term time horizon and no need for short-term liquidity, Magoon said, “stick in there.”
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New innovation in the exchange-traded fund industry could come at a cost to investors during extreme conditions.
According to MFS Investment Management’s Jamie Harrison, ETFs involved in increasingly complex derivatives and less transparent markets may be in uncharted territory when it comes to violent downturns.
“Those would be something that you’d want to keep an eye on as volatility ramps up,” the firm’s head of ETF capital markets told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “As innovation continues to increase at a rapid pace within the ETF wrapper, [it’s] definitely something that we advise our clients to be really front-footed about… Lack of transparency could absolutely be an issue if we’re going to start seeing some deep sell-offs.”
His firm has been around since 1924 and is known for inventing the open-end mutual fund. Last year, ETF.com named MFS Investment Management as the best new ETF issuer.
“It’s important to do due diligence on the portfolio,” he said. “Having a firm that has deep partnerships, deep bench of subject matter experts that plays with the A-team in terms of the Street and liquidity providers available [are] super important.”
Liquidity as the real issue?
Harrison suggested the real issue is liquidity, particularly during a steep sell-off.
“We’ve all seen the news and the headlines around potential private credit ETFs. That picture becomes much more murky,” he added. “It’s up to advisors, to investors [and] to clients to really dig in and look under the hood and engage with their issuers.”
He noted investors will have to ask some tough questions.
“What does this look like in a 20% drawdown? How does this liquidity facility work? Am I going to be able to get in? Am I going to be able to get out? And if I’m able to get out, am I able to get out at a price that’s tight to NAV [net asset value], and what’s the infrastructure at your shop in terms of managing that consideration for me,” said Harrison.
Amplify ETFs’ Christian Magoon is also concerned about these newer ETF strategies could weather a monster drawdown. He listed private credit as a red flag.
“If your ETF owns private credit, I think it’s worth taking a look at, kind of what the standards are around liquidity and how that ETF is trading, because that should be a bit of a mismatch between the trading pace of ETFs and the underlying asset,” the firm’s CEO said in the same interview.
Magoon also highlighted potential issues surrounding equity-linked notes. The notes provide fixed income security while offering potentially higher returns linked to stocks or equity indexes.
“Those could potentially be in stress due to redemptions and the underlying credit risk. That’s another kind of unique derivative,” Magoon said. “I would very closely look at any ETF that has equity-linked notes should we get into a major drawdown or there be a contagion in private credit or something related to the banking system.”
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