Research
Research library
Research worth an advisor's time from research firms, asset managers, regulators, central banks, academics and think tanks, each with a short summary in our own words, plus AdvisorIQ's own analysis.
As of Oct 8, 2026, the library lists 16 pieces from industry associations.
Titles marked with an arrow open on the publisher's site. How we choose.
Retirement income
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2026 EBRI/Greenwald Retirement Confidence Survey (opens ebri.org)
The long-running annual survey of how confident American workers and retirees feel about paying for retirement. In 2026 confidence slipped for both groups, to about three in five workers and three in four retirees, with inflation, the cost of living and worries about changes to Social Security and Medicare weighing on views.
Topic: Retirement incomeebri.org
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Projected Savings Medicare Beneficiaries Need for Health Expenses in Retirement up Again in 2025 (opens ebri.org)
EBRI updates its estimates of what a 65-year-old needs saved to cover Medicare premiums and out-of-pocket health costs. A man with supplemental coverage needs $120,000 for an even chance of covering costs and $212,000 for a 90% chance, women need more because they live longer, and couples with high drug costs face the largest targets.
Topic: Retirement incomeebri.org
Portfolio construction
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Exponential Wealth: Centuries of Stock and Bond Returns (opens rpc.cfainstitute.org)
A long-horizon study of stock and bond returns that updates a classic US market history through 2025 and adds earlier and global data. From 1926 to 2025, $1 in US large-cap stocks grew to $14,751, and the book shows how reinvested income, diversification, costs and inflation decide how much of that investors keep.
Topic: Portfolio constructionrpc.cfainstitute.org
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Total Portfolio Approach: A Critical Literature Review (opens rpc.cfainstitute.org)
A review of academic and practitioner research on the total portfolio approach, which manages a fund as one integrated portfolio instead of fixed asset-class buckets. The authors find it is mainly a governance discipline rather than a set of tools, and that the evidence does not show it reliably produces higher returns.
Topic: Portfolio constructionrpc.cfainstitute.org
ETF strategy
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2026 Investment Company Fact Book (opens icifactbook.org)
ICI's annual statistical reference on US funds, with a full chapter on ETFs. It reports ETF assets of $13.4 trillion at the end of 2025, record net issuance of $1.5 trillion during the year, 1,099 launches, and fee-based advisers holding 49% of client household assets in ETFs in 2024, up from 17% in 2014.
Topic: ETF strategyicifactbook.org
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Trends in the Expenses and Fees of Funds, 2025 (opens ici.org)
ICI's annual review of what investors pay to own mutual funds and ETFs, weighted by assets. In 2025 index equity ETFs averaged 0.14% and index bond ETFs fell to 0.09%, while long-run declines in mutual fund costs continued as money kept moving to no-load share classes and index funds.
Topic: ETF strategyici.org
Alternatives
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The Window Narrows: Evergreen Funds and the Choice Before the Industry (opens caia.org)
CAIA examines the rapid growth of evergreen private market funds sold through wealth channels, which held $534.6 billion at the end of 2025. It finds redemption terms work as written but get simplified on the way to clients, and urges clearer language, such as capped liquidity, and more adviser diligence while markets are calm.
Topic: Alternativescaia.org
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Private Credit Funds and the Retail Shift: Structural Vulnerabilities and Policy Responses (opens rpc.cfainstitute.org)
CFA Institute analyzes what changes when private credit is sold to individual investors through semiliquid and nontraded vehicles. The report argues retail access reshapes rather than removes the asset class's risks, pointing to redemption mismatches, model-based valuations, leverage and weaker loan covenants, and sets out possible safeguards.
Topic: Alternativesrpc.cfainstitute.org
Practice management
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Survey: AI Dominates Compliance Priorities at Historic Margin as Firms Move from Awareness to Action (opens investmentadviser.org)
The 2026 compliance testing survey of 411 adviser firms finds 85% name AI the top compliance topic and 80% have formally adopted AI tools. Fewer have the controls to match: 48% have a human-review policy and 30% address third-party AI use, and the survey also benchmarks compliance staffing and budgets.
Topic: Practice managementinvestmentadviser.org
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Study: Financial Planner Compensation Outpaces Inflation for Third Consecutive Year (opens cfp.net)
CFP Board's annual pay survey of 1,624 planners puts median 2025 total compensation at $195,000, up 15% from 2024. It reports CFP professionals earn 11% more than other planners after controlling for experience and firm size, and that nine in 10 plan to stay with their employer for the next two years.
Topic: Practice managementcfp.net
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Investment Adviser Industry Snapshot 2026 (opens investmentadviser.org)
An annual statistical portrait of SEC-registered advisers drawn from Form ADV filings. The 2026 edition counts 16,544 advisers managing $176.8 trillion for 73.7 million clients, finds 92.8% of firms employ 100 or fewer people, and shows individual clients using advisers for asset management more than doubling over eight years.
Topic: Practice managementinvestmentadviser.org
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Gen Z and Millennial High-Net-Worth Investors Are Reshaping Wealth Advice (opens cfainstitute.org)
CFA Institute surveyed more than 2,400 affluent and wealthy investors in six markets on what younger clients expect. More than 90% of wealthy Gen Z and millennial investors use some paid advice and most of those meet their adviser monthly, while human advisers remain the most trusted source even as about a third use AI to learn.
Topic: Practice managementcfainstitute.org
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FSI Survey: Advisors Enter 2026 With Guarded Optimism and Growing Concerns (opens financialservices.org)
The Financial Services Institute's survey of more than 220 members looks ahead to 2026 for independent advisors and their firms. Members cite misperceptions of the role and unclear career paths as the main reasons young people hesitate to join, and about 20% say they are integrating AI across key functions.
Topic: Practice managementfinancialservices.org
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New CFP Board Report Charts the Path Forward for AI in Financial Planning (opens cfp.net)
CFP Board's AI working group sketches four ways AI could reshape financial planning by the end of the decade, depending on how far the public trusts AI and how much new entrants disrupt the field. The report names workforce development and professional standards among the areas the profession should prepare.
Topic: Practice managementcfp.net
Regulation and ethics
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Investor Perspectives: Quarterly Reporting (opens rpc.cfainstitute.org)
CFA Institute surveyed analysts and portfolio managers as the SEC considers letting public companies report semiannually. Most want quarterly reporting kept mandatory, expect less useful information under a voluntary regime, and do not see earnings releases as a substitute for quarterly filings.
Topic: Regulation and ethicsrpc.cfainstitute.org
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Conflicts of Interest in Continuation Funds: Part II in a Series on Ethics in Private Markets (opens rpc.cfainstitute.org)
An ethics analysis of continuation funds, where a private equity manager sells assets from an older fund to a new one it also runs and so sits on both sides of the price. The report separates unavoidable conflicts from process failures and misconduct, and sets out practices such as competitive bidding and full disclosure.
Topic: Regulation and ethicsrpc.cfainstitute.org
Editorial
How we choose
- Inclusion is editorial. No publisher pays to be listed, and none can.
- We leave out any piece that features or recommends a specific fund, ETF, model portfolio or other product.
- Summaries are AdvisorIQ's own words. We link to the original on the publisher's site rather than copy it.
- We do not list pieces behind a paywall or a registration form, or pieces from media outlets and advisor platforms; we link to the original source instead.
More in our editorial standards.