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&lt;p&gt;The last thing anyone wants to have to think about when they have just lost a loved one is a tax bill. Building your legacy isn’t easy and you don’t want to see your hard work swallowed up by the tax man when the next generation receive their inheritance.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There are numerous ways that you can tax efficiently pass assets to your family, both during your lifetime and as part of your legacy. The earlier you start, the bigger the potential tax savings.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT)&lt;/strong&gt; is charged on assets that you receive as a gift or inheritance and the current rate of this tax is 33%. Of course, you can receive a certain level of wealth this way tax free, within ‘threshold’ limits. These limits depend on your relationship to the recipient of the gift or inheritance.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Parents typically look to pass their wealth to the next generation where there is a surplus of wealth, or likely to be one over time. Where a gift or inheritance from a parent to child, the first €400,000 given or inherited, can be received tax free. Beyond this though, it’s a different story. The thresholds are less generous between different groups.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://unio.my.salesforce.com/cms/delivery/media/MCOQSE43FS6ZCNTMR6SVU63B7U4I?oid=00D7Q000006G3wgUAC&amp;channelId=0ap7Q000000go4UQAQ&quot; alt=&quot;Lifetime CAT Thresholds&quot; data-fileid=&quot;20YJ7000000fy49&quot; data-contentkey=&quot;MCOQSE43FS6ZCNTMR6SVU63B7U4I&quot; data-cms-filename=&quot;Lifetime CTA Thresholds.PNG&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In fact, the current threshold from parent to child is quite low when you consider that the average house price across Ireland is €335,000* with many properties selling for amounts well in excess of this. This can lead to children having to sell an inherited property that may have been owned by a family for some time, simply to meet a tax liability.&nbsp;*source CSO, Property Price Index, April 2024.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So, how can you pass on your wealth and make sure that the next generation can benefit in the way that you would hope?&nbsp;Here are a few planning ideas that might be of benefit to you.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Make a will&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ensure your Estate is divided up on death to make the most of those tax-free thresholds, i.e. leave assets to everyone who has a threshold available to them, including grandchildren and your children’s spouses/partners. Don’t let the laws of intestacy decide who receives the assets you’ve spent your lifetime building up - or the associated tax bill!&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Small Gift Exemption&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During your lifetime you can gift to your children up to €3,000 every year tax free. In fact, you can gift this amount to as many people as you like each year, without it attracting any tax for the recipient or you – although it is important to make sure you can meet your own needs before you consider gifting. For example, if a couple were to each gift to their two sons, their two daughters-in-law and five grandchildren over the next 20 years, they would reduce the value of their estate on death and gift a total of €1,080,000 – all tax free. This would represent a tax saving of €356,400 – and all without utilising any of the available tax-free thresholds.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Consider a savings plan&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you plan to give larger gifts during your lifetime that might lead to the recipient exceeding their lifetime threshold limit, you might consider starting a special type of savings plan, the value of which is specifically used for the payment of CAT. This could be useful if you intend to provide a large gift in the future, perhaps for a property purchase.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What about your pension assets?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you’re already retired, you may have an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF). If an ARF is left, as part of your will, to anyone other than your spouse or children it will be subject to income tax at your marginal rate. Additionally, the remaining balance, after the deduction of income tax, will be further reduced by CAT. Addressing inheritance of ARF specifically in your Will can ensure it doesn’t fall into the residue of your estate and end up being inherited by someone other than your spouse/child.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Consider taking out a life insurance policy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Section 72 ‘whole of life’ life insurance policy can be taken out specifically for the payment of a CAT liability. The value of the policy itself, where established correctly, is exempt from any CAT. This can provide much-needed cash for your beneficiaries to pay inheritance tax on illiquid assets like property. Furthermore, the pay-out can be larger than the accumulated value of the associated premiums, and unlike other types of life policies, a whole of life policy is guaranteed to pay out on death.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Look at offsetting tax on personal investment assets&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Some investments may be subject to exit tax on death, but this tax can be offset against any CAT incurred by the recipient when they inherit the investment. It’s worth considering leaving such investments specifically to someone who will also incur an inheritance tax liability on receipt of them and can therefore avail of the tax offset.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Other assets may be subject to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) if you gift them during your lifetime. However, if the recipient has used up their lifetime threshold and is subject to CAT on the gift, this CAT can be offset against the CGT you have paid.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you would like to find out more about gifting and legacy planning, speak to your Unio adviser and they will talk you through the best solutions for you or &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;get in touch with us here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Smart Inheritance Tax Planning

&lt;p&gt;Dale Duignan, a planner in Unio Wealth Management’s financial planning team explores whether combining pensions from past jobs into your current workplace scheme is really the smart move. While it may cut down on admin, it could also reduce flexibility, limit investment choices and, trigger unexpected fees or tax bills. Before consolidating, it is crucial to weigh the risks against the convenience. A 3-minute read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A common question we get from clients is whether they should combine pensions from previous employment with their current occupational pension. A perfectly valid question as combining your pensions into one scheme for the sake of simplicity, administrative ease and less paperwork can be a solution, but it is not always the correct choice. Irish pension legislation provides compelling reasons to keep your pension benefits separate.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Access Flexibility&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you have pension benefits from previous employments or in a Personal Retirement Bond (PRB), you can access them from age 50. By amalgamating your deferred pensions with your current scheme, you lose the flexibility of drawing them down early as you must either reach normal retirement age or leave your current employment to access the overall pot. If you move them to a Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) you lose access to the benefits until you reach age 60 or fully retire from all employments.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Retirement Planning &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Having a few different pension pots affords you the opportunity of a phased retirement. By drawing down your pensions at various times, you can access lump sums as you need them, and the remainder of your pensions stay invested. This can be advantageous as they continue to grow, so does your future tax-free lump sums (TFLS). If you do not require the income from the balance after the TFLS, this avoids paying tax on imputed distributions from Approved Retirement Funds (ARF) or annuity income.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Retiring Outside Ireland &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you would like the flexibility of retiring abroad, leaving your pension in an occupational scheme allows you to transfer your Irish pension abroad. If you transfer you benefit to a PRSA, this will trigger a taxable event if you move your pension abroad in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Loss of Benefits &amp; Guarantees&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You may have benefits or guarantees on your existing plan that you may lose if you transfer. If you are a member of a defined contribution occupational pension scheme, you have the option of a salary and service TFLS on draw down. Depending on your final salary and length of service, this can provide a greater lump sum than the 25% lump sum from a PRSA. Your retained pension may also have some guarantees built in that you can avail of at retirement, such as guaranteed annuity rates.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Investment Diversification&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By consolidating your pensions into one pot, you could be reducing the overall diversification of your portfolio. Some clients like the idea of having their pensions spread across multiple providers and funds that each provider can offer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fees &amp; Charges&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If your deferred pension is in an occupational scheme, often the fees and charges are lower than individual contracts such as PRSA &amp; PRB contracts. Another consideration is the cost of transferring an occupational pension to a PRSA if the value is greater than €10,000. The reason for this is a Certificate of Benefit Comparison is required, and this can cost between €1,000 to €3,000 depending on the type of occupational pension.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In conclusion, consolidating your pensions can be a smart move to simplify your financial life- but it is not always the best fit for everyone. From flexibility and investment choice to fees and potential tax implications, there is a lot to weigh up. Before making any decisions, speak with your adviser who can assess your individual circumstances and help you make the most of your retirement savings. A little guidance now could mean a lot more peace of mind later.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Dale Duignan CFP® is a financial planner in Unio Wealth Management’s Financial Planning Team and has a wealth of experience in advising high net worth individuals and families on how they can achieve their goals.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let’s Talk&lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This time of year is the ideal time to maximise tax-deductible pension contributions. You might be surprised by how much more you could contribute with the right calculation. A 30-minute conversation with one of our expert advisers will help you make the most of your opportunity. Why not take a moment to plan the pension you deserve with Unio, it’s time well spent. &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Get in touch.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

One Pot or Not? Think Before You Merge Your Pensions.

&lt;p&gt;Oscar Wilde’s line that ‘to lose one parent is a misfortune,&nbsp;to lose both looks like carelessness’ can be applied to politics, notably to France’s earnest President Emmanuel Macron, who may lose his fourth prime minister in just over eighteen months when Francois Bayrou submits his government to the mercy of parliament next week.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The likely fall of the Bayrou cabinet may see another powerless coalition cobbled together, or even a general election. In the near term the risk is of a collision between Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement (old Front National), the bond market and the French state.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That also most surely means the end of the ‘Macronie’, in the sense that Macron is in office but not in power. Polls suggest that few French people would regret or contest this.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It should not have come to this. Unlike many of its neighbours France has generally very good public services, transport and education systems, and Macron has manifestly enlivened the private investment and technology sectors of the economy. Economic growth has been decent by comparison to the UK and Germany at least. Compared to many of its peers and competitors, France is an agreeable and affordable place to live.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, on Macron’s watch, France has become imperilled financially, the issue of immigration and identity still taxes public life to the extent that the Rassemblement is now the largest single party in parliament, and in foreign policy, France has lost sway in Africa and the Middle East, and more generally on the world stage. Another omission, where the broader elite is complicit, is the failure to reform the French democratic system.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In that context, there are perhaps three lessons from the whimpering end to the Macron era.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first is that the major economies are now well and truly in the ‘Age of Debt’, where the consequences of indebtedness pervade and dominate politics, financial markets, geopolitics and society. The large economies of the world have never been so indebted, and the fact that they are at the same time will ultimately make debt reduction more disorderly. The Trump administration recognises this and is adopting highly unorthodox, risky measures to make its debt load less unsustainable. In Britain, there is widespread recognition of the country’s fiscal fragility, but policy makers are yet highly risk averse in tackling it. That France is in denial will only make the correction all the more painful.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In France, there is scant willingness on the part of the policy elite nor any of the political parties to seriously address France’s financial situation, and like a fancily dressed pauper, it continues to live beyond its means. For the time being, it can hide behind the euro, but its fellow euro-zone member states will soon become vigilant that France does not trigger another European financial crisis. The upshot of this is the loss of economic autonomy for France.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The second lesson is for centrist parties in the dwindling number of democracies in the world. In the context of the unravelling of the old, globalised order, amidst interference in European affairs from larger countries, government of the centre need to tackle problems like immigration, debt and geopolitics head on, with more aggression, else the parties of the fringe will capitalise on their inaction. Concretely, this amounts to a very different tempo of politics in Europe, and one that is ultimately more singular.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The third lesson, which is specifically European but that will strike a lesson with many Americans, is that European needs to take control of and change the narrative on its own destiny. European leaders have been far too reactive to the demands of the White House, and the violence of the Kremlin.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A lot of hope was placed on Macron to shape a narrative for Europe in the world, notably so in the absence of clarity of thought and leadership from many other European countries like Germany. Europe’s narrative should be that increasingly, for valuable public goods – democracy, the rule of law, education, healthcare and culture – it is the best place in the world. The problem is in paying for it.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

The End of Macron?

&lt;p&gt;Amidst the slew of corporate earnings and macro-economic data released in the past week, two developments struck me, both of which give the impression of the tectonics of geopolitics pushing against each other.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;First, in the past year the number of children born in the US has caught up with the EU, at close to 3.6 million babies each (though the EU has a bigger population). For comparison, Nigeria – whose population is less than half that of the EU – welcomed 7 million babies last year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Second, in recent months the trend rate of consumer inflation in Japan has surpassed that of the US for the first time in decades, signalling a long awaiting shift in the Japanese economy that has been accompanied by a rise in long-run bond yields (a potentially critical development for the international financial system).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These two examples will give a sense of the rise and fall of nations, that is accelerating since the fall of globalisation (which I date to the effective end of democracy in Hong Kong). This rise and fall – think of countries like football clubs – is also associated by an unravelling of the world order. For example, in a recent note &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/atlas-shrugging&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;‘Atlas Shrugging’&lt;/a&gt;, we detailed how the independence of the Federal Reserve was being undercut by the White House, and the attempt to remove Lisa Cook from the Fed’s rate setting committee confirms that Donald Trump wants to direct the Fed as an engine of his economic policy (as a giant bond buying machine I suspect).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The independent Fed has been one of the pillars of the globalised world system of the past forty years – and the snuffing out of its independence heralds the unravelling of that system. In the same way that the period of globalisation was characterised by low inflation and the absence of major wars – the presence of inflation and conflict today, is a sign that we are moving into ‘something else’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In that context I find myself playing a mind game which I call the ‘Unravelling Rule’. Very simply, it is to identity the principal factors that have supported globalisation and that are positive outcomes of it and identify if and how they are unravelling. The crisis of democracy is one such trend (the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index has fallen to its lowest level in twenty years).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Other certainties are also unravelling – notably the assumption that the USA is an unflinching ally of Europe and many Asian countries, and the possibility that it could even actively undermine them. In this regard, the fact that the Danish government had to summon the US ambassador over the conduct of three Americans in Greenland is troubling, and reflects very badly on the White House.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The danger with the ‘Unravelling Rule’ is that in a chaotic world, it is tempting to see it everywhere. It is more obvious though in the case of the collection of world institutions – the United Nations, IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organisation, who are frequently ignored by the very large economies, and sometimes badly undermined by them (the WTO is an example). These institutions need to be recast, most likely for the benefit of the populous emerging economies.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On a more speculative basis, there are at least four trends that have marked the past forty years, and that are now worth watching for a change of course.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first is poverty. It is an underestimated facet of globalisation that it helped a billion people rise out of poverty, according to the World Bank. My concern is that in a world where the major economies (2/3 of the world’s GDP) have debt to GDP ratios above 100%, economic precarity may return, and this time to developed countries. We have already noted (&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/the-road-to-serfdom&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Road to Serfdom&lt;/a&gt;) the extremely high level of inequality in the US and broad economic vulnerability. In Europe, British and French policymakers conjured the spectre of IMF intervention in their economies. In that respect the growing disparity in incomes in the UK regions (relative to London) bears watching.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A second is corporate governance and the rule of law as it extends to international business. We have not seen a rule of law or broad governance crisis in sometime, but the rise of decentralised finance (i.e. crypto), the new idiom of the ‘art of the deal’ in the US, and the geopolitically tinged trade relationships that China is developing worldwide. As a global ‘way of doing things’ gives way to more regional or localised approaches, the watertightness of contracts and the oversight of business relationships is something that businesses will need to consider more carefully.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A true litmus test of the ‘Unravelling’ hypothesis will be the role of US multinationals in the world economy. Described as the ‘B-52s’ of globalisation in the late 1990’s by a prominent trade economist, they have shaped the world economy and come to dominate financial markets. I have lost count of the number of charts circulating that declare that Nvidia for example is worth more than the major European stock markets together. Whilst cash rich, they now face a number of challenges – the difficulty of selling into China as it broadens its technological self-sufficiency, and the collateral damage to overseas sales from the Trump trade and foreign policies, and the rise of more specific local tastes in markets like Africa and India.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A final unravelling, and one I would welcome, is for the EU to unleash its nasty side. In the past forty years the successes of the EU – enlargement, holding the euro together and the creation of a European identity (based on borderless travel the Erasmus programme for example). The likes of Poland and Estonia have benefitted greatly from this, and it is fair to say that the UK would be better off ‘in’ than ‘out’. But, the emphasis has been largely on soft rather than hard power, and in a ‘harder’ world, the EU will need to take a tougher stance in terms of how it projects itself.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There are many challenges but three in particular are the potential exclusion of existing and prospective member states like Hungary and Serbia who habitually refuse to act in accordance with EU values and interests, a specifically more aggressive approach to countering sabotage by Russia (and at times China and Iran) in Europe, and then a retaking of the narrative as to what Europe stands for.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

The Unravelling Rule

&lt;p&gt;It's back to school time. Routines settle back in and many of us take a moment to pause and reflect, not just on our schedules, but also on our finances. Just as structure helps children thrive in the classroom, financial clarity brings confidence and peace of mind in everyday life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After a busy summer, it’s natural to ask: &lt;em&gt;Am I still on track?&lt;/em&gt; That’s where financial planning comes in. It’s not about spreadsheets or complexity, but about meaningful conversations, understanding your goals, easing your worries, and building a roadmap that helps you and your family make the right choices with confidence. Rowena Kenny explores how working with a personal financial adviser can reduce financial stress, provide clarity, and help you focus on what truly matters most. A 4 minute read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In today’s hectic world there is an ever-growing list of stressors that weigh on our minds. When asked to identify sources of stress, money emerges as a recurring theme. As a personal financial adviser, I often find myself acting as a coach and mentor, helping clients make informed decisions and keeping them on the path to financial wellbeing.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Renowned satirist Jonathan Swift once famously said, “A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.” By effectively managing our money, we gain control over our finances, creating opportunities for personal and professional growth, and helping us attain that all important peace of mind.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Working with the right adviser can help coordinate all aspects of your financial life so you can focus on what is most important to you and making the right choices in life for you and your family. It is an ongoing relationship built on trust and, when done correctly, your adviser will become an integral part of your life, your counsel for financial and more importantly life decisions. You can take comfort knowing that they will have the time, attention, and expertise to address every aspect of your finances while you focus on living.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Peace of Mind&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A recent study by the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) [1] revealed that clients who work with a Certified Financial Planner experience a significantly higher quality of life. These clients report increased confidence and satisfaction regarding their financial situations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, the study identified “reducing financial worries and stress” as one of the top three benefits that financial planners provide to their clients. This is especially significant in Ireland, which has a rich tapestry of culture, values, and behaviours that shape how we approach wealth and financial management.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What Keeps You up at Night?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Clients often remark that they appreciate the clarity and focus they get from a financial planning meeting. By looking at the bigger picture, we move the conversation away from the spread sheet and facilitate those deeper conversations about a client’s concerns and aspirations. What’s on your mind? What do you want to achieve in life and how can we help you get there?&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Typically, your financial plan should establish important long term personal financial goals and shorter-term objectives. A long-term goal might be starting to save for your child’s future or achieving a particular income level in retirement. A typical shorter-term objective may be to reduce debt or increase pension savings. Your plan sets out your goals and describes a clear ‘route map’ of what you need to do to achieve them. Using financial modelling software, we build a picture of what your financial future might look like and work through accumulation strategies or simply give you the peace of mind that you are on track.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Additionally, your financial plan might include other practical steps such as ensuring you have an up-to date will in place or an enduring power of attorney.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Your financial legacy and efficiently passing on wealth might also be an important consideration and ensuring that you have the right structures in place to do so tax efficiently may be a priority for you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Behavioural Aspect of Wealth Management&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Many individuals carry beliefs about money that can hinder their financial success. For some clients, cultural attitudes towards wealth may instil feelings of guilt or fear of judgment. Partnering with our clients and coaching them on these limiting beliefs, enables them to adopt a more empowering mindset towards wealth accumulation and management.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For example, in Ireland there is a cultural reticence for people to invest beyond traditional bank deposits and that can hold us back as a country. This can often result in missed opportunities for growth, leading to financial uncertainty in the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In contrast, a cohesive financial plan including an investment plan tailored to your goals can offer potential for higher returns, helping you build wealth more effectively. Knowing that your finances are actively working towards your future can reduce financial stress, contributing to greater peace of mind.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio advisers are also here to help clients navigate the stress and anxiety that sometimes accompanies financial decisions. Understanding what drives emotional reactions can lead to more rational and well-thought-out investment choices.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Top 5 Benefits of Working with a Financial Planner&lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;(1)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1. Improved Financial Wellbeing and Peace of Mind: Knowing your finances are in order allows you to sleep soundly, free from the anxieties of unexpected financial troubles.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2. Simplified Financial Matters: Financial planners help demystify complex financial concepts, making it easier for clients to understand and manage their finances.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;3. Enhanced Confidence in Financial Decisions: With expert guidance, clients can make informed decisions, reducing the stress and uncertainty often associated with managing money.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;4. Increased Financial Freedom and Control: Effective financial planning provides clients with a sense of control over their financial future, leading to a more empowered and relaxed lifestyle.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;5. Goal Setting and Achievement: Financial planners help clients establish and reach their personal and financial goals, contributing to overall life satisfaction and happiness.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;[1] FPSB Value Of Financial Planning Global Consumer Research, 2023&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Rowena Kenny is a Qualified Financial Adviser, Chartered Accountant and Certified Life Coach with a background in Tax, Law, Business, Nursing and Fashion Design. Currently working in Unio Wealth Management, Rowena advises High Net Worth clients on savings and investments, life assurance, pensions, retirement planning and estate planning in line with client life goals and aspirations. &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Rowena%20Kenny&amp;segment=Corporate%20and%20Company%20Executives&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Rowena may be contacted here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let's Talk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we take a holistic view. Beyond financial advice, we consider and understand your life goals, ensuring that our advice and your financial plan align with your broader life aspirations. If you want to learn more, speak with a Unio adviser or &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;get in touch with us.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Achieving Financial Peace of Mind

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Business Insurance for SMEs: Protect Your Company, Partners, and Key Employees&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For business owners, managing risk is just as important as growing the business. Illness or the loss of a key person can have serious financial consequences both personally and professionally. Elizabeth Byrne, private client adviser with Unio, explores how the right protection, from co-director and key person insurance to partnership cover, can help keep your business stable, your team supported, and ownership transitions smooth. A 4-minute read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What types of cover are there and why do I need it?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Co-Director Insurance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When a business partner dies, it is usually their spouse who inherits their shareholding in the company. More often than not, the remaining co-directors and the inheriting next of kin do not wish to run the business together.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This situation can jeopardise the stability of the company. The next of kin may not have the expertise or even the desire to step into the business. At a time when they are grieving, vulnerable, and possibly facing cashflow pressures, poor decisions may be made, putting the company’s future at risk.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Co-Director Insurance provides a solution. It ensures that the company has the funds to buy back the deceased partner’s shares, restoring security and giving the remaining directors full control. Once the policy is in place, the arrangement is legally binding on all parties. On the death of a shareholder, the policy pays out a lump sum that allows the surviving directors to purchase the shares from the next of kin.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Co-Director insurance provides peace of mind and stability for all the Directors. The cover can also be set up to provide serious illness protection. The amount of cover is set up based on company’s turnover and share value.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Person Insurance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As your company grows, you build a team with expert knowledge of your business. Within that team, there are key employees whose skills, experience, and contributions are critical to its success.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The death or long-term illness of one of these individuals can have a serious impact on profits and in some cases, even threaten the long-term viability of the business.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Key Person Insurance provides a financial safety net, giving you the resources to fund recruitment, training, and the transition to a suitable replacement. This protection is especially important for smaller companies, where the loss of a single key employee can create significant financial strain.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Partnership Insurance&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Partnership insurance is designed to protect the business interest of partnerships in the event of death or serious illness of one of the partners.&nbsp;Much like co-director insurance, it ensures business continuity of a partnership structure in the event of the death of a partner.&nbsp;The cover ensures cashflow to the partnership to provide the family of the deceased partner a fair price for their inherited share of the partnership. Having this cover in place reduces the possibility of conflict by allowing the remaining business partners to have a financial solution to facilitate the transfer of the ownership.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Summary&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When reviewing my SME clients’ requirements, it is essential to understand the structure of the business and fully assess the risks it may face. The size of the company, the industry in which it operates, and the roles of the directors and key personnel are all critical considerations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once a policy is in place, it should be reviewed regularly to ensure it continues to meet the business’s needs especially if the company is growing quickly, turnover is rising, or share value is increasing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Business insurance helps you mitigate risks, protect your interests, and ensure long-term stability and continuity, securing the future of your business.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Elizabeth Byrne, CFP® is a private client adviser in Unio Wealth Management’s SME team and has a wealth of experience in advising high net worth clients on how they can achieve their financial goals.&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Elizabeth%20Byrne&amp;segment=Business%20Owners&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Elizabeth may be contacted here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let’s Talk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio is a wealth management firm built around our clients – with a strong focus on personal service, trusted advice and access to our experienced investment team. We work closely with individuals, families and businesses to create long-term, strategic financial plans to help meet your goals by guarding, guiding and growing your wealth, &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

Protecting You and Your Business

&lt;p&gt;At this month’s Global Macro Council (GMC), discussions centred on the mixed signals coming from the US economy, including concerns about a potential recession despite record-high stock market valuations, and the emergence of a “two-speed” economy, with traditional industries on one side and a rapidly growing AI sector on the other.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We were delighted to be joined by guest speakers Ben Lederer and Christo Barker, Fisher Investments and Jeff Schulze, ClearBridge Investments. Thank you for your valued input.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Unio-GMC-Outlook-August-2025.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More in this month's GMC Outlook&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, text included below.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Not This Time&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Paul Samuelson, the Nobel Prize winning economist once declared that the ‘stock market has predicted nine of the past five recessions’. In that spirit, with the US stock market at a record high valuation (the Buffet indicator – the ratio of the stock market capitalisation to GDP – is at an all-time high for example) fears are growing of a dip in US economic activity, and even of a recession.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mixed Data&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The outlook is complicated by at least two factors. Whilst US and other corporations now have better visibility on the trade and fiscal policies of the Trump government (the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ has passed), there is still some uncertainty as to their effect on the economy. Secondly, a range of rules that in the past have been triggered ahead of recessions, are now flashing ‘red’, but are being countered by other more positive trends.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One example is the Sahm rule which states that when the three-month moving average of the unemployment rate rises by half a percentage point, a recession occurs. It triggered earlier this year, but a recession is not obvious.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed, within the US labour market, while the pace of hiring has fallen off, the rate of ‘firings’ has not picked up. Equally wage growth is positive.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A further example of an anomaly is the consumer. Consumer confidence has weakened manifestly, but consumer spending maintains a relatively healthy trend, according to data from Fisher Investments.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Two-Speed Economy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At one remove, signs are growing of a two-speed economy; the ‘normal’ more traditional one where growth is slower (we note that logistics and transportation stocks are sluggish), and another AI-driven one that is accelerating at speed. Some estimates point to capital expenditure of close to USD 4trn on the AI eco-system (chips, datacentres, energy) by 2028, with much of this being paid for with the cashflow of the large technology firms (and a growing private credit industry). Data from Franklin Templeton shows that data centre capacity in the US will vastly outstrip other major economies.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed, corporate balance sheets are strong (and earnings very healthy) at this juncture, as are household balance sheets, at a time when the federal deficit and debt level are pushing record levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As such, the next phase of growth in the US will very much be driven by the private sector – with a little help from the Federal Reserve, which is expected to make two to three rate cuts between now and next Easter.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overall, our expectation is that the US economy has entered a soft patch, rather than a recession per se, and that this could endure till late in 2025, before some of the more supportive trends we have flagged, materialise.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Let’s Talk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio is a wealth management firm built around our clients – with a strong focus on personal service, trusted advice and access to our experienced investment team. We work closely with individuals, families and businesses to create long-term, strategic financial plans to help meet your goals by guarding, guiding and growing your wealth,&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

Not This Time

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;I’ve spent a bit of the summer re-reading the work of Charles Kindleberger, an important economist whose career intersected monetary systems and stock market bubbles, two issues that are top of mind for investors and economists today (see last week’s note &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/stable-genius&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;‘Stable Genius’&lt;/a&gt;).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Kindleberger had an interesting career. His PhD advisor at Columbia was Henry Parker Willis (a key architect of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 and the first Secretary of the Federal Reserve Board that became what we now know as the ‘Fed’). Then, in one of his first jobs at the US Treasury, Kindleberger worked for Harry Dexter White, the interlocutor and ‘rival’ of JM Keynes at the Breton Woods conference.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;To that end, Kindleberger had a very strong sense of the creation of the monetary infrastructure that has built today’s economic world, and he then had the opportunity to play a role in this as one of the architects of the Marshall Plan, which did so much to spur growth in post-war Europe and to cement the view of the USA as the benevolent world power. Benn Steil’s book ‘The Marshall Plan: The Dawn of the Cold War’ is worth a read.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Beyond his policy work, Kindleberger is best known for ‘&lt;em&gt;Manias, Panics and Crashes’&lt;/em&gt;, the best outline of how asset bubbles form and are followed by crashes.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;It is highly pertinent today because a variety of stock market valuation indicators (the long-term ‘Shiller Price Earnings ratio’, the ‘Buffet Indicator’ as well as measures of market concentration – the largest ten technology stocks account for 75% of the entire market), point to the kind of market behaviour seen only in market bubbles (like 2001). Consistent with this, various investors, as well as entrepreneurs like OpenAI’s Sam Altman are warning of a ‘bubble’.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;One test of the bubble thesis is to follow Kindleberger’s theory that asset price bubbles follow a common speculative cycle. According to Kindleberger, bubbles often start with an innovation – in a technology (i.e. railways) or a financial policy or market structure, or even a growth ‘miracle’ (note all the Tiger economies from Hong Kong to Ireland have seen boom/bust cycles) towards which investors channel capital, and then even more as asset prices rise and a narrative around the ‘mania’ begins to build.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This effect helps to loosen the strings of the overall economy and financial sector, but around this point asset prices are reaching incredulous levels as investor euphoria intensifies, drawing in further speculation, until prices then turn down, and the house of cards collapses in a crash. The collapse is always greater when households, institutions and individuals have borrowed on the back of high asset prices, and logically there is greater contagion across the economy.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;One lesson from the Kindleberger book is that ‘new’ things – inventions or economic policy liberalizations often provide the spark for a new speculative bubble, that can grow and destabilise a financial system if enough speculative capital is driven towards it.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;AI is a case in point. For context, Morgan Stanley estimates that over USD 3 trillion will be invested in AI related infrastructure (data centres, energy), with about half of that coming from the cashflow of the large technology companies, and the rest from private credit. It is clear that the large technology firms (from Microsoft to Nvidia) are the driving force behind this boom, especially so in the context of the fiscal weakness of most Western governments.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The recent results season was instructive in this respect. Often in a bubble, the dot.com one being a good example, the earnings associated with the bubble are only ‘prospective’ or somehow inflated. This is not the case with the large technology firms so far – by and large they report very strong earnings, which helps to soften the bubble argument. The catch is the circularity of the capital expenditure by the large technology firms – META for example is spending aggressively on data centres and chips and running down its cash levels. To that extent, the large tech firms are making a bold bet to get ahead in the AI game, but it is a concentrated and possibly existential bet.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;If the strong cashflow position of the firms at the centre of this bubble is unusual in the context of the Kindleberger framework, two other factors also stand out as untypical.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The first is that short- and long-term interest rates in the major economies are close to ‘neutral’, neither too hot not too cold. Bubbles are often characterised, or preceded by ‘easy money’, though it has to be recognised that the last decade has been one of near continual stimulus (from QE to fiscal spending).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The other unusual factor is that the stock bubble is occurring against a backdrop of intense geopolitical and economic policy uncertainty – from great power competition to an unravelling trade order to a reconfiguring of America’s role in the world. The one way in which these dislocations fit the bubble narrative is that AI is a strategic asset, a ‘must-have’, that leads to an environment where for example the US government aims to take a strategic stake in Intel.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Having written in early 2024 of a ‘Bubble Brewing’, I think we are now ‘in’ an AI centric market bubble, though not at the end of it in the sense of there being a ‘mania’ proper. In the short term, we might well see a wobble in AI stocks, before they pick up again.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In a future note I will detail my own experiences of the dot.com and European real estate bubbles, which leads me to think that ‘we are not there yet’ in terms of the evolution of this bubble. It will end with the absurd – Nvidia encroaching on a USD 10 trn valuation, food companies publicly adopting AI and seeing their values double, wild predictions that AI can treble productivity and wipe out the debt, and on the flip side, the structural risks to energy and jobs markets that AI could pose.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;But, we are not there yet.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Have a great week ahead, Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Manias, Panics and Crashes

&lt;p&gt;The time value of money is a simple idea with a big impact: money you have today is worth more than the same amount in the future. Why? Because today’s money can be invested, earn interest, and grow over time. Understanding this concept helps you make better choices about saving, investing, and borrowing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wendy McKeown, Head of Financial Planning at Unio Wealth Management explains the time value of money and shares how it can guide you toward smarter financial decisions.&nbsp;Whether you are just starting to invest or planning for retirement, using time wisely can significantly enhance our financial returns and help secure a stable future. A 5-mins read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;TIME + MONEY = MORE MONEY!&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ever since I first watched ‘Back to the Future’ and tried to wrap my head around the idea of the ‘space-time continuum’, the importance of time as a concept has continued to fascinate me.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That movie introduced me to the idea that decisions we make now impact our future path, something I talk about daily as a Financial Planner.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Time is one of the most valuable assets that we have in life – it's something we can’t get back once it’s gone, we can’t save it or earn more of it.&nbsp;But how can we use time to our advantage when managing our finances?&nbsp;Simple – by understanding the impact of time better.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here are three key financial planning concepts that explain the relationship between time and money.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1-The Power of Compounding&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As Albert Einstein once said, “compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays it”.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Compounding is the process of generating returns on both your original investment and through re-investment of returns you have previously received.&nbsp;It’s simple; interest on your interest means more returns on your investment returns.&nbsp;The longer your money is invested, the more it grows showing clearly how time can significantly boost your wealth.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Below is an example that shows the power of compounding—and why starting early makes all the difference.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://unio.my.salesforce.com/cms/delivery/media/MCCRSRIPTHA5GFVA57GDTM6PO6NQ?oid=00D7Q000006G3wgUAC&amp;channelId=0ap7Q000000go4UQAQ&quot; data-fileid=&quot;20YJ7000000fzza&quot; alt=&quot;Compounding savings table showing Mary starts at 25 with €200/month vs John at 35 with €400/month, both at 6% return.&quot; data-contentkey=&quot;MCCRSRIPTHA5GFVA57GDTM6PO6NQ&quot; data-cms-filename=&quot;Time Value of Money table .jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;John and Mary both plan to retire at 65, but they started saving at different times. Mary began at 25, while John waited until 35. Both use the same investment strategy, earning 6% annually. Mary contributes €200 per month; John, starting later, contributes €400 per month.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The chart shows their investment growth from age 25 to 65. Mary’s savings (orange line) grow quickly at first thanks to an early start. John’s savings grow more slowly initially, but by around age 60, compounding helps him catch up. By retirement, both have just over €400,000.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here’s the key takeaway: Mary reached the same goal with lower contributions simply by starting earlier. She let time work its magic—compounding rewards patience.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Time is money. Start early, invest consistently, and let your money grow.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://unio.my.salesforce.com/cms/delivery/media/MCFS7FBOQECNHOVEP5R5HBGPPEEU?oid=00D7Q000006G3wgUAC&amp;channelId=0ap7Q000000go4UQAQ&quot; alt=&quot;This chart shows the growth of John’s and Mary’s investments or savings over time from age 25 to 65.&quot; data-fileid=&quot;20YJ7000000fzxo&quot; data-contentkey=&quot;MCFS7FBOQECNHOVEP5R5HBGPPEEU&quot; data-cms-filename=&quot;Picture1.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;*This&nbsp;chart&nbsp;is based on level non-escalating contributions for the duration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Warning: These figures are estimates only. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;They are not a reliable guide to the future performance of this investment.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2-The Time Value of Money&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The 'Time value of money' refers to the idea that money available today is worth more than the same amount tomorrow.&nbsp;Would you rather be gifted €1,000 today or €1,000 in 5-years’ time?&nbsp;Most individuals would opt for today, as, like the example above, money available now can be invested to generate returns.&nbsp;&nbsp;With 6% p.a. growth, you could grow €1,000 received today to €1,338 in 5 years’ time.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, money is also impacted by inflation which will reduce the future value of the same amount of money. The purchasing power of €1,000 in 5 years’ time will be different to that of the same amount today. For example, using an inflation rate of 2%, something that cost €1,000 today will cost €1,104 in 5 years’ time. This often leads to the suggestion that your investment strategy should ‘inflation protect’ your assets at the very minimum, targeting an investment return equal to or greater than the prevailing rate of inflation, thus maintaining the spending power of your capital&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3-Lifecycle Investing&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lifecycle investing refers to adjusting your investment strategy based on your age, financial goals, and risk tolerance over time. Early in your career, you might take more risks for higher returns, while closer to retirement, you shift toward safer investments. This concept shows how time influences not just the growth of money but how you manage it at different stages of life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In conclusion, understanding the relationship between time and money is essential for effective financial planning. Concepts like compound interest, the time value of money, and lifecycle investing show us that the earlier we start, and the more intentionally we adapt our strategies over time, the greater our potential for financial success. Whether it's Mary starting to save a decade before John, or adjusting our investments as we move through life, using time wisely can mean the difference between financial stress and long-term security. The key is to start early, stay consistent, and adapt as your goals and circumstances evolve.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wendy McKeown CFP® is head of Unio Wealth Management’s Financial Planning team and has a wealth of experience in advising high net worth individuals and families on how they can achieve their goals.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Talk to us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you would like to start the conversation with one of our expert advisers,&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; get in touch here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Time Value of Money

&lt;p&gt;Human capital is one of the most valuable assets you’ll ever own yet it’s not stored in a bank account. It’s the sum of your skills, education, experience, and knowledge, and it plays a critical role in your ability to earn, save, and invest. While financial capital measures what you already have, human capital fuels what you can build in the future. In today’s fast-changing economy, understanding the importance of human capital is essential for creating sustainable wealth, shaping effective financial strategies, and protecting your income potential. In this article, Wendy McKeown CFP®, Head of Financial Planning with Unio explores what human capital is, why it matters, and how you can grow and safeguard it for long-term financial success. A 5-mins read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is Human Capital?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Human capital is the value you generate through education, knowledge, experience and skills that you accumulate throughout life – effectively your earnings power.&nbsp;We can think of human capital as a stream of future income to be realised over time.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Balancing Human and Financial Capital in Wealth Strategy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The chart below illustrates the relationship between Human Capital, Financial Capital, and Total Wealth over a lifetime (ages 25 to 65).The chart demonstrates that human capital is the primary driver of wealth in early years, but over time, financial capital takes over as the dominant component. This transition highlights the importance of converting income potential into sustainable financial assets through proper wealth management.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://unio.my.salesforce.com/cms/delivery/media/MC4PBKQCBIRNGALNMV7AILVM5KZY?oid=00D7Q000006G3wgUAC&amp;channelId=0ap7Q000000go4UQAQ&quot; alt=&quot;Wealth management lifecycle chart showing human capital decreasing with age, financial capital growing, and total wealth as their sum.&quot; data-fileid=&quot;20YJ7000000fzxU&quot; data-contentkey=&quot;MC4PBKQCBIRNGALNMV7AILVM5KZY&quot; data-cms-filename=&quot;The Time Value of Money _Unio Wealth Management.png&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Role of Human Capital in Financial Planning&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Human Capital is a measure of someone’s future earnings potential. This means Human Capital will be at its highest when someone is at the beginning of their career.&nbsp;For someone closer to retirement, human capital (or your future earnings potential) will be much lower. By contrast, your financial wealth is typically lowest when you are young and then over time, financial capital steadily increases as you save, invest and compound your earnings.&nbsp;As you age, you are steadily using up your future earning power, so the value of your human capital gradually declines.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How human capital influences savings and investments&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The concept of human capital can play into your portfolio asset allocation. When you’re young and in the ‘accumulation’ phase of your investing life, you can focus on higher risk assets like equities with less in lower volatility assets such as bonds.&nbsp;Your human capital is high, and you have more time to recoup investment loses.&nbsp;Over time, as your human capital reduces and your financial capital increases, your investment allocation can shift towards more conservative assets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Protecting Your Human Capital&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Where you have a heavy reliance on human capital to provide cashflow to support lifestyle needs, there is also a larger risk that a loss of earnings will have a significantly bigger impact.&nbsp;This really highlights the necessity for life insurance for income protection, ideally correlated to hedge against mortality risk and targeted to cover any lost future earnings.&nbsp;Over time, as future earnings potential reduces, so too does the reliance on human capital in provision of cashflow as a larger financial capital base is accrued.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Time and the Value of Human Capital&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Time is the multiplier of human capital. The earlier you start developing your skills and expertise, the longer you can reap the rewards through higher income and better career opportunities. Understanding the compounding effect of time on your earning potential can transform the way you plan for your financial future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion – Human Capital vs. Financial Capital&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While financial capital measures the wealth you’ve accumulated, human capital represents your capacity to create more. Both are essential for financial stability, but they work in different ways - one is tangible, the other is potential. Balancing and nurturing both forms of capital is the foundation of sustainable wealth.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wendy McKeown CFP® is head of Unio Wealth Management’s Financial Planning team and has a wealth of experience in advising high net worth individuals and families on how they can achieve their goals.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Talk to us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio is a wealth management firm built around our clients with a strong focus on personal service, trusted advice and access to our experienced investment team. We work closely with individuals, families and businesses to create long-term, strategic financial plans to help meet your goals by guarding, guiding and growing your wealth.&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Get in touch.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Further reading&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/sites/default/files/-/media/documents/book/rf-publication/2007/rf-v2007-n1-4580-pdf.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;CFA Institute, 2007: Lifetime Financial Advice: Human Capital, Asset Allocation, and Insurance&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/human-capital-at-work-the-value-of-experience&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;McKinsey, 2022: Human capital at work: The value of experience | McKinsey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Human Capital: The Hidden Asset in Wealth Planning

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Passing on More than Wealth: Building Financial Literacy Across Generations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yvonne Clinton CFP®, a financial planner in Unio’s Financial Planning team writes about the importance of building financial literacy across generations. The article discusses how financial literacy is crucial for managing and preserving wealth, especially as the transfer of wealth between generations in Ireland is growing at an unprecedented rate. A 5-minute read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ireland is experiencing an unprecedented transfer of wealth between generations. As families accumulate more assets, a crucial question arises: are the next generation ready to manage what they inherit or will the wealth that has built up over their parents’ lifetimes be squandered due to a lack of understanding of how to manage wealth?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The demanding work of wealth building - earning promotions, managing expenses, buying a home, saving for the future - is just one part of the picture. Knowing how to preserve, grow, and pass on that wealth requires something else entirely: financial literacy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What is financial literacy?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Financial literacy refers to the set of skills required to make important financial decisions, particularly in the areas of borrowing and investing money. Being financially literate empowers people to plan and manage their money in line with their individual or family goals.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, about half of the adult population of the EU does not have a good enough understanding of basic financial concepts to be considered financially literate [1]. Given the potential complexity of financial products, this lack of understanding can lead to poor decision-making, or even no decisions being made at all.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For many people, financial literacy is learned informally from family, friends, books, the media, or online sources. Beyond this, busy working professionals often employ a wealth manager, delegating the details of managing their wealth to the experts. But even with the support of a trusted adviser, many will still struggle to feel fully confident in financial conversations, never mind in making financial decisions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Financial Literacy cannot be outsourced.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Working with a wealth manager can give clients peace of mind, but it is not a substitute for developing financial literacy. Having a basic understanding of principles of investment risk, cashflow management, asset liquidity, and inheritance rules can lead to better outcomes. The client does not have to be an expert themselves, however if they understand the rationale behind their adviser’s recommendations, they are empowered to make decisions with the confidence that aligns with their values and long-term goals.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Confidence, or Over-confidence?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Most young people think it is important to talk about money, a change from previous generations when talking about finance was seen as impolite!&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A recent RED C survey commissioned by Unio Wealth Management for our Building Wealth Report shows that Irish people are divided on the concept of wealth, with an equal number of respondents feeling comfortable with the term as those who feel uncomfortable. Interestingly, 40% approx. of respondents in the 18-34 cohort expressed comfort with the notion of wealth.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But the next generation face their own issues when it comes to financial literacy, as this openness to discuss wealth doesn’t always translate to sound decision-making.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Many young people are learning about money via social media, and this can lead to the development of over-confidence in their own knowledge and decision-making ability. The impact of risk on reward may be under-stated by influencers focusing on single stocks, or niche investments.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Supporting the next generation to build their knowledge will enable them to understand that financial products and investment return are a tool to achieve their goals – not a goal in and of themselves [2].&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Leaving a legacy that is more than just financial.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Many parents may actively avoid discussing money with their children. Often this is driven by a desire to protect the children and ensure they are motivated to study and work hard at their own, independent careers.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But by shielding children from financial realities, they risk leaving them unprepared and unequipped to manage significant assets when the time comes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A legacy can be more than money. It can also encompass the values, habits, and attitude towards finance that parents develop over their lifetime and pass on to their children. Without a shared understanding of how wealth is earned, managed, and preserved, even the best financial strategies can unravel within a generation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How to build financial literacy – for both you, and your family&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For you:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Building personal financial literacy can start with the simple act of being curious and asking questions. When your adviser recommends a particular course of action, invest time in understanding the rationale. Over time, these conversations build financial confidence and enable deeper, more meaningful engagement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Your adviser may also share educational content, such as webinars or insights. Actively engaging with these materials - especially those most relevant to your situation - can expand your knowledge in areas you may not have considered before, such as estate planning, retirement, or philanthropic giving.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Know your own knowledge limitations; be honest about when you don’t understand something and be comfortable to ask questions and seek advice from professionals.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;For your family:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Having age-appropriate discussions with your children can develop financial literacy from an early age. These conversations could start out as simple discussions over whether to spend or save pocket money this week. Teaching moments can also arise naturally in day-to-day life. For example, if there is a big purchase happening like a new car, or a home renovation, there may be an opportunity to talk through the costs of borrowing compared to saving to fund the purchase.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to a Red C sentiment survey commissioned by Unio Wealth Management as part of its recent &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/passing-it-on-how-irish-families-are-rethinking-wealth-transfer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Unio Building Wealth Report 2025&lt;/a&gt; younger generations (18-34) generally appear more comfortable with the idea of wealth and curious to receive advice on it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the children grow, you can involve your adviser in this process of financial education. Parents will often use the Small Gift Exemption to gift up to €6,000 p.a. to a child in a tax-efficient manner. The child can usually access these funds from the age of eighteen, making this a suitable time to educate them about how to manage wealth and financial resources in a safe environment.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For families with significant wealth, more formal structures such as family partnerships- can provide oversight and protection of assets well beyond age 18, while gradually introducing children to the responsibilities of managing wealth.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In short&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Financial literacy starts with not being afraid to talk about finance and what your goals for your money are, while knowing the limits of your own knowledge. Beyond this, financial literacy means having in-depth conversations with your adviser, and your children. The wealth you have built up over the course of your lifetime is too important to leave to chance.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Leave your family with both wealth and the ability to manage that wealth wisely.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yvonne Clinton, CFP® is a financial planner in Unio Wealth Management’s Financial Planning Team and has a wealth of experience in advising high net worth individuals and families on how they can achieve their goals.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Talk to us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio is a wealth management firm built around our clients with a strong focus on personal service, trusted advice and access to our experienced investment team. We work closely with individuals, families and businesses to create long-term, strategic financial plans to help meet your goals by guarding, guiding and growing your wealth.&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Get in touch.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Further Reading&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/passing-it-on-how-irish-families-are-rethinking-wealth-transfer&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Passing It On: How Families Are Rethinking Wealth Transfer | Unio News &amp; Insights&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/the-unio-building-wealth-report&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Unio Building Wealth Report | Unio News &amp; Insights&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://finance.ec.europa.eu/consumer-finance-and-payments/financial-literacy_en&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;European Commission, Financial Literacy in Europe&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.mabs.ie/en/news/money-attitudes-and-behaviours-of-young-people-living-in-ireland/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;MABS, 2023 Money Attitudes and Behaviours of Young People Living in Ireland &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;

Financial Literacy Across the Generations

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;There should be a rule in financial markets that, at some stage, a financial product or strategy will do the opposite of what its name suggests – we might call it the ‘inverse Ronseal hypothesis’ (Ronseal paint is famous for promising that ‘it does what it says on the tin’). In this sense, think of how the ‘risk free’ assets of the textbooks perform under inflation, how ‘low volatility’ structured products blew up spectacularly and how in the 1980’s America’s Savings and Loan banks went bust, because they failed to save and lend properly.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Into this realm steps the ‘stablecoin’, an asset that is growing speedily and that is forecast to become the solution to many problems – the US national debt, a sluggish and conservative banking system and the impoverishment of emerging economies.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;A neat way to think of stablecoins is to first consider the gold standard – money backed by physical holdings of gold – and then conceive of them as a digital coin (token or ‘betting chip’) that is backed by a well-established, reputable asset (increasingly, US Treasuries).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The idea is that because they are backed by a stable financial asset, the value of the stablecoin should not fluctuate and should therefore form the basis for transfers of money and value. Yet, some stablecoins are not fully backed by Treasuries and others are backed by crypto ‘money’, which quite obviously renders them less than stable. Bear in mind that a crypto coin called ‘FartCoin’ is inexplicably worth USD 1.4 bn, which is a lot of comedy value compared to zero intrinsic value.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In the past year, the use of stablecoins has surged, notably so in the case of those backed by Treasuries.&nbsp;Stablecoins are now the 18th&nbsp;largest holder of Treasuries (with USD 150bn) just after Norway, India and Brazil.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The vast majority of stablecoins are used in crypto trading, but the potential they hold to revolutionise the payments industry is startling. Payments by stablecoin are nearly instantaneous (as opposed to having to wait 1-5 days with banking systems), carry a very low transaction charge and should make payments across borders easier. Indeed, the volume of stablecoin transactions is creeping close to the activity that the major credit card firms – Visa and MasterCard generate (Visa has its own crypto/stablecoin division).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Consistent with the instinct that is prevalent in markets and politics to see all new things as solutions to old problems, stablecoins are being promoted as a new source of demand for Treasuries, and therefore a new channel through which the US national debt can be nourished.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This is a dangerous idea, because whilst stablecoins are a digital join between the old financial world (Treasuries) and the new (‘defi’ or decentralised finance), their growth may set in train a situation where the tail starts to wag the dog. What I mean by this is that even though an individual stable coin, backed 100% by Treasuries is stable, the infrastructure and the people behind the stablecoin network, and the crypto world, may not themselves be stable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;There are several risks.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;One relates to Gresham’s Law, which stated that ‘bad money, will drive out the good’. In the same way that 16th&nbsp;century bankers and traders had an incentive to use coins (which all had the same face value) with some lower quality metal. Equally, certain stablecoin providers will have an incentive to only partially back coins with reliable assets or to misreport the extent to which coins are backed by ‘good assets’, and in the event – a recession or financial crisis – that these assets are ‘called’, there could very easily be a bank run style collapse in a few stablecoins, with contagion across the field.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;As such, the large stablecoin providers may submit themselves to central bank regulation, to ensure that there is hard evidence that coins are backed by stable assets – but the quid pro quo of this (that they surrender details of the people using stablecoins) may be unpalatable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;It is also worth recalling that over the past five years, there have been a range of scandals in the crypto world, and many crypto exchanges have collapsed or been shut down by regulators. To that end there is a counterparty risk inherent in the stablecoin system. Also, the loss or theft of wallets and keys to crypto assets makes the stablecoin system highly vulnerable, at a time when financial institutions are investing even more in security.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;From a macro pint of view, it is more likely that stablecoins effectively digitise the grey and black economies (so that there is no net financial or economic effect) or that they have very strong appeal in emerging economies with poor financial infrastructure. If that is the case, the economic effect will be to draw capital out of emerging market economies, enfeebling them (and their currencies and bond markets). Tether is very popular in Turkey, whose financial system has been significantly weakened by the current government, whose autocratic style incentivises business to transact ‘outside’ the existing economic system.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The other major risk is that the obvious attractions of stablecoins as cheap and speedy means of switching money, implies an undercutting of the profitability of banks and payment companies, especially if savers can start to earn yield (technically called a ‘reward’) on stablecoins. The incumbent financial system will not like this, and whilst the larger financial institutions will likely adapt to them, many smaller ones will suffer. From a regulatory point of view, a weaker banking system is unwelcome, and the very fact that fewer dollars are taken ‘out of sight’ of regulators is not good either. There are already a number of regulatory frameworks for stablecoins, ‘MICA’ in Europe and the Genius Act in the US for instance.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In these ways, stablecoins can make financial systems more volatile, and of diminished quality, and higher volatility, unless they are brought under the wing of regulators (which is anathema to most in the crypto world) or adopted by the large, incumbent financial institutions. Reflecting this, researchers at the ECB&lt;a href=&quot;https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#m_4302503896746559954__ftn1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;[1]&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;found that in periods where crypto assets (i.e. Bitcoin) were volatile, stablecoins exhibited volatility that was not evident in the assets used to back them (Treasuries).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;From a geopolitical, or geo-economic point of view, the spread of stablecoins that are backed by safe dollar-based assets (Treasuries) is at least a means of spreading dollarization to grey and emerging economies. The question for central banks like the ECB is how best to approach stablecoins.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;My sense is that there are two avenues to follow. The first is to encourage financial institutions, corporates and banks to develop stablecoins, in a way that permits later adoption of a digital euro. The other is to push a euro-stablecoin into Russia, Belarus, the 'Stans' and generally the former USSR countries not in or wanting to get into the EU to deprive the 'rouble' zone if we can put it that way, of money that flows through its large grey economy.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Stable Genius

&lt;p&gt;We are delighted to share that Unio Wealth Management and Unio Employee Benefits have been shortlisted in the following four categories of the 2025 Irish Pensions Awards:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Pensions Consultancy of the Year&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Pension Scheme Administrator of the Year&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Communication Award&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Wealth Management Award&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our great teams. A sincere thank you to our clients, partners, and colleagues, we couldn’t have achieved this without you.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Congratulations to our fellow nominees and we look forward to celebrating the best of our industry at the awards in November.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Check out the full list: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.europeanpensions.net/irishawards/shortlist25.php&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Irish Pensions Awards 2025 Shortlist&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Irish Pensions Awards &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now in their 14th year, the Irish Pensions Awards - organised by European Pensions -&nbsp;provide recognition to those pension funds, pension providers, advisers and pension professionals who strive to maintain the highest standards of excellence and professionalism in everything they do, despite the challenging economic and political landscape they find themselves operating in. The awards will take place 4 November 2025 at The Round Room, The Mansion House, Dublin.&lt;/p&gt;

Irish Pension Awards

&lt;p&gt;In ancient Greece, the ‘Titanomachy’ was a battle between the Olympian gods (like Zeus) and the older gods, the Titans. Once victorious, Zeus condemned his vanquished opponents, notably Atlas, who was forced to carry the burden of the heavens, for eternity.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Though it is a stretch of the comparison that classical scholars should not forgive, when thinking of Atlas’ feat of endurance, I have central banks in mind, and in particular of the Federal Reserve, which has especially in the past fifty years borne the weight of investor expectations and the hopes of politicians. The importance of the Fed cannot be underestimated – academics have shown that returns, volatility, and trading volumes are higher than average around the Federal Open Markets Committee meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Fed has been at the epicentre of every financial crisis rescue effort through the globalization era – from the Asian, Russia and LTCM crises, to the global financial crisis where the intellectual burden of finding a way of mending markets was shouldered by Ben Bernanke, to the recent responsiveness of the institution during COVID. If anything, the Fed has been guilty of doing too much in recent years, and the consequences of its long deployment of quantitative easing are still becoming evident.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On one hand, the large central banks, led by the Fed, are the glue that has kept the political economic peace throughout this thirty- or so-year period, but on the other, this peace has permitted the accumulation of huge amounts of debt, and has shielded politicians from the fiscal consequences of their actions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now, the independence of the Fed is about to be sacrificed, as the president appoints Stephen Miran to replace Adriana Kugler who is stepping down, and a prospective chair to replace Jerome Powell who is due to step down in a year’s time as head of the Fed. The unwritten assumption is that, like never before, the Fed’s rate setting committee will sway to the mood of the White House. Miran's appointment is a sure sign of this.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is problematic at many levels. The suite of policies enacted by the president – from deportation to tariffs – means that the US economy is now suffering from stagflation (sticky inflation and low growth). Strip away the blinding effect of wild investment in AI and corporate America looks like corporate Europe.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Stagflation is difficult for investors and central banks to navigate, and markets are pricing out rate cuts from this Fed. Indeed, this is a very strange rate cycle. Historically, the Fed leads rate cutting cycles and other central banks follow, but the Bank of England, ECB, Royal Bank of Canada, and other smaller central banks like the SNB, have been hacking away at rates whilst the Fed has not moved this year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the long-term, the potential politicisation of the Fed will augment uncertainty. There is already talk in central banking circles that in the event of a financial crisis, the politicised Fed may not be willing to open swap lines with other central banks, which if it occurred would deepen the economic effects of any crisis. Swap lines across the international financial system have been staples of past rescues, and articles of faith for scholars of monetary systems like Charles Kindleberger.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In such a context, the Fed’s job as lender to (US) banks might also become more complex and ineffective if the large banks were to behave in the same way that the technology companies are now doing (Apple looks to have escaped tariffs by presenting a gift to the president in the White House and promising to invest USD 600bn in the US – it currently invests about USD 43bn). So, in a financial crisis, a large American bank could offer a large loan to the Trump family to extend the Mar-a-Lago resort, if the president sanctioned its main national and international rivals (cynics will ask whether something similar happened in 2009).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My hunch is that beyond the thrill of lower interest rates (which will likely raise inflation and long-term bond yields), the vision that Trump has in mind for the Fed is something along the lines of the Bank of Japan, which in the past ten years has effectively swallowed the Japanese bond market (the BoJ owns just over 50% of the Japanese bond market). Having the Fed as a monetary hoover to keep bond yields stable will help to dampen some of the risks of indebtedness but will store up greater risks for later.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The appointment of a ‘yes-man’ at the head of the Fed (Kevin Hassett fits this role much more than the other leading candidate Kevin Warsh), will likely spur resistance within the institution, and across the regional Fed banks whose presidents help to make up the rate setting committee. Not only will Fed employees – who are devoted to the institution – worry for their jobs (witness the hollowing out of the Bureau for Labour Statistics), but they will be concerned that the entire macro-landscape is being undermined – by weaker institutions, unreliable data, crypto and other ‘new’ money experiments, the acceptance of corruption and more volatile assets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The ultimate objective of ‘politicising’ the Fed, if that is what is at stake, is to make sure that the next crisis doesn’t happen on Donald Trump’s watch. The risk is that when that crisis does happen, the Fed will be part of the problem rather than the solution.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Atlas Shrugging

&lt;p&gt;Tax relief is available on personal contributions made to pension plans, making them an incredibly efficient way of reducing your taxable income. The amount of net relevant earnings/remuneration on which tax relief can be claimed is &lt;strong&gt;€115,000.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The maximum contribution rate (including both AVCs (Additional Voluntary Contributions) and ordinary personal contributions) on which you can receive income Tax relief is determined by your age as follows:&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table border=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;border: none; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;
 &lt;tbody&gt;
  &lt;tr&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Age&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Maximum Contribution&lt;span style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;% of Taxable Earnings&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.3pt; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Maximum Contribution in 2025&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;tr&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;30&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;15%&lt;span style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.3pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;€17,250&lt;span style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;tr&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;30 to 39 years&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;20%&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.3pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;€23,000&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;tr&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;40 to 49 years&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;25%&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.3pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;€28,750&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;tr&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;50 to 54 years&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;30%&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.3pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;€34,500&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;tr&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;55 to 59 years&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;35%&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.3pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;€40,250&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;tr&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;60 years or over&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.25pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;40%&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;td colspan=&quot;1&quot; rowspan=&quot;1&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; style=&quot;width: 150.3pt; border-top: none; border-left: none; border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot; style=&quot;margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;€46,000&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;/tr&gt;
 &lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These limits apply only to personal pension contributions. Employer pension contributions can be paid in addition to further enhance your overall retirement funding.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Have you taken advantage of full tax relief for 2024?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you have not yet used the full income tax relief available for the 2024 tax year, you can do so by making an AVCs by 31st October 2025 (or 14th November 2025 if you make an online tax return) and claiming income tax relief directly from Revenue.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Please note that Revenue requires that when you make your tax submissions online, you need to upload a copy of their pension certificate to move through the online application process. Please take this into account when sending AVCs near the online assessment deadline date (14th November 2025) and allow time for the pension certificate to be issued by your pension provider.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we want you to plan for the retirement you deserve. Pensions, along with their rules and regulations are ever-changing. To ensure that you can make the most of your wealth, and to explore the best solutions for your circumstances, talk to your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;get in touch&lt;/a&gt;.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Are you maximising your pension contributions?

&lt;p&gt;This month's Global Macro Council Meeting focused on how investment portfolios balance risk and return using assets like stocks and bonds. Stocks have historically outpaced inflation but may deliver lower returns going forward due to high valuations. The key takeaway: portfolios need to adapt as markets and inflation trends evolve.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Read this month's GMC Outlook below&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Unio-GMC-Outlook-July-2025.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;or download the report here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Understanding Portfolio Design &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have you ever wondered how your portfolio is composed? Why for example an investor with a risk-taking profile has mostly equities and corporate bonds, and why on a strategic basis investors are increasingly hedging their dollar exposure? Portfolios are built by combining assets that offer the best mix of return and risk, given a particular risk profile. The tricky part is trying to get a sense of what those returns and risks might look like in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Learning from the past&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;History can help here. Academics Paul Marsh, Mike Staunton and Elroy Dimson, authors of ‘Triumph of the Optimists’, produce a 125-year dataset of bond and equity returns across 35 countries, and find that since the start of 2000, stock returns have been lower than over the 20th century (largely due to the impact of the financial crisis), though global equity investors still enjoyed an annualized real return of 3.5% over inflation and a rewarding equity risk premium relative to US treasury bills of 4.3%. You also want to be rewarded for the level of risk you take on across a portfolio of assets. Within a multi asset portfolio an important aspect here is what risk premium is attached to a particular asset.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Looking ahead&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While historic returns offer a good benchmark, the profile of market behaviour may well be quite different into the future, notably so in a world where geopolitical and trade relationships are changing quite dramatically. In that context, investors rely on a process called capital market assumptions (CMA) that involves making long-term forecasts (five ten years and beyond) of asset returns. These forecasts are driven by a number of fundamentals – the progression of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and earnings, interest rates and inflation. The aim here is to try to capture trend growth and trend inflation rather than time the ups and downs of the business cycle. This subject formed the central theme to our most recent Global Macro Council.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Evolving asset class dynamics and return expectations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Understanding the interplay or correlation between asset classes from phenomena like inflation is a key input in developing an investment portfolio, and it does evolve. For instance, a period of moderate inflation like we saw across 2000-2019 tends to point equities and sovereign bonds having a more stable relationship, whereas periods of more elevated inflation like 1980-2000 tends to point more volatile relationships between both asset classes. Valuations are another important consideration. On this front, valuations for many bond markets are not onerous – especially if inflation is contained in the medium-term.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Stock market valuations are very high – we note that long term valuation measures such as the price to long-run earnings ratio (often called the Shiller PE) is close to historic highs. While markets can continue to trade at high valuation levels for some time, the effect of this in a long-term forecasting context is that equity returns will be somewhat lower than recent averages. Indeed, in the Unio capital market assumptions template, the forecasted 10-year return for US equities is 5.5%, which has been downgraded by nearly 1% in recent quarters as markets have risen. Based on this output we would expect European and emerging market equities to outperform the US in the long-run. In addition, our expectation is that European sovereign bonds return an average of 2.7% per annum, with corporate bonds enjoying a slightly higher return. In an evolving landscape, investment portfolios need to be guided through different economic cycles as the outlook for asset classes evolves. Outside of tactical short-term changes, this includes considerations for flexing long strategic asset allocations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&nbsp;get in touch here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Into the Future

&lt;p&gt;James Thurber’s famous book ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ is yet another book I would recommend to readers, to continue a recurring theme of recent weeks. It is especially apt in the context of the US-EU trade deal.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Walter Mitty appeared at the end of the 1930’s, a decade that was shaped by Herbert Hoover’s tariff policy, and that was marked by profound economic and geopolitical tensions. Mitty’s fantasies were provoked by the reality of his pedestrian, harangued life – which will appeal to European leaders who care to dream of better days. Equally, the giddiness of Mitty’s fantasies has its equivalent&nbsp;in&nbsp;the promises that Donald Trump has elicited from the EU – namely, to buy and invest hundreds of billions of dollars in energy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One week on, reaction to the US-EU trade deal is still mixed, and it is not quite clear who has ‘won’. This may be because it is not a trade deal in the classical sense – at least in the sense of the laborious trade deals that the EU is used to striking, partly because a large facet of the ‘deal’ is based on a promise and also because the optics of the deal are quite depressing for Europe.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At the headline level, EU exports into the US will be met with a 15% tariff to be paid by the US consumer, not unlike the Japanese ‘deal’. Auto companies will not be displeased with a 15% tariff. Wines and spirits, steel and notably pharmaceuticals have yet to have tariff levels finalised and there will be some relief on the confirmation of 15% tariffs on pharmaceuticals, though the investigation into pharmaceutical exports back to the US is a tail risk. Interestingly, the EU has resisted attempts to water down its digital regulations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Politically the spin that the EU is putting on the agreement is that it was the best possible outcome in a difficult geopolitical climate (recall that the recent EU-China summit was a damp-squib). While there were some public expressions of dismay, notably from the French prime minister Francois Bayrou – these can be seen to be largely aimed at the public, rather than Brussels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Though Ursula von der Leyen is unpopular with EU governments for the singular way she runs her office – it is populated with officials who are close to national government (i.e.&nbsp;Alexandre Adam one of von der Leyen’s key deputies is an arch Macronist) – there is no sense that the large countries were left out of the negotiation process, and any effort to isolate von der Leyen for blame, is ignoble.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, amongst the professional trade staff, there is still some despair at the humiliating optics of the deal, the fact that it is in many ways not binding, and the risk that there is no undertaking that it is final in the sense that another round of tariffs could be imposed later.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On the positive side for Europe, and flipping to the ‘Mitty-esque’ part of the deal, two of the key undertakings in the deal – that European companies invest USD 600 bn in the US, in addition to a commitment to purchase microchips, as well as a commitment from the EU to buy USD 750bn in energy from the US over the course of the Trump presidency – are not at all clear in their implementation, and very much open to a fudge, with the right accounting treatment. In particular, the energy purchase commitment is unrealistic because it exceeds what the EU spends on energy in a given year and US energy firms do not have the capacity to service a commitment of USD 250bn in demand from Europe, whilst also serving other markets.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In my view there are several aftershocks to watch for. The first is that the deal further damages trans-Atlantic relations, and the level of trust between the EU and the US is likely the lowest it has ever been, and this has strategic implications as far afield as Russia/Ukraine and the Middle East. One other implication may be a drift, by government and consumers, away from US brands – as this may well be an effect that is seen in other regions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Two financial market implications are that the dampening of growth in Europe will maintain downward pressure on rates in Europe. More importantly, in the context of a very oversold dollar, there is now an incentive for EU policy makers to try hard to talk down the euro, and we may see a short-term rebound in the currency pair.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On the whole, if this is a ‘final’ deal and the topic of tariffs does not re-emerge in the next three years, it is not a bad deal for the semi’s, autos and aerospace sectors in Europe, though the public optics are not good for the EU. The best parts of the deal for Europe are the fantastical claims of incoming European investment and energy purchases in the US. This is a Mitty style fairy tale that the Europeans hope Mr Trump believes in.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The telling factor is that this deal has now emptied all goodwill from the trans-Atlantic relationship, and effectively completes another diplomatic rupture by President Trump.&nbsp;&nbsp;From a European point of view, this is yet another ‘wakeup call’ and the best that can be hoped for is that it accelerates projects like the savings and investment union and ‘strategic autonomy’.&nbsp;European leaders and the European policy elite keep talking about this, but until we see hard evidence (for example, German real GDP over the last five years is close to zero), they are the fantasists.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Secret Lives

&lt;p&gt;Although I devoted last week’s note to book recommendations, I want to start this week’s missive by also highlighting a few classic works, notably Charles Dickens’ ‘Little Dorrit' and Honoré de Balzac’s ‘Lost Illusions’ and ‘Pére Goriot’. All three books, published in the middle of the 19th century, in the shadow of the debt burdens that resulted from the Napoleonic Wars, speak to the pernicious aspects of debt – debtors’ prisons, debt collection and the surrender of properties caused by over-indebtedness.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They have come to mind because markets are beginning to price in a potentially very dramatic change in fortunes – which, if it occurs, will be historic and far reaching. There are at least three noteworthy elements to this.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first is that the difference between interest rates for companies, relative to ‘safe’ government bonds, have fallen to historic lows. In more technical terms, corporate bond spreads (corporate yields less the US 10-year bond yield for example) and spreads for riskier high yield bonds in the US, are now well below long-term average levels. While this is a function of strong risk appetite and demand for fixed income, it is also a recognition by markets that debt levels for corporations (on average) are at very manageable levels, while those for governments are not.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Second, the spread between emerging market debt (countries and companies) and Treasuries has also compressed, to multi-decade lows. Again, this is an indication of appetite for yield from investors, but also a re-evaluation of the riskiness of emerging market debt (compared to countries like the US). Emerging markets collectively (China skews the data) have a debt to GDP ratio of 75% according to the April edition of the IMF Fiscal Monitor, which is the highest it has ever been.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The only saving grace is that emerging economies have lower debt levels than the developed world, though the threshold to debt sustainability is much lower for emerging economies (less deep markets, harder to gather taxes). What is more interesting is that within the emerging markets universe there is a decent number of large emerging economies that have relatively low levels of debt – Indonesia and Mexico for example.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then third, rising stock markets and property markets, not to mention business creation, have created massive wealth. Remarkably, world wealth stands at over USD 500 trn, with nearly half of this in the USA where the wealth of the average adult is USD 620,000, according to the recent UBS wealth report. The USA is also home to about 60% of the world’s ultra-high net worth individuals, those with net wealth of over USD 50 mn. Surpassing this group, there are close to 3,000 individuals globally with wealth between USD 1bn and USD 50bn (collectively they are worth nearly USD 13 trn).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The point of sketching out varying levels of debt and wealth is that in the next five or more years, there will be a seismic transfer of power, influence and wealth between those who have ‘healthy’ balance sheets, and those who are encumbered with debt…as Dickens and Balzac have so skillfully demonstrated.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To give a few examples. The UK is notoriously fiscally constrained and cannot alone raise the capital to fund its ambitious AI Opportunity plan. As such, it will likely enter in partnerships with sovereign wealth type investment funds (Caisse des Dêpots, the Canadian fund, has just announced a CA$ 3.5bn investment in a nuclear energy plant in Suffolk).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The same is true in the US. In a recent research note, Morgan Stanley estimates that the US will need to invest USD 3.5 trillion in AI infrastructure up to 2028 (new energy sources and data centres), and that at least half of that capital will come from the large technology firms in the US. In the context of America’s fiscal constraints, cash rich technology firms will become more powerful, and critical to national&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If the US has a debt crisis, and Treasury yields balloon out beyond 8%, an easy political remedy would be to co-opt (under threat of a punitive wealth tax) America’s wealthy to buy government debt. Equally, sovereign wealth funds of low debt countries like Norway, will have a unique opportunity to buy strategic assets across Europe in the event of a debt crunch.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My prediction is that France, the UK and perhaps the US will spend the next fifteen years in the ‘Debtor’s Prison’, while lower debt countries like Germany, Poland and the Netherlands and Norway will enjoy a strategic opportunity. In a world where democracy is under pressure, and in some cases, inequality is rising, large cash rich companies will control more strategic assets, and the wealthy will find that governments need to court them rather than tax them.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The one country where this may not be the case is China, which is vastly indebted. Having studied the way some European economies become heavily indebted in the aftermath of the euro-zone crisis, the Communist party will throw entrepreneurs, the wealthy and corporates into the Debtors Prison, and let them pay their way out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

The Debtor's Prison

&lt;p&gt;Last year’s Unio summer book list proved a great success with readers so, with the holiday season approaching, we are putting together a new set of recommendations – along three criteria – books on finance, books that help us to understand the changing world and to take readers minds off this changing world, enjoyable fiction.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To start with finance and economics, Ireland is unusual internationally in terms of its budget surplus, other countries are in a much tougher place. In particular, Britain’s Chancellor Rachel Reeves has had a difficult year, granted the backdrop of a high deficit and heavy debt burden. It is a difficult job, as evidenced by Reggie Maudling’s letter to his successor in 1964 ‘Sorry to leave it in such a mess, old cock’. In this respect, Roy Jenkins book &lt;strong&gt;‘The Chancellors’&lt;/strong&gt; is worth dusting off, and few other books by finance ministers are as analytical (Tim Geithner’s &lt;strong&gt;‘Stress Test’&lt;/strong&gt; and Ben Bernanke’s ‘&lt;strong&gt;Courage to Act’&lt;/strong&gt; were fairly dull). However, the other book in this realm that I recommend, with Fed chief Jerome Powell under pressure from the White House, is Liaquat Ahmed’s &lt;strong&gt;‘Lords of Finance’&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With some markets creaking nervously (bonds) and others behaving complacently (equities), it is time to re-read Roger Lowenstein’s &lt;strong&gt;‘When Genius Failed’&lt;/strong&gt; the story of the collapse of the LTCM hedge fund. I recall a seminar where David Modest, a partner in LTCM recounted, with some emotion how it came asunder. Another classic, from before the LTCM era, but that is relevant to private assets, is &lt;strong&gt;‘Barbarians at the Gate’&lt;/strong&gt; by Bryan Burroughs and John Helyar.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then, if the summer weather is too hot, it’s always good to have a few trophy books lying around, that will certainly never be read but nonetheless confer an aura of wisdom on their owners, such as &lt;strong&gt;‘A History of Interest Rates’&lt;/strong&gt; by Sydney Homer and Richard Sylla.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Moving on to books that will help steer readers through intense geopolitical change, I want to start with the late Joe Nye’s &lt;strong&gt;‘Soft Power’&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;‘Life in the American Century’&lt;/strong&gt;, which give a now nostalgic glimpse of a more internationalist America. Two pre-occupations in Washington are defence, and wealth. On the former, Alex Karp’s &lt;strong&gt;‘Tech Republic’&lt;/strong&gt; was more thoughtful than I had expected, and the two futuristic books on the defence threats that the US faces, by Admiral Jim Stavridis and Elliott Ackermann &lt;strong&gt;‘2034’&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;‘2054’&lt;/strong&gt;, give us a sense of how conflicts of the future will be fought, even if these books are being overtaken by events.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then, with the recent Trump budget (Big, Beautiful Bill) set to tilt the economic scales in favour of the wealthy, Evan Osnos’ book &lt;strong&gt;‘The Haves and Have-Yachts’&lt;/strong&gt; is worth a read, as are Oliver Bullough’s books &lt;strong&gt;‘MoneyLand’&lt;/strong&gt; and &lt;strong&gt;‘Butler to the World’&lt;/strong&gt; on the topic of wealth and corruption.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Universities have been in the news this year, and ironically, there are very few good books about university life. In a previous note I had recommended Tom Sharpe’s &lt;strong&gt;‘Porterhouse Blue’&lt;/strong&gt;, and would add &lt;strong&gt;‘Lucky Jim’ &lt;/strong&gt;by Kingsley Amis, &lt;strong&gt;‘Changing Places’&lt;/strong&gt; by David Lodge and for fans of university sports, the classic &lt;strong&gt;‘True Blue’ &lt;/strong&gt;by Dan Topolski.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Switching continents and genre to fiction, a few works of fiction are worth reading to help shape our view of Russia (and Ukraine), most notably Vasily Grossman’s &lt;strong&gt;‘Everything Flows’&lt;/strong&gt; and Mikhail Bulgakov’s&lt;strong&gt; ‘White Guard’&lt;/strong&gt;, and then more generally Pushkin’s&lt;strong&gt; Eugene Onegin&lt;/strong&gt; (decent as an audio-book on a long journey).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For well written fiction, I think William Boyd’s writing is superb (his latest book is &lt;strong&gt;Gabriel’s Moon&lt;/strong&gt;), '&lt;strong&gt;Shuggie Bain'&lt;/strong&gt; by Douglas Stuart is an example of very original, inventive use of English, and for those readers who can’t escape finance, Lionel Shriver’s &lt;strong&gt;‘The Mandibles’&lt;/strong&gt; gives a glimpse of how it might be to live in a financially broken world. Sentimentally, I wanted to also mention Edna O’Brien, who died this time last year – have a read of &lt;strong&gt;‘Country Girls’&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a last word, I am taking a collection of very different books with me this summer – a friend has kindly given me a copy of Ed Luce’s &lt;strong&gt;‘Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski’&lt;/strong&gt;, which I look forward to not only for colour on one of America’s great strategists, but I expect for Luce’s generally excellent writing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I would also like to read &lt;strong&gt;‘Kingmaker’&lt;/strong&gt;, Sonia Purnell’s account of the life of Pamela Harriman, former US ambassador to Paris, amongst many other roles. In addition, in a world of ‘deal-making’ I am packing the ancient, François de Caillière’ ‘&lt;strong&gt;L’Art de négocier sous Louis XIV’&lt;/strong&gt; and the &lt;strong&gt;‘Letters of JRR Tolkien’&lt;/strong&gt;.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Happy reading and have a great week ahead!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Unio's Summer Book List

&lt;p&gt;In this article, Yvonne Clinton explores some of the most common scenarios of intergenerational wealth transfer highlighting how partnering with a financial planner can help families navigate these moments more strategically and transfer wealth more efficiently. A 6-minute read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Attitudes to wealth within Irish families has changed. Some of us may remember times when talking about money was a taboo, an unforgivable sin. As long as the bills were paid and the family fed and watered, no more questions were asked. Children certainly didn’t enquire as to what inheritance they might receive! However, it’s clear that this attitude is changing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ireland has become wealthier, with net wealth per adult increasing from €140,000 in 2013 to €323,000 in 2025[1].&nbsp;And with Irish parents finding they have accumulated more money than they will need in their lifetime, they have started to pass this wealth on to the next generation. In fact, more than one in three Irish households have received an inheritance or a substantial gift[2]. This reflects the changing attitudes - rather than deferring inheritance until after death, many parents now prefer to transfer wealth during their lifetime, when it may offer greater benefit to their children.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tax Considerations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A key consideration in transferring wealth is tax. The main taxes that can arise are Capital Acquisitions Tax (CAT) and Capital Gains Tax (CGT).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;CAT is charged a person receiving assets as a gift or inheritance. A certain amount of transfer is tax-free, within lifetime thresholds which depend on your relationship with the person who made the gift or left the inheritance. Anything in excess of this amount is taxed at a rate of 33%.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;CGT is charged at a rate of 33% on the gains made on an asset. Typically, people encounter CGT when they sell an asset like an investment property, a business, or shares, and they pay the CGT liability from the proceeds received from the sale. However, giving someone an asset also is a chargeable event for CGT. For example, if a parent gives a child an asset with a gain on it, they must pay the CGT liability as if they had sold the asset. Consideration needs to be given as to where the funds to pay the tax will come from, as the parents have not received any cash from transferring the asset like they would under a sale.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Lump Sum Gift&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The most common transfer of wealth, a lump sum, is often given by parents to their children to help them buy a house, particularly in the current property market where prices are rising out of the reach of a typical individual or couple. This is reflected in the fact that homeowners are twice as likely to have received a gift or inheritance, compared to renters.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Parents can be very generous in handing over a lump sum at a time when their children need it, however planning ahead and splitting the gift into several smaller gifts of €6,000 per annum would be more efficient. This is because the first €3,000 of gifts received from an individual each year do not count towards the lifetime threshold under what is known as the Small Gift Exemption.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Let’s put some numbers into an example. With two parents, that’s €6,000 per annum per child (€3,000 from each parent). Over a five-year period, the child could receive €30,000 tax-free and keep their full lifetime threshold intact. If the parents were to give them €30,000 in a single year, the first €6,000 would be tax-free under the Small Gift Exemption, but the balance of €24,000 would consume some of the child’s lifetime threshold from their parents of €400,000. For parents looking to give more substantial funds in a shorter period, they could consider extending the Small Gift Exemption to their child’s spouse or partner – there is no requirement for it to be a blood relative!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Family Business&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In Ireland, almost two thirds of all firms are family businesses[3]. It can take a lifetime of work for a business owner to build up their enterprise, and it can be a very proud moment when it gets passed on to the next generation.&nbsp;The next generation is keen to get involved with these businesses, with almost half seriously considering taking over from their parents one day[3].&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The capital gains embedded in the business may act as a barrier to the parents handing over ownership. However, there are two main reliefs available that can reduce or even eliminate CGT due on the transfer – Retirement Relief and Entrepreneur Relief. Furthermore, Business Asset Relief is available to reduce the child’s exposure to CAT by reducing the taxable value of the business by 90%.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;For instance, take a family business worth €1m, all of which is a capital gain as the parents built the business from scratch. Now, the parents could have that capital gain completely relieved by Retirement Relief, removing one barrier. However, the child has received €1m of a “gift”, and their maximum lifetime threshold from parents is only €400,000 – so they are liable to CAT on €600,000 of a gift. However, with Business Asset Relief, the taxable value of the gift could be reduced to just €100,000 – well within the child’s tax-free threshold!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Qualification for all these reliefs can be complex, so it’s good to get planning for a business transfer well in advance, by consulting with a tax adviser and having clear conversations with all family members, to ensure the transfer to the next generation is as smooth and as efficient as possible.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Family Farm&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The family farm is an asset people are highly attached to. Its preservation and passage to the next generation is a time-honoured tradition in many families, although actual discussion and planning for this transfer is not always at the forefront of farmers’ minds. This is reflected in the fact that, traditionally, farms transferred on death, rather than in the farmer’s lifetime. Less than half of farm owners have a succession plan in place – but of those who do, almost all of them will be transferring the farm to a family member[4].&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Transfer during the farmer’s lifetime can expose the farmer to CGT, although they may be able to avail of the reliefs available to business owners, as outlined above.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Furthermore, a similar relief from CAT exists for the next generation who receive the farm, called Agricultural Relief. Conditions are strict, so early planning is essential. If they do not qualify for it, Business Asset Relief can be claimed instead in certain circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although lifetime transfer of the family farm may not be the tradition, the tax barriers to it can be surmounted with careful planning and good tax advice – leaving the farmer to enjoy peace of mind knowing that the future of the farm is in good hands.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Special Structures&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In general, it is beneficial to transfer surplus assets as soon as possible so that they are transferred at a lower value, i.e. during the parents’ lifetime. But what if the parent isn’t comfortable with the idea of giving their children significant wealth, or if the children (or even grandchildren) are minors?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Bare trusts can be used to control funds until a child reaches the age of 18, however after this age they can access and use the funds as they wish. To continue controlling the funds, another structure is required. This is where special structures like family partnerships or discretionary trusts come into play.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A family partnership enables the assets to be transferred into the names of the next generation, but the parents can retain control over the investment decisions of the partnership and the disbursement of funds out to the partners, i.e., the children.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Discretionary trusts can be used to hold assets where an individual does not have capacity to manage their own affairs, for minors, or where it is preferred that the individual does not hold the assets in their own name. CAT does not arise until the point at which the assets are appointed out of the trust into the name of the beneficiary personally. Discretionary trust tax of 6% of the asset value initially, and 1% p.a., thereafter, is levied on the trust in addition to income tax on income and CGT on gains. This discourages their use as a means of deferring CAT; however, exemptions can be claimed for trusts set up for incapacitated individuals or minors.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the author &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Yvonne Clinton, CFP® is a financial planner in Unio Wealth Management’s Financial Planning Team and has a wealth of experience in advising high net worth individuals and families on how they can achieve their goals.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Talk to us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thinking about passing on your wealth? At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you would like to start the conversation with one of our expert advisers, &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;get in touch here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sources:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Unio Wealth Management, 2025 &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/the-unio-building-wealth-report&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Unio Building Wealth Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;CSO, 2020, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-itw/intergenerationaltransferofwealth2020/keyfindings/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Intergenerational Transfer of Wealth&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;DCU, 2024 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.dcu.ie/commsteam/news/2024/apr/dcu-national-centre-family-business-launch-succession-report&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;To Join or Not to Join: Understanding the Succession Intentions of&nbsp;Next-Generation Family Business Members&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;CSO, 2023 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-fss/farmstructuresurvey2023/keyfindings/#:~:text=Some%2087%25%20of%20workers%20were,successor%20was%20a%20family%20member.&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Farm Structure Survey&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Passing It On: How Families Are Rethinking Wealth Transfer

&lt;p&gt;One of the favourite books I have received as a gift is ‘Bushido’,&nbsp;the framework of the Japanese code of chivalry. I was given the book in the very early 2000’s, when&nbsp;it was not yet obvious that Japan would stagnate for quite so long and,&nbsp;the talk was still of the collapse in Japanese golf club membership prices&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed, one of the remarkable socio-economic trends in Japan up to the mid-1990’s was the startling rise in Japanese gold club membership fees, which in the heady 1980’s Japan, had become a tradeable asset, so much so that an index was created (always a warning sign). During the period 1982-1989 the average golf club membership fee rose by 400%, with a final 190% spurt from 1989 to 1990. Companies such as Ginza Golf Services initially made a lot of money trading golf club memberships and at the peak of the market some were changing hands for close to USD 3mn.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Naturally, this bubble collapsed, and as a nod to the future I flag a blogpost from ‘GolfProp’ magazine that shows that on average entry fees for American gold club memberships have been increasing at a rate of 23% per annum since 2019. Indeed, within the past year the membership fee at Mar-a-Lago has gone up by 43%&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Back to Bushido, which as a noble, chivalric code developed in the 16th&nbsp;century, is unlike European ‘Chivalry’ (see Maurice Keen’s book of this title is a must read) in that the idea of ‘Chivalry’ came about much earlier, and largely because of an effort to stop the knights of Europe killing each other in jousts and disputes. Bushido is still part of the mindset of many Japanese, and Japan is increasingly unique as a country where very strong social codes frame behaviour.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To that end, the sense of bushido and Japanese diplomacy will have been taken aback by the unexpected decision by President Trump’s to slap a 25% tariff on America’s main allies in Asia, Japan and South Korea. Japan has always enjoyed close ties to the US (Al Alletzhauser’s 1990 book ‘House of Nomura’ is a very good account of how America helped build the modern Japanese financial and corporate system). I have a sense that another book of that era, Ezra Vogel’s ‘Japan as Number One’, seems to have stuck in Trump’s mind (in the 1990’s he went on CNN to&nbsp;castigate&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8wJc7vHcTs__;!!O22_8FOSssc!gK_VEcueMp2w1vAtT1YxXBoCU8kDMr5a0PRHQFxevi9b23pnbUnJrF7V__bt76blqeVusznf89FRUdlDta1oXCRG$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;American foreign and trade policy on Japan&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Trump and ‘bushido’ are anathema to each other, and the Japanese will be disappointed by his behaviour, given that Tokyo has always had close relationships with American presidents – though never as close as that with Jacques Chirac who visited Japan over 40 times (for various reasons which I shall not disclose).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The potential rupture in relations between Tokyo and Washington introduces a strategic dilemma for Japan, at a time when its economy is awakening from decades of slumber. Like the UK, Japan’s geopolitical moorings are coming unstuck. President Macron’s state visit to London shows the direction of travel for the UK on security and defence, and whilst it is accelerating defence spending, Japan may end up considering more radical solutions for its defence in the context of Chinese belligerence (in 2024 Japan’s air force scrambled jets 704 times against incursions by Chinese and Russian jets). For instance, Japan is the one country that could quickly build a nuclear weapons programme, if it needed to.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What is interesting in the Japanese case is that as geopolitical uncertainty rises, its economy and financial markets are thawing. The property sector is just reaching levels last seen in the early 1990’s (while Tokyo prices have recovered beyond 1991 levels, the rest of the Japan’s residential market is still below the price point reached then).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Having suppressed bonds yields for a long time, the Bank of Japan is now raising rates, and Japanese bond yields have been pushing higher, and given the size of the Japanese bond market (and the balance sheet of the Bank of Japan), it is driving yields higher international, and deserves watching as a medium-term risk to markets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, while bond yields are rising in the absence of yield curve control by the central bank, factors that are regarded as engines of the economy – earnings, consumer behaviour and employment are more muted, and give rise to the sense that Japan is either in the ante chamber of a full recovery, or on the precipice of something nastier.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tariffs, and a confusing break with the US, could upset the Shigeru Ishiba’s unpopular government (Upper House elections are soon), which is struggling in the context of a very ‘un-bushido’ world.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Bushido

&lt;p&gt;Unio Wealth Management’s “Building Wealth Report” reveals Ireland is Wealthy but We Don’t Feel it&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/The-Unio-Wealth-Management-Building-Wealth-Report-2025.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Unio Building Wealth Report July 2025&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;📽️ Watch our video - Chief Marketing Officer, Kate Candon and Mike O'Sullivan, report author and Chief Investment Officer, Unio share the report's key findings.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/-IpY3n46JQQ?showinfo=0&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;· Ireland is now one of the EU’s wealthiest nations&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;· Irish households are 30% richer than the UK&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;· Yet only 10% of Irish people consider themselves ‘quite wealthy’&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Irish people do not feel wealthy despite the fact Ireland is now one of the wealthiest countries in Europe, according to the Building Wealth Report by Unio Wealth Management.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Unio Building Wealth Report shows that average net wealth per adult in Ireland is now higher than the height of the Celtic Tiger (€300k) at €323k, marking a significant recovery from the €140k average recorded in 2013. The report defines wealth as the total value of financial assets and property, minus any outstanding debt.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 2013, the UK had nearly one-third more average wealth per adult than Ireland. Now, the situation has reversed, with Irish adults on average 30% wealthier than their UK counterparts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to a Red C sentiment survey commissioned by Unio Wealth Management as part of its Building Wealth Report, only 10% of Irish people consider themselves ‘quite wealthy’. Just 40% of Irish people feel wealthier than they were ten years ago, with younger people and those in higher income brackets most likely to express this sentiment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The research shows that Irish people are divided on the concept of wealth, with an equal number of respondents feeling comfortable with the term as those who feel uncomfortable. Interestingly, 40% approx. of respondents in the 18-34 cohort expressed comfort with the notion of wealth.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ireland’s total net household wealth has risen to €1.27trn, an increase from the €500bn recorded during the same period in 2013. This represents annual growth of 7.6%, surpassing major European counterparts France, Germany and the UK, and second only to Luxembourg.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;31% of wealth in Ireland is made up of financial assets which is broadly in line with other EU countries, this compares to 53% in Switzerland. As Ireland’s culture of investing in financial assets continues to grow, this figure is expected to rise. The exponential growth of the tech sector, particularly in Dublin, has seen Ireland become a major European hub, further contributing to increased wealth in the country.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Commenting on the findings, the report author Mike O’Sullivan, Director and Chief Investment Officer of Unio said: “Our aim is to contribute to a well-informed conversation around wealth in Ireland and people’s attitudes to the notion of wealth. While Ireland is now very well positioned compared to other European countries, Switzerland and the US lead in terms of average wealth per adult at €720k and €574k respectively, what these countries have in common is a mature culture of wealth planning and investing. Ireland could climb higher in the global wealth rankings through greater uptake of advice and investing in financial assets.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Irish people across all income brackets are broadly aligned in associating wealth with financial security and ‘peace of mind’. There is an increased desire for the provision of financial advice as 40% of those Irish people who consider themselves in a position of wealth wish to avail of such services.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Ireland became wealthy relatively quickly, high earners are often the most under-advised because their lives are so busy and there is a cultural reluctance to talk about wealth in Ireland”, says Ian Brady, CEO of Unio Wealth Management. “Countries like Switzerland and the US have a mature, advice-led culture of wealth planning, which feels more personal. With more people accumulating wealth at a younger age, we see a need for advice-led wealth planning in Ireland. At Unio, many of our clients are in a stronger financial position than they realise, and with the right advice we can help them achieve their full financial potential. Our goal is to help clients become active wealth builders rather than passive wealth holders.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio’s Mike O’Sullivan said: “To many people, Ireland is a rich country, but we just don’t feel it on account of difficulties with housing, childcare and infrastructure rollouts in comparison with our European counterparts. It is worth noting that much of Ireland’s wealth is ‘new wealth’ and there are fewer multi-generational businesses compared to other EU countries, which suggests Irish people are still coming to terms with the notion of wealth. For instance, although Irish adults are 30% richer than their UK counterparts, the UK has a far greater level of multi-generational wealth than Ireland, although that is now changing. Overall, the report paints a picture of a stressed middle class. Irish households are statistically much wealthier compared to other European nations but there isn’t a broad sense of wealth amongst the population, which can likely be attributed to inflation and a high cost of living along with people associating their incomes as a sole measure of wealth.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wealth isn’t just about having money, it’s about clarity, control, and having the right guidance around you. Whether you are navigating success or planning your next step, now is the time to take control and unlock the potential of the wealth you have worked so hard to earn. &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Speak to one of our experts advisers. &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Unio Building Wealth Report

&lt;p&gt;It looks like I will have to burn all the Biggles books I collected as a child and jettison any antique copies of ‘Eagle’ comic books, because there are reports that Britain and Germany are about to sign a defence co-operation agreement, ending a long stretch of history where they have been on opposing sides. Indeed, the entire literature of what George Orwell described in his essay ‘Boys’ Weeklies’ could now be caught offside.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For instance, the work of John Buchan, once Governor General of Canada, and well known as the author of the ‘Thirty Nine Steps’, may be especially dislodged by an agreement that casts Germany and Britain as best geopolitical friends, as many of his books, like those of Captain W.E. John, depend on the role of the indispensable British hero seeing off his German nemesis. An innovation on the part of Buchan, was the glamorous female mastermind, Hilda von Einem, who vies with the handsome Irish intriguer Dominic Medina (please do read ‘Greenmantle’ and the ‘Three Hostages’) as the foil to Richard Hannay. &nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of the significant moments of history when Britain and Germany (Prussia then) found themselves on the same side was the Battle of Waterloo, one of the great contests, where during a pounding from French guns Wellington’s officers asked for orders he replied, ‘there are no orders, except to&nbsp;stand&nbsp;firm to the&nbsp;last man’.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of the survivors was&nbsp;Henry Percy, aide de camp to Wellington, who after the Battle had to row halfway across the Channel with the news of the Duke’s victory, as an absence of wind had halted his sloop. On arriving in England he found that many (in the City) already knew of the victory owing, allegedly, to a network of agents assembled by Nathaniel Rothschild who is said to have made a fortune on the event and thereby spawned the phrase ‘buy on the sound of cannons’. It is a useful illustration of the roles of communications (social media today) and finance in war.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed, part of the reason that Germany and Britain are moving closer together on defence (France is even closer to each one militarily) is finance. Gone are the days when London and Berlin could afford to spend 9% of GDP building great battleships in the lead-up to the First World War (Margaret MacMillan’s ‘The War That Ended Peace’ is worth a read), and now they must do with more meagre ambitions and newfound collaborations.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this context, the recent NATO Summit was a watershed as it&nbsp;signalled a headline commitment to 5% defence spending across NATO countries (as a % of GDP), something that would have been unthinkable four years ago.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In Europe, there is a sense that some of the defence spending pledges amount to a ‘fudge’, and it is very clear that defence spending as a % of GDP does not translate into defence readiness. Of the European members of NATO, the UK, Greece, France, Poland, the Nordics and Baltics are the most defence ready, and some of them are already spending ambitiously. For example, Poland is set to reach a level of defence spending of 4% of GDP and has already struck a strategic military procurement partnership with South Korea.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, countries like Italy and especially Spain have been castigated for their reluctance to spend. Italy has talked of including investment in a bridge from the mainland to Sicily as defence infrastructure and in the case of Spain, it has apparently tried to ‘kitchen sink’ other tangential forms of spending into the defence segment.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Still, the broad 5% target is a gamechanger, and is comprised of two parts – close to 3.5% on defence spending and then 1.5% on areas like cyber security and AI driven defence capabilities. Momentum will be boosted by the EU’s Eur 150 bn lending facility for defence procurement, up to Eur 3bn in loans from the EIB (European Investment Bank), and the German government’s significant augmentation of its defence budget. Still, this fiscal support leaves an enormous shortfall that will likely require capital from the private sector.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this respect, we are at the cross-over of geopolitical forces. NATO as an operating construct has been thrown into doubt by Donald Trump and the actions of his defence policymakers (the latest act being to deprive Ukraine of defensive missiles). As such, Article 5 no longer seems as watertight as it did in the early 2000’s (it has only been invoked once, in September 2011, by Nick Burns, then US Ambassador to NATO). The impression many in Brussels have is that Europe will be left to defend itself from Russian aggression – there is no parlour game amongst the various European intelligence agencies to estimate when a Russian incursion might occur.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a result, the EU will become a much bigger player in defence procurement (see the recent&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/eu-defence-industry/introducing-white-paper-european-defence-and-rearm-europe-plan-readiness-2030_en__;!!O22_8FOSssc!joSDS5lmsBxjJM7i_jFPZLhIerjxd2Q1XAxgNlBtNqqksHtpqc6qQMOqwqBqqiZLCtlRzisiKO8-QN2dRi54X4Fh$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;White Paper here&lt;/a&gt;), Europe’s defence centric innovation economy will grow rapidly, and ‘war bonds’ will become a new asset for investors. Europe’s main threat is most obviously Russia, in addition to cyberwar from further afield. The danger in the long term is that it finds itself the last bastion of democracy, amidst a range of large, autocratic countries.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To return to Germany and Britain, anyone who reads the MacMillan books can’t escape the recognition that the arms race between Germany and Britain over one hundred years ago, is now being repeated by the US and China. Ultimately Europe may count itself lucky to stay out of this context.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Guns and Roses

&lt;p&gt;This month's Global Macro Council Meeting focused on portfolio management, highlighting how investors are adjusting their asset allocation strategies in response to heightened market volatility, a weaker dollar, and shifting economic conditions. Discussions centred on the incorporation of a broader range of asset classes and the adoption of more dynamic portfolio management approaches.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We were delighted to be joined by guest speakers Marina Evtimova, Director, Portfolio Analysis and Solutions at Blackrock and Michael Ficht, DWS Asset Management and we thank them for their valued input.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Read this month's GMC Outlook below &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Unio-GMC-Outlook_-June-2025.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;or download the report here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valuations Normalising &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Liberation Day tariff announcement, and the resilience that markets have shown in the face of geopolitical and economic stress have, once volatility has died down, caused many investors to re-examine long run asset return assumptions. Broadly in public markets, conventions regarding drawdowns and volatility are being re-thought, in the sense that the average level of volatility in public markets may be higher now. In addition, many allocators are configuring a long-run weaker dollar, and whilst equities have recovered to close to all-time highs, the dollar remains weak, suggesting that the near decade long bull market is threatened.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tactical Moves&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since last December, our&nbsp;portfolios have anticipated many of these changes – in December we switched some capital from US to European equities, moved overweight cash and have recently hedged a significant part of our dollar exposure.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Notwithstanding&nbsp;our&nbsp;recent&nbsp;tactical and hedging moves,&nbsp;our attention has focused&nbsp;on the changing shape of portfolios in a radically changing world. In this month’s Global Macro Council, we hosted a number of&nbsp;global&nbsp;institutional managers in a debate on the outlook for asset allocation in the long-run. Several threads are worth noting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Changing Asset Relationships&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One is the way in which the relationship between key assets can change. The foundations of most portfolios is a trade-off between a large equity investment and safer bonds (often referred to as 60/40, 60% equities and 40% bonds). The idea is that bonds act as a cushion to riskier equities. However, where inflation surprises to the upside,&nbsp;like 2022,&nbsp;equities and bonds can underperform together. One solution to this is to have a&nbsp;richer array of&nbsp;asset classes in the portfolio – corporate fixed income for example, that allow the investor to better offset macro-economic changes. We also deploy a thematic element in portfolios that is an explicit play on inflation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Dynamic Portfolio Management&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Another thread we are focused on is the notion of more&nbsp;dynamic&nbsp;management of portfolios. Our lead&nbsp;wealth&nbsp;offering at Unio is based on active management where we use&nbsp;shorter term levers such as&nbsp;tactical asset allocation, as well as regional and some sectoral allocations to generate return. Our sense is that in a portfolio climate that is characterized by a higher level of volatility, a nimble or active approach is a necessity.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Emerging Asset Classes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In time, as economies change (for instance as Europe invests more in infrastructure and defence) newer asset classes will grow significantly. As such, in the medium-term private assets (private equity, venture and infrastructure) will play a greater role in portfolios where investors have tolerance for illiquidity.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&nbsp;get in touch here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Future Portfolio

&lt;p&gt;The performative exchange of military strikes between Iran and the US means that a nuclear tipped hot war in the Middle East is off the cards for the moment, though the bad news is that a far greater crisis awaits.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the past five or so weeks prominent financiers – Ray Dalio, Jamie Dimon and even Elon Musk – have warned about the burgeoning fiscal deficit and the mountain of debt that the US (and other countries) has accumulated. &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/blogs.worldbank.org/en/voices/the-looming-global-debt-disaster__;!!O22_8FOSssc!gb-oeO2k5zMH6bkbgZQFZUs8HpVCbmhkF9BOqz-D86JIDEEcCtFMfZBKsOtfFR6SATNoneQtOD4Vu3DU0uxIIgCM$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;A very decent blog&lt;/a&gt; post by Indermit Gill, the chief economist at the World Bank, outlines the viewpoint.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Next week, there is a good chance that the Senate passes President Trump’s budget, which according to the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will swell the deficit by close to USD 3trn and push debt to GDP towards an unprecedented 125% in the next ten years Additionally, rumours that the next Federal Reserve chair will be picked soon by President Trump (Powell leaves in May 2026) has upset the dollar, making life even more difficult for foreign holders of US debt.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What is interesting is not how gargantuan the world’s debt load has become, but how few people care. Politics in the West has changed so much that it has neutered what used to be a political class who in a very Catholic way, pronounced themselves to be fiscally responsible.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the US, it used to be the case that a good number of Senators were what was called ‘fiscal hawks’, or had an aversion to large budget deficits, and an even greater aversion to resolving them through higher taxes (the US has only produced budget surplus twice – under Lyndon Johnson and then Bill Clinton – and in both cases taxes were raised). Paul Krugman has referred to deficit hawks as ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/opinion/krugman-deficit-hawks-down.html__;!!O22_8FOSssc!gb-oeO2k5zMH6bkbgZQFZUs8HpVCbmhkF9BOqz-D86JIDEEcCtFMfZBKsOtfFR6SATNoneQtOD4Vu3DU0tZ_Vexu$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;deficit scolds’&lt;/a&gt;, because they spend more time warning about the dangers of the deficit than fixing it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ronald Reagan, and the policy makers who surrounded him – namely James Baker, Nicholas Brady and Don Reagan, were fiscally conservative by reputation but had the luxury of being able to grow the US economy through tax cuts and de-regulation. At the time (early 1980’s onwards) some Republicans had a ‘starve the beast’ mindset, which is to say that they favoured lowering taxes so that the government would have less revenue to spend, but there is little evidence that this worked as a strategy (partly because many of the initial Reagan tax cuts were aimed at the rich).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the post Reagan phase, deficit reduction as a virtue came into its own in the Robert Rubin era (at the Treasury), and many of his former colleagues and acolytes continued this during the early years of the Obama presidency (a relevant private body is the Hamilton Project, where Rubin was a founder).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of the notable initiatives of the Obama White House was the creation of the US National Committee on National Fiscal Responsibility and Reform or the Simpson-Bowles Commission as it became known, a bi-partisan body that aimed to reduce the fiscal deficit and debt. Its most noteworthy aspect, in my memory, was the degree of civility and collaboration between representatives of the Democrats and Republicans. Such a body could not exist today.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed, the radicalisation of parts of both parties, in the context of quantitative easing (which has dulled the impact of rising debt and deficits) has broken the link between fiscal responsibility and electability. For example, the first crack in the Republican edifice was the advent of the Tea Party Movement, one of whose tenets was tough fiscal responsibility, as inspired by a ‘Chicago Tea Party’&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEZB4taSEoA__;!!O22_8FOSssc!gb-oeO2k5zMH6bkbgZQFZUs8HpVCbmhkF9BOqz-D86JIDEEcCtFMfZBKsOtfFR6SATNoneQtOD4Vu3DU0oLNxLTJ$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;rant from CNBC commentator Rick Santelli &lt;/a&gt;in 2009. Many of the Tea Party oriented voters and Republican politicians then gravitated to the Trump corner in 2016, the price of which was a surrender of their fiscal sacred cows.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Today there is only a handful of fiscally conservative Republican Senators (the Club for Growth publishes an &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/clubforgrowthfoundation.org/projects/congressional-economic-scorecards/?report-year=2024&amp;chamber=S__;!!O22_8FOSssc!gb-oeO2k5zMH6bkbgZQFZUs8HpVCbmhkF9BOqz-D86JIDEEcCtFMfZBKsOtfFR6SATNoneQtOD4Vu3DU0kpW01w6$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;annual scorecard&lt;/a&gt; of how fiscally rigorous it thinks members of the House and Senate are). The majority of Republican Senators appear happy to give the nod to a policy that edges the US closer to the financial precipice. Indeed, not only will the Trump budget favour wealthy households but it will increase the number of financially precarious households, and damage healthcare and education provision.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The other interesting observation I draw is that the relationship between debt and politics has now reached a turning point, and from here debt will condition politics. I see this happening in at least three ways.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first is that in the context of ‘zero fiscal space’ the constraints imposed by high levels of debt and deficits, will drive new splits within parties, for example between those who are keen to spend more on defence, versus those who wish to preserve social welfare safety nets. The revolt by a large number of Labour MPs against benefit cuts imposed by Keir Starmer is an example. In the future, this cleavage may inspire new political parties. To echo a recent note (&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/the-power-algorithm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Power Algorithm&lt;/a&gt;) new ‘tech bro’ parties could materialise that prefer using robots to do the work of immigrants and that technology should be deployed for social control.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The second, related scenario is that in the absence of money to spend, the traditional ‘pork barrel’ cycle of politics disintegrates, and instead politicians tilt the broad political debate to non-fiscal issues – identity, foreign policy, and immigration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A third element in the hypothesis is that voters observe mainstream politicians to be helpless and useless in the face of very high fiscal constraints, and they become largely apathetic about politics and in some cases vote for extreme candidates, such as ‘chainsaw economists’ as in the case of Argentina.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this way, and perhaps exceptionally in history, the coming debt crisis (if the World Bank’s economist is correct) will be intertwined with the current crisis of politics.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Tea Party to No Party

&lt;p&gt;A lotto win - or any sudden windfall - can be exhilarating, especially when the amount reaches a staggering €250 million. But with great fortune comes great responsibility. In this article, David Tighe, head of our Wealth Solutions team, provides a clear set of do's and don’ts for navigating the complexities of sudden wealth. A 4-minute read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Someone in Ireland just became €250 million richer overnight and with that comes opportunity, pressure, and unexpected complexity.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a financial adviser, I have seen what sudden wealth can do—both good and bad. Whether it’s a lottery windfall, a business exit, or a large inheritance, the first decisions you make will shape your financial future more than the size of the cheque ever could.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So, if you have just won the lotto (or like the rest of us, you are daydreaming about it), here’s what to do—and what not to do.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DO: Pause. Take a breath. Say nothing.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The instinct may be to act immediately: to celebrate, to spend, to tell everyone. But the smartest move is to do nothing at first. Step back. Keep the news private. Take time to process. The best early decisions are the ones not rushed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DO: Build your circle (carefully).&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You will need a &lt;strong&gt;lawyer&lt;/strong&gt;, a &lt;strong&gt;tax advisor&lt;/strong&gt;, and a &lt;strong&gt;financial planner&lt;/strong&gt;—ideally ones who are used to working with high-net-worth clients. These people will become your inner circle. Make sure they are experienced, discreet, and working for &lt;em&gt;you&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DON'T: Give it all away.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You will feel pressure—emotional, social, and even moral—to start gifting money. That’s natural. But sudden generosity without a plan can cause as many problems as it solves. Give yourself time to understand what you can &lt;em&gt;sustainably&lt;/em&gt; give before you commit.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DO: Understand the tax landscape.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ireland has no tax on lottery winnings—so you get the full amount upfront. But after that? Capital gains tax, gift tax, inheritance planning, exit taxes… they all come into play quickly. If you don’t structure things properly, Revenue will become an unexpected beneficiary.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DON'T: Overcomplicate it too fast.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Offshore trusts, investment holding companies, foundations—these tools have a place, but not necessarily on day one. Get the basics right: protect your assets, build a plan, and keep things simple until the dust settles.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DO: Think like a Family Office.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At €250 million, you are not just rich. You are &lt;em&gt;ultra&lt;/em&gt; wealthy. This requires a strategic, long-term approach—one that covers &lt;strong&gt;wealth preservation&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;succession&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;governance&lt;/strong&gt;, and &lt;strong&gt;impact&lt;/strong&gt;. You are effectively running a private investment company now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DON'T: Forget about purpose.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The money will solve many problems, but it won’t answer the deeper questions of meaning, identity, or fulfilment. Take time to reflect on what you want your life—and your wealth—to stand for. Money is a tool. Purpose gives it direction.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whether you are a lotto winner or not, this is a reminder: wealth isn’t just about having money. It’s about having clarity, control, and the right people around you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you or someone you know is navigating a life-changing financial moment, a conversation with Unio Wealth Management can help provide the guidance and structure to make it time well spent.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;David Tighe is head of Unio’s Wealth Solutions team and &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=David%20Tighe&amp;segment=Wealth%20Solutions&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Windfall Wisdom

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Just over twenty years ago I had lunch in a roadside café near Natanz in Iran (on the way back from Isfahan to Tehran). At the time, it was well known that Natanz was a nuclear research site, and a location that was becoming more of a geopolitical focal point given George W Bush’s inclusion of Iran in the ‘Axis of Evil’ (despite large ‘Death to America’ murals in Tehran, it had offered to assist the US in the war against the Taliban).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Up until then, Iran was the host of one of the larger Jewish populations in the world (roughly 80,000 then) and historical ties between Iran and Israel were strong, as I outlined in a note last year entitled ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/thelevelling.blog/2024/04/20/persepolis/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!j_fcS4-_uomNezGDOYkrWDViXLaGE4W7v475BdUfBymAqRAtOWjtQxzyF_tAMLR6Wo34zG5hZyrN7HTDQ5GzILwY$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Persepolis&lt;/a&gt;’, and I still believe that socially and culturally the populations of Tel Aviv and Northern Tehran have more in common than many would think.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This speaks to the potential that Iran owes to its heritage, but that has been smothered by a small, inward looking and harsh theocracy, aided and abetted by the Revolutionary Guard who exert de facto control over the Iranian economy as well as other sectors. They were notoriously responsible for the death of Masha Amini in 2022, and on average the Iranian state has killed 2-3 of its young people every week, something that should really elicit more anger from students across Europe and Asia.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;What happens to Iran is now an open question. During the week I had the benefit of hosting a call for a group of investors with Ambassador Dennis Ross, the authority on the region from a Western point of view. His sense is that granted Israel views the threat from Iran’s nuclear programme as existential (the jawboning of the former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did much to reinforce this), the permanent dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program is the de minimus goal of Israel.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;It is reported that Iran has been reaching out to other countries in the region to signal that it is ready to negotiate, and a negotiation process that is stewarded by Russia for example would help the Iranian regime avoid embarrassment (I recall the advice of Seamus Mallon, a key participant in the Good Friday Accord, who said that a good negotiator makes sure that his opposite number ‘can get up with his pants on’). If Iran is ready to offer serious, verifiable concessions, it is possible that this conflict can come to an end, something that may please Donald Trump who has been quicker to associate himself with the success of the Israeli operation than to offer Israel unconditional military support.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Indeed, the next few weeks are a test of Trump’s mettle and credibility. In reality his two week pause is yet another sign of indecision.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;A joint US/Israeli strike on the Fordow mountain nuclear centre, near the holy city of Qom, and strikes across the wider Iranian theatre may provoke a counter-reaction by Iran, notably so against the Emirates and Saudi Arabia and might ignite a response from other quarters that have been relatively quiet (Iraq and Yemen for example). There is very energetic communication from the Gulf to Washington that a US strike could have very negative consequences for the region and might lead to a broader, less predictable conflict.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The tail-risk for the regime in Iran is a deeper recession, financial crisis and internal political strife, though it is most likely that the succession around Ayatollah Khamenei provides the best opportunity for a political turning point. Most Western observers vastly underestimate how difficult it would be to foment regime change in Iran, as much as that is highly desirable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;On a more positive tack, an agreement from Iran that removes the existential risk to Israel might also provide the geopolitical climate to bring an end to hostilities in Gaza, and for a meaningful calm across the region with the potential of an economic recovery. This might well be the catalyst for my ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/thelevelling.blog/2023/09/15/the-fourth-pole/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!j_fcS4-_uomNezGDOYkrWDViXLaGE4W7v475BdUfBymAqRAtOWjtQxzyF_tAMLR6Wo34zG5hZyrN7HTDQzaC0vjT$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Fourth Pole’&lt;/a&gt; thesis of an increasingly coherent economic zone in the Middle East, whose diplomatic centre is Abu Dhabi, geopolitical and technological power is Israel, and where the populations of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Iran, to name a few, contribute to a growing regional economy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Europe would likely benefit from this, though my sense is that it is increasingly less relevant as a diplomatic power in the Middle East. Emmanuel Macron for instance has lost enormous sway in Israel, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. In this regard, there are two lessons for Europe to bear in mind relating to Israel’s operation in Iran.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The first, in parallel to Ukraine’s resistance to Russia, is the demonstration that Israel has offered in military strategy and the multifaceted uses of technology. The second lesson is that Israel’s action is also illegal and contributes to an increasingly lawless international geopolitical climate.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Finally, Russia and China have been discretely critical of Israel, though they will be dismayed at the ease with which Iran’s defences have been dismantled, and they should be cognisant of the role that corruption has played here. Losing Iran as a member of their club (the ‘Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’) would constitute a major blow, but in the short-run their attention will be focused on how America responds to Israel’s move.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Two Week War?

&lt;p&gt;As the ‘end of globalization’ thesis plays out in dramatic form, some of the more speculative views I had laid out in the ‘The Levelling’ book are coming into focus.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of these is that we would see the emergence of new political parties to meet, and in some cases to exacerbate, the challenges of the 21st&nbsp;century, especially in the US and UK, and even in China.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unlike say, France, where political entrepreneurship is relatively easy (in the sense of forming a new party), two party systems dominate the two large Anglophone countries – the dominance of fundraising in the US makes it difficult to break the Republican-Democrat nexus, whilst the first past the post electoral system in the UK has made it hard for new parties to gather the mass and momentum to dent the influence of Labour and the Tories (Duverger’s Law).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That ‘wall’ now seems to have been broken by the rise of the Reform party in the UK, and a renaissance of sorts for the Liberal Democrats. Both parties still have relatively few seats in parliament but have won recent by-elections and if opinion polls are to be believed, the British political system is about to be fragmented into four parties.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the context of a world where only 6% of the population live in ‘full’ democracies, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, it should be a worry that the tendency in Washington is towards a contest between autocracy and oligarchy, as witnessed by the spat between President Trump and Elon Musk.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What struck me as an interesting, though tenuous development was the threat by Musk to set up a new political party the ‘American party’ and such a move, if it occurs, is part and parcel of the transition to a new world order.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the UK, there has already been an attempt by an entrepreneur to set up a new party. Back in 2018 Simon Franks started a new party called ‘United for Change’. He had reportedly raised GBP 50M to support the launch and having attended some of their early meetings I can attest that a decent roster of candidates was being lined up.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The project soon fizzled out, a sign that political life requires a certain set of skills, and that there was little appetite in the UK for a centrist party – the battles have been taking place at the margins of public life, and even Keir Starmer now regards Reform as the party to beat. This is a mistake in my view and the centre should not be evacuated but populated by parties willing to tackle difficult issues head on.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the US, it looks like difficult issues are inspiring difficult people to enter politics, Musk being an example.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the Levelling, I had speculated that several new parties might be spawned by the end of globalization – a right wing ‘Heimat’ party, pan-global environmental party with a large Chinese membership called the ‘Diggers’, and a traditionalist ‘Pilgrim’ party to give a few examples. One idea that might materialise soon is what I had called the ‘Governance Party’, whose core philosophy is that technology should be put at the centre of public, social and economic life and that it can be used to shape human behaviour. Governance ID cards and governance scores will become part of life in this vision, and artificial intelligence will penetrate our everyday activities.&nbsp;I paste the full description from the Levelling below.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I wrote this description, it was a throw-away, speculative idea, but in an age of big data, fast AI and the rise of exceptionally powerful entrepreneurs it is a distinct possibility.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The infusion of social media into our social and political lives has shaped and also muddied perceptions of reality, and social media is, in many political systems, the best way to quickly reach voters and understand their preferences. In this sense, social media helps to ‘soften’ voters up (the Reform Party has mastered TikTok for instance).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whether this means that electorates would accept a ‘Governance’ style form of government is not at all clear. In a way, China with its social scoring system is a precursor, and a good number of the China hawks (geopolitically) in the US are thought to be admirers of China’s approach to governance.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;DOGE and some of the prospective projects in the department of Defence give an inkling as to the vision for technology within the state. If the idea of a ‘Governance’ Party is to become a reality then the signs to watch out for are a further digitisation of the official economy (such as a digital central bank currency), the digitisation of identification and democracy (to the point where voter ID is an iris scan), and the use of the digital in law enforcement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On the other, pro-democracy side, the struggle to protect open democracy will increasingly have the equal and opposite aim – the curbing of the effect of social media on political debate, the restriction of social media use for young people and the encouragement of active participation in public life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead, Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Appendix: &lt;em&gt;The Governance Party&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Governance Party started life as a virtual or online party, inspired by debates among academics, bloggers, and tech entrepreneurs on the role of technology, data use, and government. The budding use of blockchain in healthcare and social welfare systems opened up a whole range of new possibilities for the ways in which countries might be run, and the early promotors of the Governance Party, primarily from universities and the technology sector, were responding to those possibilities. They found that incumbent political parties had little by way of response to their ideas on how to use technology and data to better run countries. The Governance Party preaches that technology should not be feared and should be actively used by government. The party’s early successes came in some European city councils, parts of India, and the West Coast of the United States and led to the formation of a fully-fledged party.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;It believes in codes of conduct in public life, society, and business and that these can be overseen through technology. With this approach, corruption should be wiped out. Blockchain is the favourite technological modus operandi here. In addition, citizenry is closely tied to electronic-based identity systems so that nearly all forms of behaviour—consumption, voting, contribution to pension plans, to name a few—can be monitored and optimized. In some countries a citizenship card (“Governance card”) is in issue, and in certain countries citizens are awarded a Governance score.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Governance Party believes strongly in equality and believes that it can be optimized through the use of technology in society and the co-option of large technology enterprises by the state. It has introduced two recent innovations: first, a proposal for a cybercurrency through which a central bank could optimize household and company balance sheets, and second, the use of artificial intelligence programs in the running of cities (e.g., in transport networks, police resource deployment, and environmental efforts).&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the Author&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Chief Investment Officer at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

The Power Algorithm

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;https://unio.my.salesforce.com/cms/delivery/media/MCRUPOKHVUBVHSXIVXIFG65ZMUKU?oid=00D7Q000006G3wgUAC&amp;channelId=0ap7Q000000go4UQAQ&quot; alt=&quot;Unio's Institutional Business team Grieg McDonough, Client Adviser; Richard White, Head of Institutional Business; Christine O'Callaghan, Client Adviser; and, Paul Daly, Client Adviser.&quot; data-fileid=&quot;20YJ7000000fyxS&quot; data-contentkey=&quot;MCRUPOKHVUBVHSXIVXIFG65ZMUKU&quot; data-cms-filename=&quot;Unio's Institutional Business team pictured L-R Grieg McDonough, Client Adviser; Richard White, Head of Institutional Business; Christine O'Callaghan, Client Adviser; and, Paul Daly, Client Advise.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio's Institutional Business team pictured L-R: Greig McDonough, Client Adviser; Richard White, Head of Institutional Business; Christine O'Callaghan, Client Adviser; and, Paul Daly, Client Adviser.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Investing sustainably to help ensure a lasting and positive impact for generations to come&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio Wealth Management is delighted to announce the launch of our Institutional Business&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;offering, with an experienced team dedicated to managing and growing relationships with institutional clients by delivering tailored investment solutions and strategic advisory services.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio has over 30 years’ experience in advising some of the largest, most important institutions in Ireland, through our Employee Benefits and Wealth Management businesses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We work with and advise many corporate organisations, across a diverse range of sectors, including Charities, Non-Profit Entities, Religious Institutions, Co-Operatives, Public Bodies, Trade Unions, Educational Bodies and Healthcare, providing a range of services including cashflow planning, liquidity management, investment strategy and governance/risk management. We also help with the construction and implementation of your investment policy statement (IPS).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Our team – Christine, Greig, Paul and I - is deeply committed to implementing investment strategies that reflect the values and long-term objectives of our clients, said Richard White, Head of Unio’s Institutional Business team. From forecasting future spending and funding needs to navigating complex Environmental, Social, and Governance considerations, we provide thoughtful guidance and stewardship. It is our privilege to guide, guard, and grow your institution’s capital—investing sustainably to help ensure a lasting and positive impact for generations to come.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If your organisation is looking for a trusted partner to help you navigate complexity and achieve your long-term goals, get in touch&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;to schedule a consultation and learn how we can tailor a strategy to meet your unique needs. Reach out directly to: &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Richard%20White&amp;segment=Institutional%20Business&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Richard White, Head of Institutional Business, Unio.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Unio Launches Institutional Business Offering

&lt;p&gt;This article explains how Unio works with solicitors to provide specialist, long-term financial planning for clients post-settlement, ensuring compensation awards are managed effectively within Ireland’s evolving legal and capacity frameworks. A 5-minute read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Financial Advice for Solicitors and their Clients Post-Settlement&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For solicitors working in catastrophic injury and clinical negligence, achieving a fair and appropriate compensation award is a professional mission, and often a deeply personal one. The work involved in navigating liability, causation, expert reports, and negotiation is significant. But once the award is secured, there’s the question:&nbsp;&lt;em&gt;What now?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For clients and their families, this is not the end of the journey rather it’s the beginning of a new financial reality that will last a lifetime. Ensuring that funds are managed in a way that protects entitlement, funds perhaps life-long care needs, and provides long-term peace of mind requires specialist financial advice. That’s where Unio comes in.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Legislative Changes &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, fully commenced on 26 April 2023, has redefined how individuals who may require assistance in exercising their decision-making capacity are supported in Ireland. The Act has replaced the old wardship system and a new public body called the Decision Support Service (DSS) now helps adults who may need support in making financial, legal, or healthcare decisions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For those transitioning from the wardship system to the Decision Support Service (DSS) framework, these legal developments underscore the increasing need for specialised, coordinated financial planning that works in tandem with legal arrangements—rather than in isolation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio Wealth Management’s financial planning-led advice process provides our clients with a structured approach to financial advice, within strict governance guidelines, and backed by our financial strength as part of the Irish Life and Great West Lifeco group of companies.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Financial Planning That Lasts a Lifetime&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A compensation award is meant to restore quality of life, not just financially, but personally. Through specialist financial planning tailored to Ireland’s evolving legal framework, Unio helps ensure that your clients' settlements truly serve their long-term best interests.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How Unio Works in Tandem with Legal Advisers. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio works as a trusted part of your team, supporting your clients with financial planning that’s grounded in empathy, technical rigour, and lifelong stewardship. We work alongside you—offering financial expertise that supports your work and safeguards your clients’ futures.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our approach:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Our input during or before settlement helps anticipate long-term financial needs and align the structure of the award accordingly&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Cash Flow and Lifetime Needs Modelling: We adopt a planning-led approach understanding each client’s specific needs and aspirations. Every client undergoes a comprehensive cash flow modelling and financial planning process before any investment proposals are made. This ensures that the investment strategies align with the client’s long-term objectives and personal circumstances.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-A Structured Wealth Allocation Framework: Unio’s Guiding/Guarding/Growing Framework aligns your financial goals with your investment strategy. We look to provide a balance between conservative, growth and specialist assets. This allows clients to plan for near term expenses and liabilities, invest for long-term growth, and ensure that any legacy objectives are catered for.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Collaborative and Responsive Service: We liaise directly with you, Decision-Making Representatives (DMRs) and families to ensure continuity of care and financial alignment.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Post-Settlement Peace of Mind: Clients and families gain not just an adviser, but an advocate. We guide them through immediate transitions and stay with them for the long term.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why work with us?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Solicitors refer to us not only because of our expertise—but because we help you &lt;em&gt;protect your reputation&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;extend your duty of care&lt;/em&gt;. We provide:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Independent financial advice tailored for personal injury clients&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Experience with high-value, complex settlements involving both capacity and non-capacity clients&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Transparent, client-centred reporting and ongoing support&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Financial strength and security. As a member of the Great-West Lifeco group of companies, owned by Irish Life in Ireland, our clients benefit from peace of mind arising from our financial stability and a legacy of trustworthiness.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-An Integrated Approach to Client Servicing: Our Private Client and Institutional Business teams collaborate in managing Ward of Court portfolios, ensuring that clients feel supported, informed, and confident in the management of their investment assets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Get in Touch&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With the new wardship reforms in effect, your clients may need trusted financial guidance. If you would like to discuss how we can support you and your clients, get in touch.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Andy Dixon is head of Independent Wealth and Family Office and&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Andy%20Dixon&amp;segment=Independent%20Wealth%20and%20Family%20Office&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here.&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Richard White is head of Unio’s Institutional Business team and&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Richard%20White&amp;segment=Institutional%20Business&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

Securing the Future

&lt;p&gt;Detroit used to be the richest city in America, some said&nbsp;it was the wealthiest in the world (in the early 1950's). Within a period of fifty years, it became the USA’s poorest city, ignominiously falling victim to the largest municipal bond default in 2013.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I visited the city some eight years ago, to witness the kick-off of an ambitious plan to revive the city, led by Mayor Mike Duggan, with the support of local business leaders. For instance, Dan Gilbert, an insurance firm owner bought and then gave away inner-city apartments in order to encourage people to move back into the city.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Having spent a couple of days in Detroit last week I am pleased to report that the renewal of the city centre is bearing fruit – it is a hive of construction activity, iconic buildings have been impressively scrubbed up and there are plenty of stylish restaurants and shops.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My initial visit to Detroit sticks in my mind for two reasons. The first is that I did a speech there alongside JD Vance – my topic was how small European countries managed to achieve high growth rates and social cohesion (as an example to Detroit), and his emphasis was on the need to focus resources and policy on ‘forgotten’ parts of America like Michigan.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our double act was good enough that we were invited to do another event in the new World Trade Centre in New York. At the time, I recall he was anti-Trump, pro-innovation and very much an advocate of third level education. A lot has changed since, but his book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ is still worth a read.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My second memorable Detroit experience was a visit to the Ford factory in Dearborn, to witness the full power of a robot-based manufacturing line, which at times was quite intimidating. I am tempted to say that in the next ten years, robots will have a bigger impact on America’s society and economy than JD.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The rise and fall of Detroit, and its wide hinterland out to Michigan towns like Flint has been undercut by many factors – immigration, the exit of the wealthy to other America cities, a failure to renew skill sets and an industrial base, and the economic side-effect of the rise of China as a manufacturing zone.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The issue worrying people in states like Michigan is whether AI and robotics will have the same effect on the local economy, as the model of globalization was perceived to do (by the likes of JD Vance) in recent years. Indeed, there has been a flurry of articles in the US press in recent days warning that AI will wipe out swathes of jobs (for example a&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.pwc.com/m1/en/publications/agentic-ai-the-new-frontier-in-genai.html__;!!O22_8FOSssc!haEYXciRsCmqLJzg6iYwpzKu-tUMSjUswmYkSOut_jTnjst6-5BPwn2oNr8nOgKCP0a2tLs1Np6-3-Yv8Z_EDN5J$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;pwc report&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;on Agentic AI promises cost cuts of up to 40% in the software and legal sectors).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My instinct is that new technologies do not necessarily ‘kill’ jobs but shift them to other sectors and value chains, a process that is usually contingent on the quality of education systems and government policy.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Much of the research on the potential impact of AI on work (from&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/generative-ai-how-will-it-affect-future-jobs-and-workflows__;!!O22_8FOSssc!haEYXciRsCmqLJzg6iYwpzKu-tUMSjUswmYkSOut_jTnjst6-5BPwn2oNr8nOgKCP0a2tLs1Np6-3-Yv8d_nWVIM$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;McKinsey&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;for instance and most notably&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/economics.mit.edu/people/faculty/david-h-autor/working-papers__;!!O22_8FOSssc!haEYXciRsCmqLJzg6iYwpzKu-tUMSjUswmYkSOut_jTnjst6-5BPwn2oNr8nOgKCP0a2tLs1Np6-3-Yv8ajCMKA3$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;David Autor at MIT&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;and&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/generative-ai-has-potential-to-disrupt-labour-markets-but-is-not-likely-to-cause-widespread-automation-and-job-displacement-say-oxford-ai-experts/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!haEYXciRsCmqLJzg6iYwpzKu-tUMSjUswmYkSOut_jTnjst6-5BPwn2oNr8nOgKCP0a2tLs1Np6-3-Yv8VGuw9YW$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Carl Benedikt-Frey at Oxford&lt;/a&gt;) points to a nuanced view that sees AI and robotics helping less able workers participate in the workforce, and emphasises reskilling.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The risk to this enlightened outlook is that AI is unique in the sense that its take-up is rapid, especially so within large services firms, and this may give corporations greater power over labour (and downward pressure on wages). Equally there is not enough commentary on the fact that the critical AI projects are owned by a small, connected set of investors.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the emerging world, AI will likely have the greatest positive impact on public administration and on healthcare (through better and broader diagnoses), though employment in service sectors (especially where those services are exported) may take a hit.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With professional and specialised workers in mind, I would also like to re-state my ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/thelevelling.blog/2023/07/15/one-man-and-his-dog/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!haEYXciRsCmqLJzg6iYwpzKu-tUMSjUswmYkSOut_jTnjst6-5BPwn2oNr8nOgKCP0a2tLs1Np6-3-Yv8UL8V9Se$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;One Man and His Dog’&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;hypothesis as a model for how professionals can use AI. ‘One Man and His Dog’ was a cult British tv show based on sheepdog trials. In this context the sheepdog is an intelligent, non-human actor helping the human to solve a complex problem – which is what AI does. Like a dog, if mistreated or provoked, AI can bite back but in general the idea is that like the sheepdog, AI can make the professional (doctor, commando or researcher) do their job in a more effective way.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Those who worry about the labour market should instead focus on debt, and the perilous finances of the developed world. The global financial crisis demonstrated that debt could kill millions of jobs when it provokes a deep recession. To that end, the Trump budget will prove increasingly controversial, and arguably what America needs is a very different fiscal approach.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The lesson from Hillbilly Elegy is that the spoils of globalization went to the few – bankers in New York, scientists in Boston and tech firms in California. Arguably they should have paid much higher taxes, and this then used to bolster education, training and infrastructure across America.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The same logic is true with AI – its commercial benefits will accrue to a very small number of people, but millions will need help readjusting to the side-effects it has on labour markets. The debt outlook makes this doubly the case and the Trump budget, which will add USD 2.4 trillion to the national debt by 2034 (according to the Congressional Budget Office) will not only break the bank but break the labour market.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead, Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Robotic Elegy

&lt;p&gt;In the last week, I have fielded questions from audiences in Frankfurt and Dublin on the net effect of Donald Trump’s economic policies on investment portfolios. Such is the day-to-day rhythm of policy chaos that many investors likely overestimate the effect of Trump on markets, and the oddity is that as I write, US equity and bond markets are at roughly the same levels they traded at in March….though investor confidence has taken a battering.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed, the luxury of financial markets is that some of the risks that Trump has unleashed can be hedged, whereas it is harder for societies, economies, and the body politic to offset the implications of his behaviour on foreign direct investment flows and the quality of political debate for example.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From an investment point of view, I term the net effect of Trump on portfolios as ‘The End of Privilege’ which is to say that the idea of US assets in general and the dollar in particular befitting from what Giscard d’Estaing had famously referred to as ‘exorbitant privilege’ is coming to a slow end. In concrete terms, we can expect investors to question the role of US Treasuries as a safe haven, and for the dollar to slowly weaken (from a very expensive level) over time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The set of economic policies that Trump is pursuing are confusing and damaging to long term American growth and the fabric of its society (his ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill will disproportionately favour wealthy over poorer households). Moreover, any sense of accountability has been snuffed out and corruption is shamelessly creeping into public life (Evan Osnos’&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/02/donald-trumps-politics-of-plunder__;!!O22_8FOSssc!juvOJtZr3RUEM_mrH3aYM86OX1fITUt1AXFU8Tdlf8DjmWdCWxYSzjaoWS1F39_Nn50V1S8NWoX_q4S_ifU1SSMI$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;article in the New Yorker&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;on this topic is excellent). In short, America risks taking on the economic traits of a badly run emerging economy (look at how the Turkish lira and bond market have performed in the past five years as an extreme comparison).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To take the long view, Trump has decisively smashed the Bretton Woods system that had elevated the US financial system to be first amongst equals. The Bretton Woods conference was a tussle between Britain and America to shape the new world financial order and with it, bodies like the IMF. The US was very much the winner, and effectively the meeting formalised the transfer of ‘world power’ from Britain to the US, or as Keynes (Britain’s chief negotiator) wrote to his mother ‘In another year’s time we shall have forfeited the claim we had staked out in the New World and in exchange this country will be mortgaged to America’. Keynes job was to negotiate a deal for Britain that would rescue it from ‘losing face altogether and appearing to capitulate completely to dollar diplomacy.”&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From this point onwards, American financial dominance grew, manifested in the broad international use of its currency which has risen to a very particular place as the linchpin of the financial system. Indeed, one of the most important tenets of the twentieth-century world order and the rise of globalization has been the position of the dollar as the international reserve currency.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The dollar has become so important to the financial system, that two economists (Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas and Hélène Rey) have taken the notion of ‘exorbitant privilege’ a step further in a&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/cepr.org/publications/dp16944__;!!O22_8FOSssc!juvOJtZr3RUEM_mrH3aYM86OX1fITUt1AXFU8Tdlf8DjmWdCWxYSzjaoWS1F39_Nn50V1S8NWoX_q4S_iYZS5Xqm$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;relatively recent paper&lt;/a&gt;, and&nbsp;introduced the idea of ‘exorbitant duty’, which refers to the role that the dollar and US financial system play in times of crisis as the provider of a safe haven, even when those crises emanate from the US itself. Alarmingly, there is a section in the trump budget (sec. 899) that permits the administration to tax holders of US assets in certain circumstances, which can only erode confidence further.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The question then is which assets and currencies stand to benefit from a less ‘privileged dollar’. First, my sense is that when something goes wrong in emerging countries like Turkey, capital flows to countries like Switzerland (simply because much of it is held by a small number of individuals). As far as much greater institutional flows are concerned, the obvious destination should be the euro-zone. But this is not the case. At the end of 2024, I spent a week in Singapore and also the UAE and was surprised by the number of investors who considered the euro-zone as barely investable, this might reflect some ignorance on their part, but it is also redolent of a greater problem of international credibility for the euro-zone.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In that context I was interested to see that Christine Lagarde, the president of the ECB gave a very good speech on currencies in Berlin on Monday 26th, entitled ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2025/html/ecb.sp250526*d8d4541ce5.en.html__;fg!!O22_8FOSssc!juvOJtZr3RUEM_mrH3aYM86OX1fITUt1AXFU8Tdlf8DjmWdCWxYSzjaoWS1F39_Nn50V1S8NWoX_q4S_iaghNnvs$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Earning Influence – lessons from the history of international currencies&lt;/a&gt;’. In the speech she noted three properties of dominant currencies: &nbsp;they are issued by large economies (zones), they have deep pools of financial assets which foreigners can buy, and they are backed by sound legal systems.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There are two important contemporaneous facets to the speech: first, the expectation that the actions of the Trump administration will structurally weaken the dollar; and the second, the very grown-up admission by the ECB president that the euro-zone (Bulgaria will become a member in 2026) has failed to deepen its capital markets and become the provider of safe assets in an increasingly unsafe world.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The backdrop to these comments is a renewed push by the euro-zone on capital markets union, or the savings and investment union (SIU) as it is now called. In essence it has three components – single regulators across EU financial services, the creation of poles of expertise in different EU financial capitals (i.e. Amsterdam is the equity hub, Paris is where PE is, etc) and the sanctioning of retail savings and pensions flows into private assets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In many respects, SIU is a strange phenomenon – a policy critical to the future of Europe that most Europeans have very little attention span for (who would blame them). Apart from the releasing of hundreds of billions of euros in German savings banks for example, into private and private investments, what Europe also needs is a structural shift in the appetite for risk. For that to happen, we might need a European Donald Trump.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead, Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

The Sunday View | The End of Privilege

&lt;p&gt;In this article Andy Dixon, Head of Unio’s Independent Wealth and Family Office, and Richard White, Head of Institutional Business, explore the changes brought about by the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015, which aims to provide better support for individuals transitioning from a wardship, who may need assistance in making financial, legal, or healthcare decisions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What has changed?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 has replaced the old wardship system, fully commenced on 26th April 2023.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-A new public body called the Decision Support Service (DSS) now helps adults who may need support in making financial, legal, or healthcare decisions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-If someone is unable to manage their own finances, the court may appoint a Decision-Making Representative (DMR) to help or act on their behalf.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These changes aim to give people more control and support, while ensuring their funds are used in their best interests.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why You May Need Financial Advice&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you have received a settlement, managing that money wisely is essential. Without the right plan, the money can be put at risk—through unsuitable investments, tax issues, or even loss of access to state supports.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio provides specialised financial advice for people and families in this exact situation. Our goal is simple: to help your settlement last a lifetime and provide peace of mind.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How Unio Can Help&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We work with individuals, families, and appointed representatives to build a financial plan that fits your life. Here’s what we do:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Create a Lifetime Financial Plan: We help you understand how long the settlement will last, how to cover care costs, and what you can afford in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Manage Investments Safely and Sensibly: We look after your money with a focus on low-risk, steady income—so you’re protected from ups and downs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Work With Your Legal and Care Team: If you have a solicitor, a DMR, or a medical case manager, we will work alongside them, so everything stays aligned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Provide Clear and Ongoing Support: We speak in plain language, we are always here to help, and are in this with you, for the long run.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You Are Not Alone on This Journey&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It can feel overwhelming having to manage a large award after a life-changing event. At Unio, our team deals with individuals like you, with families just like yours—facing new responsibilities and doing their best to make the right decisions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our job is to provide you with expert guidance—so your financial future is secure, and your focus can return to living life on your terms.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We understand how personal and emotional this journey can be. Our goal is to give you the confidence and clarity you need to move forward knowing your financial future is in safe hands.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Get in Touch&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you’d like to speak with someone who understands your situation and can help you make the most of your compensation award, we are here to help.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Andy Dixon is head of Independent Wealth and Family Office and &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Andy%20Dixon&amp;segment=Independent%20Wealth%20and%20Family%20Office&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Richard White is head of Unio’s Institutional Business team and&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Richard%20White&amp;segment=Institutional%20Business&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here.&nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

A New Era -The End of Wardship

&lt;p&gt;At this month's Unio Global Macro Council(GMC), the topic was the weaker dollar: how the Trump administration's isolationist policies are leading to a weaker dollar, influenced by tariffs and a retreat from financial diplomacy, prompting investors to diversify away from U.S. assets.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We were delighted to be joined by guest speakers Peter Kinsella, Global Head of FX Strategy at Union Bancaire Priveé (UBP) and Gautam Kalani, FX Strategist/Portfolio Manager at BlueBay Asset Management. Thank you both for your valued input.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Read this month's GMC Outlook below or &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/The-End-of-Privilege-Unio-GMC-May-2025-Final.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;download the report here. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A New Era&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The American economics professor Kenneth Rogoff, co-author of a well-known text on debt ‘This Time it’s Different’, has a new book out entitled ‘Our Dollar, Your Problem’.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The title is a play on a comment that the US Treasury Secretary, John Connally, made to his European counterparts in 1971, that the dollar ‘is our currency but your problem’ in the sense that the strength of the dollar and its growing role as the lynchpin of the global financial system, was simply something that other countries would have to contend with. Giscard d’Estaing, then French finance minister, referred to this as ‘exorbitant privilege’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The new Trump administration, and specifically the policies announced since late January, point to a more isolationist America, as well as a more selfish financial hegemon.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From the point of view of the dollar, at the start of this year it traded at historically, extremely expensive levels (compared to a basket of trade partner currencies), and it has simply dropped to ‘over-valued’.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The risk from here is that a long period of trend dollar strength (going back to 2012), may now come to an end, as investors in particular begin to allocate away from US assets towards competing safe havens (core euro-zone bonds in the context of the Moody’s US debt downgrade) and yielding assets in the case of EM debt, as well as structurally cheaper currencies like the Japanese yen.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The fundamental case for the dollar is not strong – it is expensive, undercut by growing fiscal imbalances, and it has been the beneficiary of massive asset flows, which are now ebbing.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is now the negative catalyst of an administration that desires a weaker dollar, that is pursuing dollar negative policies (tariffs) and that questions the role of the US as the fulcrum of the financial system.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For instance, other central banks such as the ECB may start to question the role of the Federal Reserve as the financial system’s crisis manager and provider of dollar swap lines.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Outlook&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the near term, with the weaker dollar becoming the consensus view amongst economists, there may be a near-term bounce in the dollar as the economic effect of tariffs on growth takes its toll on interest rate futures. However, several factors will weigh on the dollar in the medium to long term: the retreat of the U.S. from financial diplomacy; a stated policy goal of weakening the dollar; the likelihood that European, Japanese, and other Asian investors will need to diversify away from U.S. assets; and the inevitable gravity of expensive valuations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Our View&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we do not see a sharp drop in the dollar; rather, we are observing a steady rise in dollar hedging activity, greater demand for cheap currencies, increased flows to Europe and emerging market assets and potentially more FX volatility.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; get in touch here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The End of Privilege

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In 2013, President George W. Bush referred to the Greeks as ‘Grecians’. At the time the ‘mis-speaks’ of the second Bush president provoked much amusement and some concern, though by comparison to the current occupant of the White House, the author of the disastrous invasion of Iraq is a strategic genius. The ‘Grecians’ came to mind this week when tuning into commentary by the Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba who compared his country’s fiscal situation to Greece in the early 2010’s as he rejected calls for tax cuts. By the staid standard of Japanese political pronouncements this is controversial and will help draw attention to the rise in Japanese interest rates in the past two weeks.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Ishiba’s comments are a harbinger of what is to come as we head into the ‘Age of Debt’, an era where indebtedness will dominate politics, economics and geopolitics. I have spent enough time in Greece over the years to know how brutally painful the consequences of austerity were, and how reckless economic policy had become in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Indeed, I recall the late years of the (Andreas) Papandreou period, when the social debate in Athens revolved around his younger, second wife ‘Mimi’. Papandreou was a very interesting character, and an example I often deploy to show that an education in economics is no guarantee of good policy – before he entered politics Papandreou was the Dean of the economics faculty at Stanford.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Often a finance minister will need political as well as policy skills. In his book, Stress Test, Tim Geithner, who was appointed Treasury Secretary by President Obama and who as head of the New York Fed had very good technical skills, worried aloud that he did not have the political skills for the role (arguably Robert Rubin was the master here) and the Obama team spent some time coaching him in this field.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;There is a small but interesting literature on the backgrounds of finance ministers, which hypothesises that more left leaning governments (like Obama?) will choose economics experts to bolster their economic credibility, while right leaning governments often choose a finance minister with a financial services background – Donald Trump’s two Treasury Secretaries, Steven Mnuchin (ex-Goldman Sachs banker) and Scott Bessent (hedge fund manager who worked with George Soros for some time) fit this profile.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The point of my dragging up the cv’s of finance ministers is to state that difficult times are ahead, and will require political courage and policy acumen, most of all in the US as President Trump takes aim at the budget deficit. Unfortunately, his lead policy manoeuvre on tariffs have showed that he has neither of these attributes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the US, President Trump is driving hard to have his budget (Big, Beautiful Bill) passed by Congress. It contains some elements that are quite sinister such as the ending of an excise tax on gun silencers, and one particular policy I agree strongly with – the introduction of MAGA (Money Account for Growth and Advancement), whereby the Treasury would create tax preferred savings accounts for children and give each one an initial deposit of USD 1,000. Europe should do the same!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;However, the broad strokes of the budget look like they could rob many Americans of what they need most, notably MEDICAID. Worryingly from an economic point of view the budget is expected to add nearly USD 3.5 trillion to the budget deficit over the next ten years, according to a range of bodies from the Penn Wharton Budget Model to the Joint Committee on Taxation, and the implication is that the indebtedness of the US will rise further (estimates point to a historic debt to GDP ratio of 125% in ten years’ time). The Congressional Budget Office publishes an &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.cbo.gov/publication/61187__;!!O22_8FOSssc!mlEavoMYxezyDwEt0SMspSfFsvXydlGu3092uwQAHvyW6eZnKYcle0vnBPVe728tbkE1_zqzM-PVYZefO0aXe4py$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;intimidating chart&lt;/a&gt; that puts this in perspective and shows that the debt to GDP ratio in the US has only been higher (going all the way back to 1790) in the post-World War II period.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This is the daunting backdrop to two poor bond auctions last week (demand for US and Japanese bonds was well below the norm). In this respect, the case of Greece is instructive – notably the devastating effect of forced austerity, the difficulty in trying to make policy when a government has lost the confidence of markets and the reality that once this confidence is lost, it can take time to regain it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Ultimately, Greece was a small economy in the scheme of things, though its membership of the euro made it systematically important. The US and Japan are on a different scale altogether.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;We are all Grecians now.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Have a great week ahead, Mike.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Grecians

&lt;p&gt;It is likely that many of the people protesting for Palestine in US universities will have read Edward Said’s book ‘Orientalism’ or at least will have an idea who he was. It is also likely that they will have heard of Donald Trump, whose ire at these protesters has led to an unexpected fiscal crackdown on many prominent US universities including Columbia, where Said used to teach (see our recent note ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/university-challenge&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;University Challenge’&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In brief, the tack of Orientalism was to criticise the construction of a superior, Westernised view of the Middle East (the term was coined by navigators in the US Navy), that is then internalised by members of the Middle Eastern elite. At this broad level, the theory was attractive, but runs into many practical difficulties such as Said’s downplaying the role of women, and the failure of many Middle Eastern countries to develop economically and to nurture the kinds of open society that Said liked to live in.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As with many facets of the debate around the Middle East, ‘Orientalism’ has become a badge of honour for many, and a contentious identifier for others, and there is a risk that many people who hold the ‘Orientalist’ view, have not updated their outlook for say the rise of Al Qaeda in the broad region and the effective domination in the last decade, of Palestinians by Hamas.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I doubt that Donald Trump has read ‘Orientalism’ (I think his speechwriter might have though) but in the light of the Western perspective of the Middle East, his visit to Saudi Arabia was striking in two respects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;First, like any clever politician, he confirmed the view that several countries in the region want to have of themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;– ‘&lt;em&gt;this great transformation has not come from Western interventionists … giving you lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation-builders,’ ‘neo-cons,’ or ‘liberal non-profits,’ …instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought about by the people of the region themselves’.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To a degree, Trump’s view is not correct. The economies of the UAE and KSA were built on Western know-how (see David Mulford’s ‘Packing for India’ for example), and many of the financial institutions at least have mimicked those in the US and UK. Also, a large number of army officers from the region have been trained in imperialist bastions such as Sandhurst.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At the same time, the miraculous growth of these countries can be ascribed to local vision and leadership, on a scale only matched by Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore. And, consistent with the ‘Orientalism’ thesis, many people in the West do not acknowledge the rising institutional role that Abu Dhabi plays in the region, or the extent to which Mohammed bin Saman has become a hero for the youth in his country. In that regard, we might say that the model the Middle Eastern countries have followed is the ‘Sinatra Model’ (‘do it my own way’) with a slight American twist.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The President’s address struck a chord because in the Emirates and the KSA in particular, there is a growing pride and independence in what these countries have achieved economically, and on my last visit there a few months ago, I found that there was little patience on the part of government officials to for example, have EU regulatory standards imposed on joint investment projects. In a note I wrote at the time I flagged how locals had developed their own acronym of the West (&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/w-e-n-a&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;W.E.N.A.),&lt;/a&gt; surely proof that the ideas in ‘Orientalism’ are dated.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Trump’s speech will be a big disappointment for those who believe in institutions and the idea of nation-building, and in that regard will turn on its head the efforts of so many in the State Department and other institutions. Neither does it augur well for current day American institutions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The speech also brings into focus what Prof Afshin Molavi refers to as the existence of ‘two Middle Easts’, namely a geopolitical one (sustained by American defence agreements) and an economic one. Chillingly in the context of the annihilation of Gaza, the Trump speech has tilted the momentum towards the economic version, and I feel that many people in Europe vastly underestimate the focus that governments in the region have on the economic prize, as opposed to the humanitarian catastrophe.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Various countries in the region from Qatar to Syria, may now find themselves the beneficiaries of Mr Trump’s lack of attachment to history and the democratic model, and it is very likely that the region known broadly as the Middle East will be one of the very few in the world to profit from his presidency, and will spearhead a move towards a model of materialistic, technocentric non-democracies, that some of Mr Trump’s supporters have in mind for the USA.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The emergence of the ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Working-with-Gulf-states-India-can-build-a-new-center-of-power__;!!O22_8FOSssc!iXzV3dFW3SGLaEXn4R3M2k61If2kDBC1LJtjxkc2JozserUfPYl51xL6Osced_P6blRtNu-GdGegahlNb3IAMMYh$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Fourth Pole’&lt;/a&gt;, a prospective multipolar zone that will become the beneficiary of trade tensions between the ‘older’ multipolar zones (US, EU, Asia), is still very much on track, but as it develops it will increasingly need institutions, markets, rules and means of binding people to the region, none of which Mr Trump can help with.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Orientalism

&lt;p&gt;David O’Connell, a private client adviser in Unio’s Corporate and Company Executives team, discusses the risks associated with holding a single stock and the importance of diversification. Understanding how equity compensation works is essential, along with seeking professional advice to incorporate your company shares into a broader financial plan. A 4-minute read.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Key Considerations for Senior Leaders in Irish Multinationals&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For many senior leaders in Ireland’s multinational and large corporate sectors, equity compensation has become an increasingly common component of their overall remuneration. Whether it’s stock options, or other incentive schemes, they all share one important trait: they tie your personal financial future even closer to your employer’s fortunes. This isn’t an explainer on company shares — plenty of excellent resources already exist - instead, we want to explore a simpler, yet often overlooked question: &quot;Should you actually hold on to your company shares?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The €50,000 Question…..&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When a client tells me they’ve received company shares, I ask them a simple question:&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“If your employer handed you a €50,000 bonus in cash, would your first move be to ring a stockbroker and buy your company’s shares?”&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Almost without exception, the answer is no. If that’s the case, why leave it all tied up in stock you didn’t actively choose to buy in the first place?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Equity compensation is just another form of bonus — it just happens to be paid in shares. If you wouldn’t voluntarily put a lump sum of your own money into your company’s stock, then it’s worth questioning whether it’s wise to let such a significant portion of your wealth remain there, just because it was given to you that way.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Hidden Concentration Risk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We often talk about diversification in investment portfolios, but it’s surprising how little this is applied when it comes to equity compensation. Holding one stock — especially your employer’s — creates a serious concentration risk.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Let’s look at some of Ireland’s major multinational employers offering stock options: Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Airbnb. They are all market leaders, yet even Apple has seen its stock fall 17% since the start of the year. No company, no matter how big, is immune to volatility.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We’ve started looking at the difference in volatility between holding single-company stock versus a diversified medium-risk investment fund. Early data points to a clear takeaway — diversification matters.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Layering Risk on Risk&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There’s also a broader issue at play. If your salary, bonus, career prospects, and equity compensation are all tied to one company, then your entire financial wellbeing is anchored to a single source. Lose your job, and not only is your income gone — you could also lose your unvested equity compensation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is a key point that’s often missed. Unvested stock options may be viewed as ‘future upside’, but they are also a potential loss if your employment is terminated before vesting. You’re not just investing in the company — you’re investing in the hope you’ll remain employed long enough to realise that value.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It’s Complicated — Get the Right Advice&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The mechanics of equity compensation schemes vary widely, and the tax implications can be complex. Whether it’s the timing of vesting, the implications of capital gains, or the need to declare income correctly, tax advice is essential. Many people don’t even know what type of scheme they’re in — and that’s a red flag in itself.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It’s always best to work with both a wealth adviser and a tax professional who can look at the bigger picture — not just your investment exposure, but how your equity compensation fits into your broader financial plan.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Final Thought&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Equity compensation is a great benefit — but it's also a risk if misunderstood or left unmanaged. If you wouldn’t actively choose to invest heavily in your employer’s stock, it might be time to consider a strategy that better aligns with your long-term financial goals. At Unio Wealth Management, we help senior leaders make sense of the complexity—focusing on smart diversification, financial planning, and protecting what they’ve worked hard to earn.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;David O’Connell is a private client adviser in our Corporate and Company Executives team and &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=David%20Murphy&amp;segment=Corporate%20and%20Company%20Executives&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here&lt;/a&gt;.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; get in touch&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

Why Keeping All of Your Company Equity Might Be A Risky Move

&lt;p&gt;I vividly recall seeing Imran Khan give a speech in the mid-nineties, in an era where many sportsmen had what was described as colourful backgrounds, he stood out as particularly ‘Bond’ like – at the very top of his game as a cricketer and a ‘playboy’, as the saying goes (at the time he was engaged to Jemima Goldsmith). There are few people who have had such adventurous lives – and Khan’s is interesting for the ways in which he changed tack – towards Islam and politics (he served as Pakistani prime minister from 2018-2022) and his change of fortune (he is currently in solitary confinement in a Pakistani prison).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whilst Khan’s rise and fall is complex, he ultimately fell foul of the Pakistani security establishment who allegedly became uncomfortable when Khan condemned foreign (US) influence in Pakistani public life. Khan was also the victim of an assassination attempt in 2022, something that has marked Pakistani politics (Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007 and her father Zulfikar was executed in 1977).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this regard, one of the few constants in Pakistani politics has been the ever-present role of the security services in the affairs of the state, and specifically their tactic of creating private armies and terror groups. This has embarrassed them on at least two occasions - the discovery that Osama bin Laden was living in near plain sight in Pakistan and repeated attacks by the Taliban inside Pakistan. Add to that the 2008 Mumbai attacks perpetrated by Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the sense grows that Pakistan has been playing a dangerous game.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this regard, India’s response to the killing of 26 people in Pahalgam (in Indian controlled Kashmir) took aim, it said, at terrorist infrastructure, in the most serious escalation between the two countries since the very early 1970’s. The subject of this note is not to predict how this conflict will play out – it could be costly, bloody and messy (India has reportedly lost five jets in its initial sortie) but to wonder why this confrontation is happening now and how much of this has to do with the alliances that the two countries have struck.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While India and Pakistan are both members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Pakistan is the much more active member and very close to China, Iran and Russia. While a lot of Indian hardware comes from Russia, its foreign policy projects the country as an independent actor, India is aiming for a close relationship with the US with whom it may sign a very high level trade deal (it has just completed a modest trade agreement with the UK).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It is very likely that under a different diplomatic regime, the Pahalgam attack would have been met with intensive diplomatic engagement by the US—with India, whom it regards as an ally, and Pakistan, which it funds generously. This has not happened this time, and the tempo of involvement of the White House in this particular regional conflict has not been on a par with other administrations. It is so poor that Vice President Vance has declared, in a most un-Kissinger like manner, that ‘it is none of our business’.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed, the recent death of Joseph Nye, the political scientist who developed the term ‘soft power’ and who wrote much about America’s engagement with the rest of the world is a reminder that one of the key elements in the old, globalised world order was America’s role as a policeman – with a near monopoly over deadly force and a very active, alert diplomatic corps. An example of this can be found in Brad Hope and Justin Scheck’s book ‘Blood &amp; Oil’ that describes the rise of Mohammed bin Salman as the ruler of Saudi Arabia. For decades the US has steered Saudi diplomacy, and Saudi rulers have guided America in the region. However, the book describes in some detail the lack of strategic direction of the first Trump administration in the military and diplomatic affairs of Saudi Arabia, beyond the organisation of a lavish welcome ceremony for a Trump visit to the Kingdom.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The second Trump administration looks set to entirely do away with the role of world policeman, and cynics might say, replace it with the role of rent collector. As such, the geopolitical risk premium will rise, and may help to explain why there are at least two conflicts where basic needs (water) are being weaponized (in Gaza and India/Pakistan). When it played the role of world policeman, the US kept the peace, much to its own advantage.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Now in the context of the very obvious dropping of moral guardrails around international relations, other countries will be less bound by a sense of world order, emboldened by an arms race, and will start to take risks and make mistakes. India-Pakistan is a very dangerous case of this, and one that draws into focus the trade-off between the cost to America’s role as world policeman, and the global ‘peace’ dividend it brought.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead, Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

The Policeman Premium

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This week, Mike examines the challenges facing universities amid Trump-era funding cuts in the US, calling for improved funding, smaller, more focussed institutions, and a renewed commitment to innovation and producing educated, active citizens.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;As someone who has spent a lot (some would say too much) of his life in universities, I have been following the US president’s attack on Harvard in particular, and the third level sector in general. Granted the president’s wish to boost investment in the US economy, snuffing out the independence and funding for universities is the last place he should start (a recent headline from NBC News captured the illogic of this ‘New images could change cancer diagnostics but ICE detained Harvard scientist who analyses them’).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In my own experience, universities are one of the best places in our societies – somewhere for young people to grow up, to learn and if they stay on as post-graduates, to produce knowledge. The best universities are smaller, have plenty of distractions for students (sports and clubs) and adequate accommodation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The US system at least appears to have figured out that most young people don’t necessarily know what they want to specialise in (or what occupation to pursue), so that undergraduates can mix various course options in their early years, before channelling themselves into subjects they find stimulating. That is not the case in Ireland and Britain, but labour markets are somewhat forgiving, such that someone with a good history degree could end up working in banking.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In contrast, the French system is based around universities that are generally too big, don’t have enough by way of extracurricular activities, and funnel students towards occupations where they may be unhappily trapped, unless of course, a student manages to make it to an elite school, whereupon they will be happily funnelled into the upper reaches of French society. Germany is not dissimilar, and in places more archaic and hierarchical, though the older universities like Heidelberg and Marburg are more conduits into professions like law than public life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;At the risk of sounding overly idealistic, my sense is that universities in the US and Europe have changed in at least two respects in the past two decades.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Many of them seem to behave as if they are businesses rather than public goods, and in some cases the heads of universities have appeared to use their roles as career steppingstones. At the same time, too many universities have grown too quickly in particular taking in international students (to help pay the bills) who are less invested in college life, without at the same time investing in teaching staff and well-planned accommodation. One risk that emanates from these trends is that students, in some cases, feel like consumers and are treated as such, and that this produces a poor student-teacher relationship. Social media and AI do not help at all in this regard.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;It used to be that universities could ignore the world beyond them, and vice versa. Disputes within universities were typically, and still are, vicious, because as Henry Kissinger said, there is so little at stake. CP Snow’s book ‘The Masters’ is a good example, and any readers wanting some light relief this weekend should read Tom Sharpe’s ‘Porterhouse Blue’ (the ITV tv series is even better).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The Trump administration’s attack on universities brings them into the spotlight and opens up the disturbing scenario that American universities follow the examples set in Turkey and Hungary. In Hungary, a country with a brilliant academic pedigree, Viktor Orban (who won a Soros funded place at Oxford) has corrupted, bullied and undercut universities. With seven of the top ten universities in the world located in the US (and half of the top 50 Time Higher Education rankings), the assault on university funding in the US is troubling in many ways and worrying that relatively few academics have reacted so far.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The saving grace of the larger US universities is their alumni base and large endowments, which puts them in a less vulnerable position than universities in Europe. Still, with colleges like MIT and Georgia Tech heavily dependent on government funding for research in the nuclear, semiconductor and space fields, there is plenty to worry about, and the risk is that the US is on the verge of a negative innovation shock.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;While universities are highly diverse, the advent of this new world order will bring several changes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The first is that in democratic countries, the onus on universities to produce educated, active citizens will be greater, and it might be that more debate than ‘safe spaces’ on campus is a good thing. By extension, there should be a greater obligation on governments to provide (no strings attached) funding for universities, as opposed to forcing them to go cap in hand to industry or wealthy Asian parents. If European governments are serious about enacting the Draghi reforms (and on capitalising on a brain drain from the US) they need to invest much, much more in universities. Switzerland is the benchmark here.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;An extension of this is that there is an understanding that universities are a key part of the innovation process in dynamic economies (the countries with the highest number of STEM students per capita are Switzerland, the Nordics, Ireland and France), but that the state should not try to impose a policy model on them, rather allow good universities to quietly get on with their research.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The second change is that many universities need to become smaller (the average size of the ten largest universities – excluding the Open University - in the UK is 40,000 students) and arguably more coherent in their focus. Relatedly, beyond early year undergraduates, I expect we will see a greater focus on specialisation and excellence in the sense that in a given country or region (Ireland is the example I have in mind) one university will be the ‘best’ at medicine, and another the ‘best’ at engineering. The constituent parts of the University of London, like Imperial and Kings, are good examples.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

University Challenge

&lt;p&gt;With redundancies once again on the horizon, Jonathan Crosbie, client relationship manager in our Corporate and Company Executives team, writes about the critical importance of financial planning. Redundancy can be a challenging experience affecting individuals on multiple levels. Understanding and managing the technical aspects of redundancy, while implementing effective strategies can help individuals navigate this transition more successfully, both financially and emotionally. A 3-minute read.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail&quot; - Benjamin Franklin&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we take a holistic view. Beyond the technical financial advice, we consider and understand your life goals, ensuring that our advice and your financial plan align with your broader life aspirations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Understanding Redundancy Packages in Ireland&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Redundancy packages in Ireland often consist of two main components:&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1. Statutory Redundancy (which is generally tax free)&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;and&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2. Ex Gratia Payments (are generally subject to tax)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There are 3 exemptions and reliefs available that can reduce the amount of tax:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Basic Exemption&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Increased Exemption&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Standard Capital Superannuation Benefit (SCSB)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Increased Exemption and the SCSB, generally provide a greater relief to the tax liable, however it is crucial to be aware that these reliefs can impact the tax benefits from your pension.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Managing Your Pension During Redundancy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When an employee takes redundancy; their employer will stop making contributions to their workplace pension (if a pension scheme is in place). However, the pension savings accumulated up to that point (generally) remain the property of the employee. The individual has options regarding their pension:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1. Leave the pension with the current provider&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2. Transfer the pension to a new provider&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;3. Defer the decision and potentially transfer later&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Addressing Emotional Consequences&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While dealing with the technical aspects of redundancy is critical for long-term stability, addressing the emotional consequences is equally important for your own wellbeing and resilience. Typical feelings of anxiety and fear, loss of identity, sadness, loss of routine, and career reassessment are all typical reactions.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A recent study by the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB)* identified “reducing financial worries and stress” as one of the top three benefits that financial planners provide to their clients.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By implementing and guiding you on financial planning strategies, Unio Wealth Management can ensure you make more informed decisions to create a solid foundation to address both the technical and emotional consequences of redundancy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How Your Unio Adviser can help&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You know what is important to you and your family and it is essential that your money is working to meet those goals. With a robust financial plan in place, it can allow you to make more informed decisions on the things that really matter.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Within the Unio Wealth Plan, we simplify:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• The tax implications of taking a redundancy&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Your entitlements and the employer’s offer&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• The connection between a redundancy and your pension&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• The relationship between emergency, short, and long-term financial needs, aligned with life goals&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Cashflow and Net Worth implications during the process.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Facing redundancy can feel overwhelming, but Unio is here to offer clear, structured financial planning and guidance to help you stay focused on what truly matters. To learn more, reach out to your adviser or &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;contact us directly.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Jonathan Crosbie is a client relationship manager in our Corporate and Company Executives team and &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Jonathan%20Crosbie&amp;segment=Corporate%20and%20Company%20Executives&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here.&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;*FPSB Value of Financial Planning Global Consumer Research 2023.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/navigating-redundancy-in-the-tech-sector&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Further reading: Navigating Redundancy in the Tech Sector by Conor Jordan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Smart Strategies for Redundancy

&lt;p&gt;This month's Unio Outlook provides an analysis of the current financial market volatility - the impact of US trade policies and the potential for long-term investment opportunities.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Valuations Normalising&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Investors are now becoming used to extreme levels of volatility in financial markets as the White House deepens its trade war with China and President Trump actively undermines the independence of the Federal Reserve.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our concern is that if the tariff stand-off persists, the global economy and in particular the US, faces a difficult recession. In addition, from a structural point of view, the undermining of US financial credibility from within, risks the pre-eminence of the dollar and the role of Treasuries as the lynchpin of the international financial system (which in turn may prove supportive for German, Dutch and Irish bonds for example).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, the unique aspect of this crisis is that it is man-made, and in the short but meaningful tradition of decision making by this president, could be easily reversed. Yet, while policy is unpredictable, there are some long-term trend changes worth bearing in mind from an investment strategy perspective.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first is that in this post-globalized world, policy uncertainty will likely be high for some time to come. This is not simply a function of US macro policy, but also reflects a world where Russia is a major security threat to Europe, and where institutions like the IMF and WTO (World Trade Organisation) are becoming irrelevant, and where the EU is rebuilding its security apparatus.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The second long term factor is a wariness towards US assets. The extreme rally in gold is a sign that investors are pricing in a less exceptional role for the US in the global financial system, and a less exalted reach of US multinationals across the global economy. We had started to adjust our portfolio away from US assets (towards European) in December and will likely stick with this stance until the tariff ‘war’ is definitively over.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Implications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From the point of view of investors, we ask whether this new world is now priced into market prices, and whether bargains are emerging (we are overweight cash currently). Small-cap companies (firms with a market capitalisation of USD 5bn and below) are a good guide here, because unlike the mega-cap social media stocks, they offer a much better representation of the economy. Valuations (price to earnings ratio for instance) for small-caps are now below average levels, though not quite as low as they have been in previous recessions. Still, from a long-term point of view lower valuations make life easier for asset allocations as they provide the chance to invest capital in a steady way.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Our View&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our sense overall, is that this sell-off is a man-made policy error, where a rapidly growing number of actors (Wall St, Federal Reserve for example) are pushing back on the actions of the White House. This suggests that policy capitulation might come before market capitulation, and backtracking by both the Treasury Secretary and President Trump suggests that the White House is ‘blinking’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Having started the year with a cautious stance, we maintain this outlook but are ready to be more opportunistic. With broad market valuations becoming more attractive now, our instinct is to add to global equities if recent market lows (and volatility highs) are tested. Strategically, we are starting to think of a world where US assets are less exceptional.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Who-blinks-first-Unio-Outlook-April-2025.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Unio Outlook April 2025 PDF for download.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Unio Outlook April 2025 is the output of this month's Unio Investment Committee(IC) meeting with views derived from the Unio Global Macro Council (GMC).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guard, guide and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;get in touch here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Who Blinks First?

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;I had intended to write about universities this week but, strolling through the City of London, I was surprised, shocked even, to find myself on Trump Street, and then amused to see that it is joined by Russia Row.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;My first thought was that this was part of a grand plan by the British establishment ahead of President Trump’s visit to London in September, the idea being to stage an event at the nearby Guildhall and to then tell the president that a nearby street had been named after him. Trump Street was apparently named so because several trumpet makers lived there in the 18th&nbsp;century, but let’s ignore that for the time being.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Yet, the far more meaningful coincidence of Trump Street is its proximity to Gresham Street.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Sir Thomas Gresham was a trader and financier in 16th&nbsp;century London, at a time when coffee houses in the lanes around the Royal Exchange formed the basis of what is known as the City. Gresham was an important player in Queen Elizabeth I’s economy, and his emblem – a grasshopper – is still present in various parts of the City (there is a giant-sized golden grasshopper on the roof of the Royal Exchange….if you can dare to make it up there).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;While Gresham’s imprint can be seen across the City, he is remembered by Gresham’s Law which was named after him and states ‘bad money will drive out the good’. Gresham’s Law which echoes similar observations from Copernicus and other scientists through the ages is founded on the idea that in an economy where coins with the same face value but that are made from different base metals (say nickel and copper) there is a tendency for traders to hoard the coins made of the more valuable metal and to circulate lower quality coins. Bad coins stay in circulation, good ones are re-commoditized. From an economics point of view the law is conditioned on all the coins (of variable quality) having the same face value.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Unlike the 16th&nbsp;century, today, coins have the same physical consistency and in general there is little incentive for people to shave bits off coins (historically coins have serrated edges to prevent this) but broadly Gresham’s Law is applicable in different domains.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Think of how cheap goods (made under questionable labour conditions) have forced quality players out of markets, or how in the run-up to the global financial crisis, low quality financial institutions offering generous loan conditions caused better quality banks to step back from lending. In both cases, regulation or policing of markets is necessary to ensure that ‘bad’ actors do not gain an advantage over good ones. Social media is another example, where it seems a lot of nonsense thrives at the expense of information.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Additionally, the idea of Gresham’s Law is applicable to politics, where in many countries it appears that political actors with extreme views and extreme modus operandi are forcing out ‘good’ ones in the sense that most normal people would be terrified of a career in politics.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Readers will guess that my argument is leading back to Washington. Bad behaviour, bad ideas and bad policies are infesting themselves in public life, the economy and markets – to the surprise of many ardent supporters of President Trump. What is not clear is whether this will result in an evacuation of capital and talent from the US, or whether there will be a counter-reaction. Gresham’s point in describing how bad money drives out good was to avoid the debasement of the currency (schilling), which, when Elizabeth I came to power, was already in a bad state. She appointed Gresham as a finance minister of sorts in 1560, and within a year he had ‘bad’ coins taken out of circulation and replaced them with money made from precious metal, the result of which was a dramatic improvement in Britain’s status as a trading and economic power.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The lesson of this should be very clear today. As a final point, it is interesting to note, from the point of view of coins and money, that the ratio of gold (precious metal) to a cyclical commodity (copper) is the most stretched it has been since at least the 1980’s, suggesting that markets at least are thinking of Gresham’s Law.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Have a great week ahead&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Grasshopper

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;N'interrompez jamais un ennemi qui est en train de faire une erreur.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;During the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon quipped to one of his commanders (General Soult) that one should never interrupt an enemy when he is making a mistake. Austerlitz was one of Napoleon’s tactical triumphs but unwisely, some seven years later the Emperor gathered one of the largest armies ever assembled and crossed Russia. The Russians burnt Moscow, harassed the French army and then patiently waited for the cold weather to cruelly teach Napoleon the error of his way (Sylvain Tesson’s book ‘Berezina’ offers a lively account of the retreat from Russia).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In a similar vein, as another modern-day, would-be emperor careens from financial calamity to geopolitical catastrophe, my sense is that the world beyond America, is best served by waiting and watching.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In the next two months the economic damage to America from the tariff campaign will become clear. The corporate earnings season has just started – some of the large banks have done well from the trading volumes created by market volatility – but as the focus turns to technology and other export focused firms, we can expect to see significant drops in earnings, a development that will make the still high valuation multiples for the US stock market hard to sustain. Relatedly, while investment banks are profiting from volatility, most of them are reporting that capital markets activity (public offerings, mergers and funding rounds for private equity deals) have stopped dead.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This is a shock for Wall St. With president Trump having installed a market trader as commerce secretary, a hedge fund manager as Treasury, a private equity titan in the defence department, and so on, capitalists might well have thought that the White House was on their side, but the annihilation of up to 8 trillion dollars in market capitalisation has proven them wrong. There is, I imagine, a limit to Wall St’s patience and the pushback on policy will grow.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;As it does, the hard (as opposed to ‘soft’ survey) data is likely to worsen dramatically, and the US will enter into an economic breakdown. At the start of this year I had sifted through the IMF GDP forecasts for 2025 and 2026, where uniquely they expected nearly all of the world’s economies to register positive growth. From this starting point, a global recession was a very low probability, but the Trump administration has blundered into one.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Now, policy makers in the US and abroad are realising that watching and waiting is the best way to entice Trump away from his tariff policy. There were signs of this on Wednesday when the Federal Reserve chair declared that tariffs would augment inflation and make it much harder for the central bank to cut rates. This statement represents quite the departure for a monetary authority that has greeted every flicker of economic trouble with lashings of cheap money. Mr Powell knows very well that it is not the job of a central bank to fix the mistakes of an errant policymaker, and very likely that a short, sharp market shock now might deter a great fiasco (and the credibility of the dollar) later.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In contrast, other central banks, who are unburdened by any sense of conflict of interest with Mr Trump, can feel much more free to cut rates into a coming recession, as the ECB did on Thursday. In that context, we may see the dollar strengthen in coming weeks, and much of the stress of the White House policies on the economy, transferred to the corporate bond market.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Then a key, patient player in this unfolding drama is China which, whilst it has deep economic faultlines of its own, is politically and socially coherent enough to weather the onslaught from Washington. Like the Russians who took on Napoleon, China’s strategy is partly one of endurance, partly ‘guerrilla’ (think of rare earth export controls, supply chain manipulation leading to shortages of goods in the US) and a patient attitude to the market turmoil that is starting to undermine the financial credibility of the USA.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Europe may follow suit. Giorgia Meloni spent Thursday in the US with president Trump and then raced back to Rome to host JD Vance. Her visit was useful in terms of Italian and EU diplomacy, but the EC is carefully signalling to Washington that any negotiations on trade will have to be done through Brussels alone, which as the Brexit process revealed, is a hard defence to breach.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Napoleon left Moscow in the middle of October 1812, eventually to creep into Paris just before Christmas. His army was devastated, only 100,000 or so men from an initial force of 600,000 survived. Donald Trump is no Napoleon. In two months’ time the US economy may well be in a state of disarray, consumer confidence and confidence in the president will likely have plummeted further, and the world will be watching and waiting for his capitulation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Have a great week ahead&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Watching and Waiting

&lt;h1&gt;Business Owners – Are You Ready for Auto Enrolment?&nbsp;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Webinar: Securing Your Future – Auto Enrolment and Retirement Strategies&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;📅 Date: 24th April 2025&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;🕒 Time: 11 am, 30 minutes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3294669446919082842&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Register now and secure your spot&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The proposed implementation date of ‘My Future Wealth’ is &lt;strong&gt;30 September 2025. &lt;/strong&gt;Comments by Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers this weekend indicate that this date is likely to be pushed back, giving business owners more time to prepare.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you're running a business and have employees, auto enrolment isn’t just a good idea – it’s a legal requirement. But navigating the rules, deadlines, and responsibilities can be a challenge. That’s why Unio SME is hosting a webinar designed specifically for business owners like you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What you’ll learn:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Your legal duties under auto enrolment&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Common pitfalls and how to avoid them&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• How to streamline the process and stay compliant&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Retirement strategies for business owners&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Q&amp;A with our experts&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whether you're new to auto enrolment or need a refresher, this session will leave you feeling confident and in control.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Presented by:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Brian Sexton, Head of Consulting, Unio Employee Benefits&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Niamh Bradley, Private Client Adviser, Unio SME, Unio Wealth Management&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Note that a recording will be made available after the event.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Auto Enrolment and Retirement Strategies

&lt;p&gt;In November 2008, in the darkest hour of the global financial crisis, Queen Elizabeth II asked an audience at the London School of Economics ‘Why did no one see it coming”. We might ask the same question today in respect of Donald Trump’s tariff war, where he has diminished the things that he was reputed to hold dear – the economy, the stock market and the dollar.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One disturbing template that might offer insight into the path that the American economy takes is Brexit. As noted by the current prime minister of Canada, Brexit was not the solution to the problems that Britain faces. Certainly, the disengagement of the US from the world trade system is becoming as soap operatic and sometimes ludicrous as Brexit was.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;An even more pertinent example might be Britain at the turn of the 19th century when there was a palpable sense that the might of its empire was peaking. At the time tariffs and trade were widely debated, and leading politicians like Joseph Chamberlain proposed the idea of an ‘imperial preference’, a lower tariff on trade with its colonies, to create a trading zone that would buffer the rise of the US and Germany.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To a certain extent, tariffs and trade became the issue of the day, but in the 1906 general election the public voted overwhelmingly for liberal, open trade (less restrictive tariffs) candidates. This I suspect was also the intention of those who supported Donald Trump in November last – keep the economy and markets strong, whilst evening up the status quo (a little). That tariff rates set by the US (and China) are at levels only last seen in the 1920’s completes the shock, and the rhyme with history.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One reason tariffs were a popular policy tool one hundred years ago is that the fiscal side of the economy was not well developed (only a small proportion of Americans paid tax) and, in some cases, central banks did not exist. Today, tax systems are well developed, and as small, open economies show, they are the best mechanism to reduce inequality, and to entice investment, both stated objectives of the Treasury secretary.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This particular market crisis is interesting because it is nearly entirely man-made. Turkey has taken a similar path in recent years, all but eviscerating its bond market and currency, but these are inconsequential compared to the depth of US markets. Whilst the president has stepped nimbly and profitably (some say) away from the financial brink, he still risks contagion of his actions in a number of respects.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Two such risks loom on the horizon, an economic war with China and a crisis of credibility in US financial assets.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We are now led to believe that ‘it was China all along’, but it would have been easier to tackle China with the support of America’s former allies in Canada, Japan, the UK and Europe.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For its part, China has plenty of tools to respond to the US with – it can allow its currency to weaken further and through supply chain disruption can inflict higher consumer prices, shortages of goods and lower (Chinese) demand on the US. Informal boycotts of American goods, investigations of US service firms and rare earth restrictions are just a few other tools at China’s disposal.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Should an economic war between the US and China materialise, my sense is that a supportive response from the Federal Reserve has been made less likely by Wednesday’s tariff capitulation by the White House, which demonstrates how arbitrary policy is under this administration.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the longer-run, the actions of the Trump team could manifest themselves in a capital crisis in the context of the way they have undermined confidence in the US and by extension its financial system. What the likes of Peter Navarro seem not to have grasped is that the quid pro quo of America’s trade deficit is its enormous financial power – the role of the dollar and Treasuries as lynchpins of the international financial system, the dominance of US financial systems and its integral role in the fabric of capital markets, and the capital that overseas investors provide them.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With Mr Trump behaving in the way that some might caricature as ‘emerging market’, If we apply an emerging market stock market valuation rating to US stocks, the SPX index would be half its current size for instance. Equally, the mid-week selloff in Treasuries which was most likely the result of hedge funds unwinding positions, but it is the poor performance of bonds that underlines the sceptical view that markets are starting to take of the administration.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this context, we may be at the beginning of a great unwind of American financial power.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Did no one see it coming?

&lt;p&gt;This is a recording of a live webinar entitled The Trump Tariffs Effect: Market Impacts &amp; Investment Strategies, which was broadcast live on Tuesday, April 8th, 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/PlaFmA0dG-g?showinfo=0&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hosted by: Áine McGroarty, Chief Commercial Officer and Mike O’Sullivan, Chief Investment Officer, Unio Wealth Management&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During the 20 minutes call we covered:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- The economic impact of the new tariffs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Risk of potential recession and market volatility.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Investment strategies in uncertain times.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Audience Q&amp;A&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us. &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Trump Tariffs Effect

&lt;p&gt;I’ve spent much of the past quarter of the year zigzagging across Europe and the US, cursing Vladimir Lenin as I went. He is reputed to have coined the phrase ‘there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen’, which in turn has been repeated back to me wherever I went. I shouldn’t be too grumpy though, because the ‘Levelling’ is now playing out at high speed.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since Donald Trump entered the White House for the second time, so much has happened that I want to use this note – coming at the end of the first quarter of the year, to discern new emerging trends from noise, across four different domains.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bonfire of Diplomacy&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first emerging trend can be characterised by the image of the bonfire of diplomatic relationships, which started at the Munich Security Conference and has continued apace since then. Gone is the cosy globalised world of Bill Clinton and even George W Bush, where America was a benevolent colossus, keeping the peace, spurring prosperity, and putting out financial fires. In my travels, I found myself recommending investors to read Adam Smith on the topic of mercantilist economic behaviour, Palmerston on foreign policy (‘we have no allies, only interests’) and that they acquaint themselves with Peter Hopkirk’s ‘Great Game’.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In brief, my sense is that the Trump team wants the US to become a hyper-charged nation-state, rather than the hyperpower that it was. Whilst there is much consternation in Europe and parts of Asia about this, I do not yet detect widespread disapproval from many Americans I speak with.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Aux Armes!&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A consequence of this is Defence Union in Europe. Echoing the French president, we are all ‘strategic autonomists’ now. Many of the urgent phases in this journey are already being undertaken – the publication of the pragmatic EU White Paper on defence, the EU’s new Eur 800bn loan facility for defence spending and critically Germany’s decision to loosen the debt brake provision on defence spending.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Some intelligence agencies (Denmark and Finland for instance) estimate that in the event of a peace deal in Ukraine, Russia would be ready to launch a war on a European country in two years’ time, and in five years could have rebuilt its military to a level that it could consider a war against the EU. The Nordics, Baltic states, Poland, Germany, France and of course the UK appear to buy into the seriousness of this threat, but there are notable defence laggards, namely Spain and Ireland.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Neither does it seem that there is sufficient urgency on the security front – my experience was that Russians were omni-present in the cafes of Vienna and arguably not enough is being done to sanction governments that are apologists for Moscow (i.e. Hungary).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The one aspect of the European revival story I need to be convinced on is the cultivation of a pro-growth socio-economic outlook in countries like France, and specifically, of the need to instigate capital markets union (CMU), which whilst not a vote winner for politicians, is a necessary development for a stronger European economy.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Oops – muscle not fat&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The economic policy of the Trump administration is difficult to decipher through the noise of chainsaws and crashing of markets. At its core, I detect a nihilistic fiscal conservatism – a desire to shrink the fiscal deficit and by extension the enormous debt load that means that the USA pays out far more in interest payments What is causing dismay is that the policies enacted to temper the growth of the economy are cutting economic muscle not fat. Universities, researchers, and essential parts of the science establishment are being undercut, and socially it is disturbing to see veterans bearing the brunt of DOGE. More importantly, the shredding of the rule of law and politicising of justice have never helped any economy (Turkey is the case in point).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whilst much of the media coverage of the Trump economic policies has focused on the harm caused by tariffs (they should be applied in small, not massive doses), not enough attention is given to how corporations will react to policy uncertainty. &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/from-brexit-to-dixit&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;In a recent note&lt;/a&gt;, I described Avinash Dixit’s theory of how macro uncertainty causes companies to ‘wait and see’. In that respect, the forthcoming earnings reporting season and corporate action calendar bear close watching.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Exceptionally expensive&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Allied to the outlook for the US economy is a growing realisation on the part of investors that American assets (the dollar, stocks and corporate bonds) are very expensive, and dominate portfolios. In this regard, the Liberation Day announcement should worry investors. One is the sheer carelessness and apparent incompetence of the tariff policy – it has exposed the lack of analytical capacity in the administration and a lack of concern for the economy. Trust in the administration is draining. The other is that it has reminded investors of their exposure to US assets.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this stage, the majority of asset allocators in the investment industry still appear content to persist with very conventional portfolio structures, that are arguably not configured for a rapidly changing world.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One thought experiment I perform with investors is to show them how portfolios have changed through time. For example, in 1900 nearly 50% of stocks were railway companies, and the UK made up 25% of the world stock market (close to 3% now). Today the US weighs in at close to 68% of world equities, and my sense is that with the dollar still relatively strong, allocators should start to sell American exceptionalism in the sense that it is impounded in stock valuations.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A final lesson from Lenin might help them. For much of the period of the first wave of globalisation (1870 to 1900), Russian equities comfortably outperformed American companies. But, having been shut for much of the First World War, the Russian exchange opened again in January 1917. Then came the revolution and the market shut for 75 years.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Political risk matters!&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Learning to love Lenin

&lt;p&gt;A quick first take from Unio Wealth Management on the Liberation Day tariffs from our Chief Investment Officer, Mike O’Sullivan.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/l4oCeQHC7Eg?showinfo=0&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our immediate reaction to the Liberation Day announcement, from the point of view of corporations and markets, is concern.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The level of tariffs (it seems calculated as ‘country trade deficit with the US divided by exports’) are larger than expected, and punitive for European and especially China and even Japan and India.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A further worry is that the application of the tariffs is economically damaging, and the risk of a recession is now high. From the point of view of textbook economics, this level and scope of tariffs is puzzlingly bad for the US economy, and many investors will question the rationale and possibly the competence of the White House policy team.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There are two avenues ahead.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One is that the application of 20% tariffs on the EU (GB looks to have escaped with 10% and strangely pharmaceuticals have escaped tariffs) and 34% on China (on top of earlier tariffs) will necessitate a strong response from both regions. This has the potential to worsen the geopolitical environment and to trigger an unwanted global demand shock. One development may be that other countries form coalitions against the US in the trade process, that demand for US goods and services in Asia and Europe suffers. An open question is specifically how China responds, given the ways in which it can disrupt supply chains.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A more positive scenario is that the high level of tariffs is the first step in a grand ‘deal’, or negotiating process. The difficulty with this view is that diplomatic relations between the US and other regions are already strained, and the credibility of the US is now in question.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From the point of view of corporates, a minor positive is that the rate outlook is changing to a path of lower rates in 2025 (pricing in a demand shock), but the concern is that the extreme level of uncertainty will cause companies and private investors to put investment plans on hold. We note that the Fed chair speaks publicly on Friday, and the response of central bankers to this potential shock is another open question.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Equally, capital market activity may also see a hiatus until there is clarity on the trade outlook. Additionally, given the premise that the application of tariffs is to help US firms, this policy move creates a very difficult environment for them.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients’ wealth with unparalleled full financial life advice. Get our latest expert commentary direct to your inbox. &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/subscribe-to-the-view&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Subscribe here. &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Tariffs Reaction

&lt;p&gt;📻 Tune in as Joe Lynam and Mike O'Sullivan, Director, Unio Wealth Management discuss the likely impacts of today's tariff announcement on Newstalk's Breakfast Business. &lt;a href=&quot;https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ChTKm9hTaC4B2f8CO3GSJ?si=w4elJTurR6m-JYVRAF7eAQ&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Listen here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Comment from Mike O'Sullivan ahead of this evening press conference for the White House Rose Garden at 9pm Irish time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Ireland needs to look beyond the theatre and the ‘event’ of Liberation Day. It is imperative to focus on the long-term changes that will shape the future of the nation. One critical area of consideration is the source of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI); understanding where it comes from now and how it can be effectively utilised is vital. Additionally, identifying the industries of the future and tailoring university curriculums to support these emerging fields is essential for sustained growth. Ireland's firm position in the European camp will inevitably influence political dynamics, especially as the relevance of the US diminishes and the UK faces its own growth challenges. Moreover, addressing the funding required for substantial defence and climate damage liability remains a pressing concern, highlighting the need for strategic financial planning and resource allocation&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients’ wealth with unparalleled full financial life advice. Get our latest expert commentary direct to your inbox. &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/subscribe-to-the-view&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Subscribe here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Liberation Day

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In this article, Lynda McAuliffe, private client adviser in Unio’s Wealth Solutions team, discusses the underestimated financial value of stay-at-home parents and the importance of life insurance to protect families.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For some households, it is more cost-effective for one parent to stay at home while the other parent works. According to the 2022 Census data in Ireland, there were 272,318 stay-at-home parents, with 90% of them being women.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Stay-at-home parents, whether part-time or full-time, play a pivotal yet often underappreciated role in maintaining the household and nurturing the family. Because their labour is unpaid, its true value is easily overlooked, leading to significant financial implications, particularly when it comes to life insurance.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Underestimating the Financial Contribution&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to a recent survey from Royal London Ireland, almost nine in ten adults nationwide underestimate the financial value of a stay-at-home parent. Royal London Ireland also conducted its own research, estimating that the annual salary of a stay-at-home parent would be approximately €57,140 if their responsibilities were outsourced.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Life insurance policies often fail to account for the invisible labour of stay-at-home parents, leaving families financially vulnerable in the event of their loss.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The emotional impact of this loss makes it even harder to navigate the financial burden that follows. Life insurance isn’t just about money—it’s about giving families the breathing room to grieve without immediately worrying about survival.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While losing a loved one is devastating, losing a stay-at-home parent brings an added practical crisis: how to replace the full-time care, structure, and support they provided.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Providing a Safety Net for Families&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A well-planned life insurance policy ensures that families can afford quality childcare, household support, and the time necessary to adjust to their new reality. It offers a critical safety net, providing stability and security during an emotionally challenging period.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While there has been a shift toward dual-income households in recent decades, the protection needs remains the same. A comprehensive financial plan that includes life insurance is essential for safeguarding a family’s future, making sure both parents are adequately covered, and recognising the invaluable contributions of stay-at-home parents.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you would like to find out more about how you can take control of your financial future, reach out to your Unio adviser by emailing&lt;a href=&quot;mailto:wealthsolutions@unio.ie&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&nbsp;wealthsolutions@unio.ie&nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lynda McAuliffe QFA RPA FPRA is a private client adviser with our Wealth Solutions team at Unio Wealth Management. Lynda is based in Unio's Cork office.&lt;/p&gt;

The Unseen Value of Stay-at-Home Parents

&lt;p&gt;This article appeared in the &lt;a href=&quot;https://isme.ie/publication/the-bisme-27/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Spring 2025 edition of bISME&lt;/a&gt;, the quarterly publication of the Irish SME Association (ISME).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio Wealth Management is a new addition to the ISME network and has emerged as a fresh name in Wealth Management in Ireland. Our mission is to ensure that, as business owners, your time is well spent, that you are informed about your financial position and have the peace of mind to build your business, while we take care of the rest.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio has a team of expert advisers who work with business owners every day. Unio SME understands that busy professional and personal lives often mean that time is at a premium for you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How we can help business owners.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Planning for your Own Future&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Business owners pour everything into their company, but what about life beyond work? A strong retirement plan through your company can provide financial stability when the time comes to step back.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tax efficiency &amp; Smart Investments&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Managing surplus cash wisely, maximising tax efficiencies and ensuring investments align with long-term goals can boost financial security for you and your business&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Protecting your Team&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Attracting and retaining talent is crucial. Employee benefits, including pension schemes, life and income protection plans, not only provide financial security for employees, but also strengthen your business.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Succession and Exit Strategy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whether passing the business on or preparing for a sale, having a structured plan and advice ensures a smooth transition for all.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gary Cullen, Head of SME at Unio, appreciates that SME owners juggle countless responsibilities daily. “Managing personal finances and understanding how your business is intertwined with this is vital. We know that allocating time to pension planning, investment and employee benefits can be time consuming and can divert attention away from your core business activities. Our dedicated SME team is here to help and take ownership of these for you. We offer tailored financial solutions specific to your needs to give you the peace of mind to then focus on what you do best – growing your business.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Peter Walsh, a Private Client Adviser with Unio SME, explains this approach: “There are so many facets to running a business - from that initial leap, to growing and eventually passing onto the next generation, and everything in between. At Unio, we partner you on this journey, prioritising your financial wellbeing, that of your team and your business. We provide you with a comprehensive, bespoke financial life plan to achieve this – we will show where you are now and get you thinking about where you can be in future. Your business is very much part of this journey, and we will then work with you to achieve these goals.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We understand that SMEs are the backbone of economic Ireland and are at the heart of local communities. With offices in Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Cork, our team are there for you and can be flexible to your schedule, all to ensure that financial growth for you and your team is not a challenge, but an opportunity.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gary Cullen is head of our SME team at Unio and &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Gary%20Cullen&amp;segment=Business%20Owners&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Peter Walsh is a private client adviser with Unio SME and &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Peter%20Walsh&amp;segment=Business%20Owners&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

Financial Wellbeing for You, Your Team and Your Business

&lt;p&gt;My friends in the French Air Force tell me (by Signal obviously) that last Tuesday’s ‘Poker 2025’ nuclear attack exercise went off well. Rafale fighter jets loaded with mock nuclear missiles took off from bases in Brittany, supported by Mirage fighters, refuelling and signals planes, in order to stage an attack on the southern part of France, which in this simulation was defended by a host of other air forces (i.e. Poland).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This was the first ‘Poker’ exercise in four years and comes at an opportune time for France to demonstrate its nuclear capability to other EU states, and to up the ante in terms of the defence debate in Europe. More alarmingly, America’s retreat as the guarantor of international security, and Russia’s aggression of Ukraine and Europe, not to mention the darker intentions of Iran and China, have prompted a range of countries – from Poland to Australia to debate whether they need a nuclear deterrent.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Acquiring or building nuclear weapons is one thing, figuring out how and when to use them is another. In 1983, a potential nuclear exchange was averted when an officer in the Soviet Air Defence Force, Stanislav Petrov, correctly assessed that a signal of an incoming missile attack was a false alarm and did not trigger an urgent warning to his chain of command. Also, in 1962 the Bay of Pigs standoff between the US and Russia came dangerously close to a missile exchange between the superpowers (book ‘The Kennedy Tapes’ is well worth reading).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this context, it is also time to resurrect the film ‘Dr Strangelove’, a Stanley Kubrick movie that hinges on the dilemma of a first strike nuclear attack by the US on Russia. The central character in the movie, played brilliantly by Peter Sellers, is thought to have been based on Johnny von Neumann, a brilliant Hungarian-American polymath, who passed through some of the world’s most prestigious schools (ETH Zurich, Gottingen and the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton) and was a significant contributor to the US atomic weapons program.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of von Neumann’s accomplishments was the founding of game theory – the modelling of strategic decision making. The logic of Dr Strangelove turns around the game theoretic problem that could be described as ‘if I think my nuclear armed opponent might think I AM going to strike him, and he might react, then I had better strike him first’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Game theory has become an important part of economics since von Neumann’s work and is also very useful in international relations. It may enjoy a revival in the context of the second Trump presidency (a couple of weeks ago in ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/from-brexit-to-dixit&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Brexit to Dixit’&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;I invoked the work of another Princeton resident, Avinash Dixit, on real options theory, which is helpful in explaining how policy uncertainty is impacting investment decisions).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Game theory helps to explain why the world was so stable during the period of globalisation – the international landscape was dominated by a large, predictable, and mostly benevolent ‘actor’ (USA) in the context of a host of other less powerful actors. The advent of a new, powerful, self-interested actor (China) changed the nature of the international ‘game’ (as popularised in books like Graham Allison’s ‘Destined for War’).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The reason that game theory will be in vogue in international relations is that the assumptions behind the dominant player in the game, the US, are already radically changing, as witnessed by comments this week from Mark Carney the Canadian prime minister.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The US may no longer be dominant (a powerful nation-state rather than an empire), it could be more adversarial rather than benevolent and generally unpredictable. In the game theory framework, such a view of the US as an actor on the international stage could prompt other nations to take hitherto unthinkable actions – Japan might build a nuclear weapons program (it has the wherewithal to do so quickly) and provide this to South Korea, China might decide to bolster its soft power by underwriting health and poverty programs for the UN, and Europe may offer its citizens a secure, private social media service (not unlike the WeChat suite).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Next week’s Liberation day (April 2) tariff announcement will play a role in the transformation of the US in the eyes of its allies and neighbours, and a game theoretic response is that we see much greater coordination between Japan, the EU, UK and Canada around their collective trade and economic relationship with the US.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Have a great week ahead&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Poker 2025

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Many high earners in Ireland are financially successful but still lack the right guidance to make the most of their wealth. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.businesspost.ie/commercial-reports/helping-high-earners-achieve-their-full-financial-potential/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;In this week's Sunday Business Post&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;em&gt;, Ian Brady, Chief Executive at Unio Wealth Management discusses how strategic financial advice can unlock greater opportunities for professionals, business owners, and executives. A 4 minute read.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wealth in Ireland only started to grow materially in the late 1990s, there is an historic, generational transfer of wealth under way and a new cohort of earned wealth creating a surge in the need for wealth advice. Unio has ambitious growth plans and is filling that void for Ireland’s wealthy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With much of Ireland experiencing wealth for the first time, knowledge and education is key for success. According to the 2022 European Fund and Asset Management Association’s Household Participation in Capital Markets Report, Ireland has just 1 per cent of its wealth invested in funds and securities, versus a European average of 10 per cent. Yet we have high savings rates. So why aren’t more people building their wealth through investing?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“Ireland became wealthy quite quickly, and culturally, a lot of our wealth was traditionally invested in land and property,” said Ian Brady, CEO of Unio Wealth Management. “Swathes of high earners in Ireland are completely under-advised, perhaps because there is a bit of reluctance among people in Ireland to talk about wealth. People often have a view of investing as a product-led transaction and that might feel cold to some people and put them off. In contrast, we see in other countries a more mature and established culture of advice-led financial planning supported by robust investment solutions. This is more inclusive of the whole family and their life goals, this is where Unio comes in.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio is the coming​ together of five of Ireland’s leading wealth management​ and employee benefit companies, with the financial backing of Great-West Lifeco, significantly the owners of Irish Life. The company has a clear goal of guiding, guarding and growing wealth in Ireland, opting for a progressive and inclusive approach that truly considers clients’ holistic and financial needs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“Our clients tell us that wealth means more to them than money or assets, it is about quality of life for the future, we understand this and it’s what makes Unio different, our full financial life planning is unique,” said Brady. “We are here to really understand our clients and what they want to do with their wealth into the future and help them achieve it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“Ireland is good at saving money, but the vast majority of it is in overnight accounts. People can make their savings work harder by investing in the context of a solid financial plan and in this regard, there is a long way to go in Ireland. Typically, people don’t access advice in Ireland to the levels seen internationally. In the US, it’s a badge to talk about your adviser.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Swathes of high earners in Ireland are completely under-advised&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While Unio may be focused on helping Ireland’s wealthy, their advisers also have a mission of advising and guiding people from an early age so they can achieve wealth one day. “We are set up to meet people where they are and for us that is in the workplace. Unio has an employee benefits business, so we’re in the workplace advising people with their pensions,” said Brady. “We find that often people start to build a relationship around financial planning when they start paying into a pension. It’s a great place to bring people up to speed with financial planning and what people need to do before retirement. Irish Life serves 27 of the top 30 multinationals in the country, where much of this wealth is emerging, so it’s natural that a wealth management business like Unio should sit alongside this also.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The advantage of this holistic planning-based approach is that advisers can help clients with a vast range of needs. “Our aim is to give our clients immense peace of mind, maximise their wealth and unlock their confidence in the future,” said Brady. “We know that careful planning and expert guidance is at the heart of every financial success, but this is a highly personal, and can be, an emotive experience for our clients. We understand that clients want to deal with a company that’s empathetic, warm and inclusive, that’s Unio. Our team is genuinely passionate about helping clients reach their financial life goals and achieve their full financial potential.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This article appeared in the Sunday Business Post on Sunday, 23rd March and is available here to read online: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.businesspost.ie/commercial-reports/helping-high-earners-achieve-their-full-financial-potential/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Helping high earners achieve their full financial potential&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;get in touch here. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Helping High Earners Achieve their Full Financial Potential

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.irishtimes.com/sponsored/2025/03/10/the-wealth-management-partner-that-helps-you-create-the-space-to-change-the-pace/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;This article appeared in the Irish Times on Tuesday, 18th March 2025.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Putting financial decisions on the long finger is short-changing your future self&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unio advisers know that no two clients are the same. It’s why everything they do is tailored to each client, designing wealth management solutions that meet their specific needs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It’s an expertise that comes from decades of experience helping clients to identify their goals, build a plan for their future and, most importantly, how to fund it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That’s because Unio Wealth Management represents the coming together of some of Ireland’s leading wealth management and employee benefit companies backed by Canadian international financial services company Great-West Lifeco.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As such, it specialises in meeting the needs of people in Ireland who have accumulated wealth, either through good jobs or good fortune, but yet they are time poor and as a result are under-advised when it comes to what their wealth means for their future and how to maximise it fully.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That accounts for more of us than we might appreciate, explains Wendy McKeown, Unio’s head of financial planning, and Conor Murray, head of its corporate and company executives’ business.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our clients tell us that wealth means more to them than money or assets, it is about quality of life for the future, we understand this and this is what makes Unio different to other investment houses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The great escape&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They talk about a couple that Murray works with as a case in point, in their mid-fifties, were feeling “a little bit stuck on the corporate treadmill”, when they met him, says Murray.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“They were lucky in that they had accumulated assets, including cash and property, but needed a clearer picture of their future.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Both had travelled extensively for work. “They had been all over the world, but only from the airport to the meeting and back. They never had time to explore the world together,” he explains.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Indeed, they were such career highflyers that “even getting them in the one room at the same time was a challenge,” he recalls.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They came to him with a goal already formulated but no clear path to achieving it. Their wish was to retire at 61 while they were young enough to enjoy traveling, together.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Through his conversations with them, Murray helped them to understand what they needed to do to make that future a reality.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By talking through their lives, priorities, and motivations, together they mapped out a comprehensive plan that enabled them to achieve and fund early retirement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The plan included increasing their pension contributions and making investment options that would generate reliable income. Knowing the impact of these steps was a great motivator in their final years of work, he adds.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“Though one of them suffered a recent health scare, knowing that they had enough to fund their retirement was a huge relief. Now they travel six times a year, making unforgettable memories,” he says.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Having the space to change pace&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A client that sticks in Wendy McKeown’s mind is a business owner who felt it was time to step back from her business and rebalance her life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“She had been working at 100 miles an hour up until that point, had always been focused on the business and its success, and hadn’t taken the time to take stock and think about herself. Now, she wanted to take her foot off the pedal a little, and focus on hobbies and interests, and just enjoy the life she had worked so hard to build,” explains McKeown.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Together they worked out how to make her finances work harder for her, to enable her to do just that. While she had taken retirement relief from her company, she found herself sitting on cash deposits earning a low rate of interest. They established that her priority was to have a reliable monthly income, with access to her cash if she needed it. McKeown helped her tidy up her pension and take advantage of all the tax credits available to her.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After decades of calling all the shots herself as a business owner, having an expert to reassure and guide her through her finances was a welcome relief, recalls McKeown.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“I think she really appreciated the support and encouragement and now has the funds to do what she wants with the most precious asset of all – her time.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A new chapter, a new life&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of the toughest challenges facing any of us is how best to manage wealth in the event that our significant other passes away. That was the scenario facing another of McKeown’s clients.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Her husband died and left her with a sizeable estate but no real experience in managing finances. “While she was grateful for the security that provided, she was anxious about the responsibility of it, and knew she needed professional advice to help her navigate this next chapter of her life,” says Wendy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As ever, the key to putting the right plan in place was to spend time listening, with no pressure and no rushed decisions, she explains.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A plan was agreed and implemented, including setting aside a significant contribution for a charitable purpose, which was enormously meaningful to her client. “It was about providing guidance and reassurance every step of the way,” says McKeown.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When do you need wealth management advice?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“Very often people are working in senior corporate roles and are unbelievably time-poor but have complex financial needs in the background, and probably a family as well. They don’t get time to stop and really understand what all of this means for them and their family into the future,” says Conor.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“For us it’s about really trying to understand what’s important to the client. It’s about what they want to get out of it. Then it’s about giving them the peace of mind and reassurance of knowing they have the wealth behind them to live the life they want to live.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In many cases, people are overwhelmed by their financial situation and so put it on the long finger, points out McKeown. But in doing so they are inevitably short-changing their future selves.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The fact that there is currently €150 billion sitting in low-interest cash deposit accounts, eroded by inflation, bears this out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“The potential opportunities you leave behind by not taking action can be significant down the road. It could be the difference between becoming financially independent or being forced to continue working. It’s why it is just so important to seek out that advice,” adds Murray.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“Clients that invest time in the process with their Unio Wealth Management Adviser are making the greatest investment in their future. Those who invest in advice were twice as likely to feel positively about their future. That’s why we believe that time spent with Unio is truly time well spent,” he concludes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.irishtimes.com/sponsored/2025/03/10/the-wealth-management-partner-that-helps-you-create-the-space-to-change-the-pace/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;This article appeared in the Irish Times on Tuesday, 18th March 2025.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Conor Murray is head of Corporate and Company Executives at Unio Wealth Management and &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/adviser_callback?name=Conor%20Murray&amp;segment=Corporate%20and%20Company%20Executives&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;may be contacted here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wendy McKeown is head of Financial Planning at Unio Wealth Management.&lt;/p&gt;

Creating the Space to Change the Pace

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This January was the hottest January on record, at a temperature of 1.75°C above the average for the month (2024 was the hottest year on record with 150 extreme weather events). February was the month with the highest level of economic policy uncertainty since the 1990’s (excluding COVID). Something must be brewing but, the global narrative is so concentrated on the White House and intensely short-term that in a way, the future has been obscured.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Whether we like it or not, climate damage is part of that future path and will play its own role in the disorder and re-ordering of the international political economic landscape to come. Regular readers will know that in the framework of my ‘Levelling’, imbalances like the crisis of democracy, climate damage and debt will have to be overcome before a new world order is fully established.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In particular, the deepening of climate damage and the rise of indebtedness are correlated, and both are ‘world’ problems, at a time when coordination between the great powers is at its lowest ebb since the 1930’s. For game theorists at least, this produces a tricky equation – how to achieve a global solution or compromise when the main players in the game are trying to steal a march on each other.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Some of the pathways for climate warming are worrying (taking a range of datapoints from the IPCC, Berkley-Earth institute and the Global Carbon Project), if countries implement the commitments agreed at COP-Paris then global warming will be 2.4°C higher than the long-term average temperature by 2050, with current climate policies the increase is expected to be close to 3.5°C and with no climate policy adjustment it might be in the range of 4-5°C. Granted that a 1°C change in world average temperature can translate into a 4°C increase in some of the most climate precarious countries, this last scenario is frightening.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;If climate damage encroaches on some of the thresholds mentioned above, it will become even more of a strategic issue for the economy (there is a &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nber.org/papers/w33567__;!!O22_8FOSssc!nRyLaIlceKvVBdZmghiZGMvVjt3QMOpWGPBUAUt82eHLwjlb5aQSb-kGW3X8wYRjccB_TIWub-38VM0uUuCEVo37$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;good literature review here&lt;/a&gt;), the technology sector, financial markets and security. Indeed, the 2023 yearly threat assessment produced by the US Director for National Intelligence highlighted that “Climate change will increasingly exacerbate risks to U.S. national security interests”.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This report might well become a collector’s item because Pete Hegseth the new Defence Secretary recently (Jan 25) tweeted that “The (Department of Defence) does not do climate change crap”. Whilst the US economy is a very powerful driver of climate technology (Texas gets nearly a third of its electricity from wind power), its absence as a moral leader will mean weaker climate policy adherence by other countries.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In that context the link between climate damage and security will have to be made by others, notably the excellent team at UCL’s &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.ucl.ac.uk/future-crime/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!nRyLaIlceKvVBdZmghiZGMvVjt3QMOpWGPBUAUt82eHLwjlb5aQSb-kGW3X8wYRjccB_TIWub-38VM0uUqJuXo3S$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Dawes Centre for Future Crime&lt;/a&gt;, with whom I spent time last week exploring how climate damage is provoking new forms of crime and threats to security that go beyond the simple theft of copper wires and solar panels (a vibrant trade apparently).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;There are a few strands in this emerging, important debate to draw out. Climate damage will in the long-run change cities, geographies and economies and produce migratory trends that malevolent states or non-state actors (gangs and organised crime) will exploit. Energy infrastructure is becoming more stressed because of climate change and the side-effects of this were evident last week with the closure of Heathrow following a fire in a nearby electricity substation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In a more futuristic vein, the response to climate warming will create new technologies, some of them in the realm of geo-engineering which may be able to alter the effects of climate damage, but that might also be commandeered for harm. Then there is AI, which itself will create much greater demand for electricity, but that can help optimise energy usage, though the AI itself is vulnerable to manipulation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Climate change is also leading to the development of new marketplaces – for carbon credits for example, as well as ESG driven assets and debt, but these new forms of financial market infrastructure are often illiquid, improperly regulated and prone to fraud.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;What all this points to is that as climate damage provokes innovation, new infrastructure, technologies and markets in the context of a world where security is now a priority and where non-state actors (i.e. gangs) become more powerful and daring, the response to climate damage now also needs to have countermeasures built into it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Have a great week ahead&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Clime and Punishment

&lt;p&gt;With emerging market equities remaining affordable relative to those in the US, the Global Macro Council has turned its attention this month to China.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The noise created by the Trump administration has overshadowed significant progress in China. The country is advancing rapidly in AI model building and fostering collaborations with entrepreneurs like Jack Ma.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Chinese-Revival-March-2025.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Read more in this month's GMC Outlook.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We were delighted to be joined this month by guest speakers Archie Hart, Ninety One&nbsp;and Steve Fuk Shing Sheung from HSBC. Thank you both for your valued input.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;get in touch here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Chinese Revival

&lt;p&gt;Markets have been choppy for some time, and this week is no exception. You may be wondering what’s driving this volatility, and what it may mean for investments?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Watch below as our Chief Investment Officer, Mike O'Sullivan and Alex Kinsella, Head of Investment Solutions at Unio, discuss the key factors behind the recent swings and, more importantly, how investors can stay positioned amid the uncertainty.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/OHvkMbXITCA?showinfo=0&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more,&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; get in touch.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Volatility in Markets - What You Need to Know.

&lt;p&gt;When the UK voted to leave the European Union, there was a strong consensus that proximate economies would suffer the macro fallout – Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands were all expected to take a hit, and in particular, I recall speaking with business leaders in both Brussels and Amsterdam at the time and registering their concerns for the local economy. In fact, Brussels was strengthened as a political capital by the way in which it managed the Brexit process, and Amsterdam has been bolstered as a financial capital by Brexit.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Returning to both cities, which sadly are off my well beaten track, I found great curiosity regarding the vision and tactics of Donald Trump. Like Brexit, Trump’s first term was about smashing globalisation, whilst his second term is an attempt to create a new world order, or at least a new American role in the world order.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The prosecution of his tariff strategy has been chaotic and unpredictable, and there are signs that the DOGE project to cut costs in the government sector is simply disruptive. As a result, policy uncertainty has spiked higher. For example, the &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.policyuncertainty.com/index.html__;!!O22_8FOSssc!nBBbgzPHsJQ07cFck0q8OnEfGJ1_EPGyWFIoEvs8XdGXwR1Lm_88ZwyWo6_Pj5f8ZeKz-mmQzG6lIbh97NaQB0AD$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Economic Policy Uncertainty&lt;/a&gt; index has shot to levels seen only during COVID. As such there is great concern that the US may tip into a recession or even that this is the express policy of the administration, with the goal of reducing borrowing costs (see ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/un-train-peut-cacher-un-autre&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Un train peut cacher un autre&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/thelevelling.blog/2025/03/01/un-train-peut-cacher-un-autre/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!nBBbgzPHsJQ07cFck0q8OnEfGJ1_EPGyWFIoEvs8XdGXwR1Lm_88ZwyWo6_Pj5f8ZeKz-mmQzG6lIbh97DIl894I$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;’&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Neither the annihilation of the state nor tariffs may cause a recession, but uncertainty might. In this context, a very well regarded, though complex economics text worth knowing of is Avinash Dixit’s &quot;Investment and Hysteresis’ appearing in a 1992 edition of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, and later as a book co-authored with Robert Pindyck. Avinash spent much of his career at Princeton and is a kind, softly spoken and thoughtful economist, in contrast to many of the more head-line grabbing varieties of the species we hear from on social media.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of Dixit’s pre-occupations was the ways in which companies made investment decisions, and to summarise his findings in a crude way, he noted that firms often didn’t react immediately to a change in economic circumstances but opted to ‘wait and see.’ As a result, an environment of high economic uncertainty produces inertia on the part of companies (and investors), but this can be beneficial to them as it gives them the option to wait and see how that environment develops.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We are in a ‘Dixit’ moment, where companies are beginning to stall investment plans because of the uncertainty emanating from the White House and the ever deeper fracturing of trade and diplomatic relationships across the world. In financial markets, there is a risk that the capital market pipeline remains constipated as mergers and initial public offerings are stalled.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Similarly, the growing uncertainty of America's diplomatic and military intentions is causing nation-states to change course. For example, Portugal has just cancelled an order for F-35 fighter jets and will instead buy European planes, while the centrepiece of Australia’s military strategy, AUKUS, is in disarray.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It is difficult to tell how long this ‘Dixit’ moment persists and much depends on the Treasury and White House being able to communicate a clear economic strategy. Notably the administration has been silent on its intentions towards China, which strikes me as odd given that many members of the administration are united in their antipathy towards America’s geostrategic rivalry (Marco Rubio for example published&nbsp;‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/PDFFiles/Marco-Rubio-The-World-China-Made.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The World China Made&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.rubio.senate.gov/rubio-releases-report-the-world-china-made-made-in-china-2025-nine-years-later/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!nBBbgzPHsJQ07cFck0q8OnEfGJ1_EPGyWFIoEvs8XdGXwR1Lm_88ZwyWo6_Pj5f8ZeKz-mmQzG6lIbh97Iq4x1te$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;’&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Until we have this clarity, markets will remain jittery, macro data will be unpredictable, and activity will err towards the softer side in the US, but perhaps not in Europe where strategic clarity and ambition are picking up from low levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Granted that far too much of the macro debate focuses on the big multipolar zone (US, Europe and China), one of the pleasures of my visit to Amsterdam was the chance to meet with David Skilling (the expert on small, open economies) and also serendipitously with Afshin Molavi (the expert on ‘the other 75%’, by which I mean the emerging world economies). It is worth focusing a little on how both of these groups are adjusting to a changing world.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Many small open economies are now in a state of high alert, sceptical of the strategic consequences of the actions of the large nations. In many cases, they are mobilising militarily – the Nordics and Baltic states are an example, and &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/distance&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;in a recent note&lt;/a&gt; I detailed how Singapore, though it is one tenth the size of County Cork, it has an active army nearly ten times the size of that of Ireland, and a reserve army of 250,000 well trained soldiers).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At the other end of the spectrum, large populous emerging countries (think of Indonesia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh) are worried about the fallout of the US-China rivalry, but in many ways non-aligned and ambitious for their own economies. On a more positive note Afshin and I think that our ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/thelevelling.blog/2023/09/15/the-fourth-pole/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!nBBbgzPHsJQ07cFck0q8OnEfGJ1_EPGyWFIoEvs8XdGXwR1Lm_88ZwyWo6_Pj5f8ZeKz-mmQzG6lIbh97LZrAXgB$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;4th Pole’&lt;/a&gt; thesis – that the greater economic region linked by the UAE-Saudi Arabia and India – has the makings of a new pole of economic activity.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

From Brexit to Dixit

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Michael and Ann’s Story&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a couple with busy careers, we had big plans for our family’s future but just weren’t sure how to make it all happen. We needed to put the kids through school and university, plan for a few important life events like weddings and work towards a comfortable retirement. We have the added complication that one of us is Australian, so it was vital for us to visit home regularly to keep that connection with family. Like most people, we have a big mortgage however, we both earn well, have share options and, a large lump sum from an inheritance. We know we have significant assets, we’re lucky; the problem is finding the time to figure it all out. Something else always takes priority and to be honest, managing your finances can feel overwhelming. You are always wondering if you are doing the right thing. We needed help to bring the pieces of the puzzle together.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How Unio Wealth Management Helped Us&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From the get-go, our Unio adviser listened carefully to understand our family’s needs and&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;created a plan that addressed everything from building our pension savings and setting up education funds for the kids to planning for life’s milestones. With their guidance, we were able to pay off our mortgage early, saving €180,000 over its lifetime.&nbsp;This alone was a game changer, freeing up income to allow us book those flights and spend time with family. Family Christmases in Sydney are now in the plan as well as annual trips to Ireland for the grandparents.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Final Reflections&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Working with our adviser transformed our situation, providing the clarity focus and perspective we needed. Our adviser understood us, what mattered to us, and they worked through the finances to make it happen. We are still working hard, but now we can enjoy life knowing our family’s future is secure. We can look forward to a lifetime of memories we would never have dreamt possible without taking the time to plan with Unio.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. Invest some time with our expert financial advisers to talk about your life goals. It will be time well spent.&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Talk to us&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Stories based on real Unio clients, names and certain details have been adjusted to preserve client privacy.&lt;/p&gt;

Creating a Lifetime of Memories

&lt;p&gt;I was sauntering through the centre of Vienna last Wednesday, admiring its stylish cafes and bars, and Friedrich Hayek came to mind.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hayek argued against the suffocating role of government (‘central planners’) on the economy and for greater individual liberty, and his arguments still contain a grain of truth in the context of many European economies. Ironically, Austria’s brand-new finance minister had previously worked as an economist for a trade union and might well prove to be an ‘anti-Hayek’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Hayek was one of the inspirations (after he won the Nobel Prize in 1974) behind what many American libertarians call the ‘Austrian’ school of economics, and his book ‘The Road to Serfdom’ is undoubtedly on the bookshelves of the most ardent members of team Trump, alongside works like Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged ‘.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the Americas, Hayek is a favourite of the ‘chainsaw’ economists, with a large dollop of irony given the push for total control of the economy by an elite. Indeed, the risk for Americans is that the dismantling of the government led economy in America risks turning Americans into serfs of the private sector. But, this scenario is not yet immediately obvious given the way public attention remains focused on Ukraine and the victims of American tariffs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the past six months, a very strong international narrative has spread around the notion of ‘American exceptionalism’. The US is exceptional in a few domains – fighting (military), finance and its multinationals. Donald Trump is using these exceptional pillars to influence other countries and to set in train his vision for a more isolationist America. The response from America’s erstwhile allies has been to rapidly re-arm and re-finance.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;An important sign of this was the announcement by Friedrich Merz (with the SPD’s Lars Klingbeil and the CSU chief) of a new defence spending plan, which largely swerves the issue of the debt brake. That German and Japanese bond yields rose suggests that markets are pricing the reallocation of the bill for security as an international public good to America’s former allies.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The return of war as a topic in European debate will alarm many people, and it should not be underestimated. One of my recent notes highlighted how Europe likely faces an ongoing campaign of harassment, sabotage and destabilisation from Russia. The idea that Europe is on its own is now quite starkly taking hold.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While the drumbeat of war will add to stress in our lives, it is not (yet) part of them. For the great majority of people, the geopolitical debate remains one between elites, and so far, does not impact their everyday lives.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is where European leaders need to pay more attention and try to reset the international narrative. If America is strong in fighting and finance, it is weaker in areas where Europe is strong, and we might say that the two continents are the mirror opposite of each other. In my view, Europe is strong in the areas that matter to most people, most of the time. Specifically, Europe, as a social democracy is the best place to live in the world (6.6% of the world’s population live in ‘full’ democracies), has generally free education and healthcare and its societies are peaceful (according to the UN, the murder rate in the US is 14 times that of Italy). Life expectancy in France for instance, is four years ahead of the USA. Health spending per capita in the US is well over double what it would be for a European country (13k vs. 6k).&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this context, my counterintuitive argument (to the ‘chainsaw economists’) is that America needs less Hayek, and more ‘Europe’.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The absence of a deep social security system in the US, and the difficulty of accessing decent healthcare at reasonable prices means that a huge number of Americans live in precarity. Demolishing the department of education and cutting state aid to veterans are just two measures that increase vulnerability.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The trend that is emerging, and which will become starkly visible in a recession, is of an American society where a small but important number of households (say 20%) are wealthy enough to live well and access high quality education and healthcare, 40% of households live with the stress of becoming economically vulnerable and a further 30% live in serfdom in the sense that they have no leisure time (Newsweek estimates that one third of American workers has a second job).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Income inequality in the US is at historically very high levels, and the share of total income garnered by the top 1% of the workforce is tipping levels only seen in the 1930’s. Viewed from the point of view of wealth, 38% of the world’s millionaires live in America and over half of the ultra-high net worth (wealth over USD 50mn) individuals in the world are American. Indeed, the top 1% of wealthy American’s own 18.5% of all wealth in America, while the ‘bottom’ 50% of Americans own just 3% of wealth.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As such, the Trump 2.0 programme may not free Americans from serfdom to the government but will make them serfs of a private sector.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a parting shot, Europe might need a little dose of Hayek. To that end, social welfare systems, state pension plans and healthcare spending may need to be streamlined across Europe as the security agenda becomes more prominent.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

The Road to Serfdom

&lt;p&gt;Welcome to the Unio Weekly View for the week beginning February 24th, our summary of markets and macro news.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Watch this week's investment briefing📽️&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/79-sDGX0iWo?showinfo=0&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In summary:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-It was another interesting week in global financial markets, which have continued to be influenced by macro and geopolitical risk factors.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Whilst value continues to outperform growth over the last quarter, investors remain bullish on Europe relative to the US YTD, further highlighted today with the rally in European defence stocks after political tensions between the US and Ukraine seemed to overspill in the Oval Office last Friday.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Additionally, weaker macro fundamentals in the US are now filtering through to bond markets, with the 10 year yield sliding 0.23% over the week as traders price in up to 3 rate cuts by the Fed over the rest of 2025. If we see a weaker US jobs report this Friday, alongside non-farm payroll data, it may well add to traders forecasts for US interest rates.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Earnings to watch this week include: March 5: Saudi Aramco, March 06: Broadcom and Costo.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more,&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&nbsp;talk to us.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Unio Weekly View, Week Beginning March 3rd, 2025

&lt;p&gt;Adam Smith, though better known now as an economist held the chair of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow and as such it’s fair to assume that he knew a thing or two about the intersection of economics, philosophy and politics, and that often a political crisis is motivated by an underlying economic crisis…hence the title of this note.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Smith lived during a time of mercantilism, which we might describe as a nationalistic approach to trade that aims to maximise the exports of a country whilst keeping imports to a minimum. In this context, Smith wrote of mercantilist nations that ‘their interest lies in beggaring their neighbours’, and the phrase ‘beggar thy neighbour’ has been often used in the economic context, usually when growth is scarce (the aftermath of the Great Depression and the Global Financial crisis)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With mercantilism and ‘beggar thy neighbour’ back in fashion, it is worth returning to Smith’s ‘Wealth of Nations', book IV’ where many of the observations Smith made chime with America today, such as:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&nbsp;&lt;em&gt;‘The sneaking arts of underling tradesmen are thus erected into political maxims for the conduct of a great empire ... . By such maxims as these, however, nations have been taught that their interest consisted in beggaring all their neighbours. Each nation has been made to look with an invidious eye upon the prosperity of all the nations with which it trades, and to consider their gain as its own loss. Commerce, which ought naturally to be, among nations, as among individuals, a bond of union and friendship, has become the most fertile source of discord and animosity’.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To that end, beyond the bonfire of American values and diplomatic relationships, there is an emerging, underlying logic to the policies of the White House that China, Japan and Europe need to pay attention to.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I have written many times in this note that the world economy is in the antechamber of a fiscal-debt crisis (listen to ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001styj__;!!O22_8FOSssc!i4Xk0Fgp6ypxUsVWUc-Cth2EeHqXqGJZNp3lFyUV6OqEkvs0tdzRNHrR68HPVNWybZBY-kwW3c1VyVeYoRFi6Ia1$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Waking up to World Debt’&lt;/a&gt;). Unusually, all of the major economies have become indebted at the same time, and the process(es) by which they try to reduce debt at the same time will likely prove extremely hazardous financially.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It seems that the Trump entourage understands this, and that logically the unifying factor behind disparate policies from the creation of ‘DOGE’ to the enfeebling of NATO are driven by a brutal sense of austerity, that starts with the cutting down of all the international public goods that the US has invested in since Bretton Woods.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this context, the ‘beggaring’ of Europe pushes the bill for European security back across the Atlantic and has shaped the debate in Europe towards greater debt accumulation (for example the debt brake is one of the most contentious topics for the new German government and the EU will soon embark on the issue of EU defence bonds). Japan, South Korea and Australia might be next.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In effect, the White House is using areas where America is exceptional – financial markets, the military and multinationals – to coerce its allies. Debt might be next. The closest we have to a template for a Trump grand macro plan is a paper written by Stephen Miran, who may soon take up the role of head of the Council for Economic Advisers. The elements in this plan have popularly become known as the ‘Mar-A-Lago Accord’, which is not unlike the world debt conference idea I have written about in The Levelling, though my version takes place in the recently refurbished Raffles (Singapore).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One of the pillars of the cited ‘Mar-A-Lago Accord is that holders of Treasuries exchange these securities for very long-term loans (that might not provide a coupon). The result would be to restructure the maturity and fiscal burden of America’s debt load. It is a neat idea but will not work in practice. Any debt accord will likely need the impetus of a major financial crisis as a motivator, will need to restructure the debt of all the major economies and will entail a rewriting of financial regulations across the world (for pension funds for example).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In reality, an attempt to enact a Mar-a-Lago Accord, in the same fashion as the debate around NATO, may create aversion (distrust in) to US financial assets and the dollar. Whilst Europeans may not appreciate the extent to which a ‘beggar thy neighbour’ philosophy is driven by US security policy, the White House is underestimating the value that America’s wide ranging financial, diplomatic and commercial infrastructure bring it. An example is that close to 40% of the revenues of large American firms come from overseas.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the short-term, we are also starting to witness the effects of austerity on the American economy. Though ‘hard’ data on the economy remain solid, the outlook will become very noisy in the next few months as government job cuts take hold and as social welfare cuts (notably in the mortgage industry) sow anxiety. Markets have started to become jittery too, amidst a belief that the administration is much more focused on lowering bond yields (and thus the cost of government debt) than boosting the stock market.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In a scenario where the (US) economy weakens, investors normally turn to Treasuries, but the prospect of a Mar-A-Lago Accord being foisted upon them could lead to a buyers’ strike.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Un train peut cacher un autre

&lt;p&gt;Welcome to the Unio Weekly View for the week beginning February 24th, our summary of markets and macro news.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Watch this week's investment briefing📽️&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/jd_gt0azzaU?showinfo=0&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This week in summary:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️The main focus of this week will be the result and implications of the recent German election as they look to form a new government.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ There was a stronger than expected performance from the AfD party, which may make it more difficult to form a strong coalition government.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️Looking ahead this week, some big names in tech will be in the news with Apple's AGM happening on the 25th, and both Salesforce and Nvidia's Q4 earnings released on 26th.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Later in the week the focus will shift towards US macro data with the Q4 GDP and US Core PCE Price Index released on the 27th and 28th respectively.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more,&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; talk to us.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Unio Weekly View, Week Beginning 24th February, 2025

&lt;p&gt;The New World Order&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2025 is seeing the dawning of a new world where new rules and ways of doing things are crafted, but also one where impatience is a symptom of an unclear future for many countries, companies, and households. In this context, Unio has launched a monthly thought leadership series - New World, New Rules, Your Wealth - the themes of which underpin financial advice to our clients. Written by Mike O’Sullivan, Director, Unio Wealth Management, these articles examine and debate how Ireland – from the point of view of its economy, politics, and diplomacy – will be affected by this ‘new world under new rules’ theme. This first article in the series, examines Ireland’s relationship with the EU. It highlights the importance of the EU to Ireland’s future and the potential shift away from reliance on the UK and US.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Challenges in Geopolitics&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first month of the Trump administration has not been kind to Europe, and we are now witnessing the speedy unravelling of over seventy years of American diplomacy and prestige. Chillingly, in the Trump 2.0 world, former allies are adversaries and enemies of the past are now partners. Speeches by members of the Trump administration at the AI Summit in Paris and the Munich Security Conference herald a new strategic relationship between the US and Europe. In particular, the Munich Security Conference saw a dramatic weakening in American support for Ukraine and a sense that its hitherto unwavering commitment to NATO might be crumbling, and the possibility that an EU Defence Union becomes reality. The week’s developments alone point to a trying time for the EU geopolitically. The hope is that the EU emerges from this in a more coherent way. In the short term, however, Europe does not have control of the narrative on geopolitics – it has allowed itself to be painted as weak and ineffective, which is not entirely true.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ireland’s Unique Position&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this very dramatic and often worrying context, Ireland is an oddity in Europe. The political debate in Ireland is very different from the topics that dominate the headlines in countries like France and Germany. Economically, Ireland is fiscally better off than most EU states but spends next to nothing on defence (Ireland spends an eighth of the EU average on defence) and in effect Ireland has no security infrastructure. It used to be the case that our geography acted as a shield to geopolitics, but today our skies and waters (and undersea cables) are active threat zones that are policed by NATO member states. In 2008, Ireland was unprepared for an international financial crisis, and the risk now is that it is unprepared for a geopolitical crisis, notably at a time when, in many people’s eyes, Ireland’s political relationship with the US is changing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Relevance and Perception in the EU&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ireland used to be a more relevant European power, but there has been a shift towards the East (Poland and Baltic States for instance) at the country level in the EU, as well as a centralisation of other powers by the Commission president. Ireland continues to suffer from a view, in other EU countries, that it is a form of tax haven, but that perspective ignores the underlying strength in the Irish economy, the ease of doing business – compared to say France, and the reality that Ireland has become financially very solid. The importance of the EU to Ireland can see seen in at least two examples. The solidarity that the EU showed Ireland during the Brexit negotiations has become an example for other crises, notably the way the Danish prime minister was received in European capitals following president Trump’s proposal to ‘take’ Greenland. The other is the illustration, through Brexit, of what life outside the EU can look like.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Future Challenges and Opportunities&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To that end, Ireland will follow the path of the European project, and it should feel emboldened to play a part in that. In this respect, there are several challenges and opportunities. The first challenge is to bolster defence and security spending, not so much to please our neighbours but to ensure that Ireland can independently defend its borders, maritime area, and airspace. The cost of doing so will be significant if done correctly (up to 5% of GDP for ten years), given the lack of defence infrastructure. The upside is that in a fast-changing world the nature of defence infrastructure is changing fast – unmanned underwater drones are replacing submarines for example. Ireland may also very soon be called upon to invest in EU defence bonds in coming months. The second challenge is to rewire Ireland’s economy, a need that is often debated but where action has lagged. It may well be that tariffs do not cause multinationals in Ireland to shut capacity – many of them are implanted in the economy, but rather regulatory arbitrage by social media giants like Meta causes them specifically to leave Ireland. There can be no excuse for not preparing the economy for a smaller multinational presence.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;EU Strategic Projects&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At the same time, there are two very strategic projects at the EU level that Ireland has the capacity to harness. One is the move towards strategic autonomy – investment in critical technologies such as semiconductors, quantum, and AI to name a few. Ireland does not rank as a ‘deep tech’ powerhouse, but there are areas in this field that it can concentrate on. One implication here is that our education system will need to change, with a greater focus on applied teaching of languages in schools, science and engineering in universities and the creation of specific poles of excellence across third level education. A second broad area of opportunity is EU capital markets union (CMU), a project that has been driven by the Irish head of the euro-zone, but where there has so far been considerable pushback, including from Ireland. Wealth creation and deep capital markets are two areas where America and increasingly China are pulling ahead of Europe. As a result, there is growing urgency in the EU to re-examine the CMU, which is not exactly a vote winner, but more important to the future of Europe than many think. Ireland has work to do here – examine how the CMU can drive new pockets of growth in our economy, how it will impact the banking sector and how the state can encourage Irish households to invest more.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What next?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Geopolitics is happening very quickly, and for Ireland, the effect is to push it closer to the EU and arguably away from the Anglophone countries (the UK may also find itself edging closer to the EU). This adjustment process will entail much greater spending on defence, and the opportunity to find new economic growth sectors. Critically, with very little urgency being shown in Ireland with respect to the implications of the changing world order, we have to wonder what else needs to occur to trigger a rethink of Ireland’s stance.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Ireland and the EU

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;A week ago, I started reading Admiral Jim Stavridis and Elliott Akerman’s second book, ‘2054’, which like the first (‘2034’) is a work of fiction designed to tell us about how our own world is evolving and the risks that will confront us. Without spoiling the plot, ‘2054’ demonstrates how new technologies can be deployed in nefarious ways, with the goal of turning the tide of geopolitics. However, as much as I enjoy the work of the Stavridis/Akerman team, my reaction to ‘2054’ was much the same as ‘2034’ (‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/thelevelling.blog/2021/04/24/2034-are-we-already-there/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!jo5nASZK5_ipWutSpDLPaGmbBamTrno3D7ySvl_SawZQx25b7cXfJ4ELywTz1_C4pizt2Hc7z2mWqSrhY8oD8qEE$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;2034 – are we already there?’&lt;/a&gt;), which is that it has been rendered out of date by bizarre events in the real, political world&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The detonation of over seventy years of American diplomacy and soft power by the various speeches and deeds of the Trump administration is&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.newstalk.com/podcasts/breakfast-business/will-europe-look-to-trade-more-with-china-and-india__;!!O22_8FOSssc!jo5nASZK5_ipWutSpDLPaGmbBamTrno3D7ySvl_SawZQx25b7cXfJ4ELywTz1_C4pizt2Hc7z2mWqSrhYw-x2n2R$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;a fin de siècle moment&lt;/a&gt;, that has drawn comment across the diplomatic world (the most pertinent was that of the Singaporean defence minister who described how he saw the USA moving from a force for ‘moral legitimacy’ to a landlord seeking rent’).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The worry now is that the US will treat its allies like enemies and its foes like friends. There was much consternation in Europe, but as this note has argued so many times, very few European countries have faced up to the challenges of the post-globalized world (&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/video/european-parliamentary-week-2025-keynote-speech-by-mario-draghi-former-italian-prime-minister-and-former-president-of-the-european-central-bank_I267271__;!!O22_8FOSssc!jo5nASZK5_ipWutSpDLPaGmbBamTrno3D7ySvl_SawZQx25b7cXfJ4ELywTz1_C4pizt2Hc7z2mWqSrhY7-W1nx-$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Mario Draghi’s speech to the EU parliament&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;last week put it very well…’do something!’).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;There is now a furore over Eur 500 bn defence bonds, joint nuclear shields and defence equipment shopping lists. But, a more urgent task than buying fighter jets is the need for Europe to have a coherent security strategy. In a weekend where many are anticipating the results of the German election, a neglected development was the collapse of government formation talks between Austria’s centre-right OVP and the far-right FPO.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Some weeks ago, the parties had agreed on an economic programme, but could not settle on a common foreign policy, a critical stumbling point was oversight of the intelligence services (the OVP wanted to be in charge). This is a sensitive topic given that the FPO has a soft spot for the Kremlin, and specifically the fact that in 2018 the Herbert Kickl (FPO leader), when he was Austria’s interior minister, ordered an investigation into the country’s security services. Today, few of its EU peers share intelligence with Austria.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Reflecting that, the immediate challenge from Russia is infiltration, sabotage and manipulation across Europe (the Gerasimov doctrine and David Kilcullen’s work on Russian/Chinese tactics are both worth a read here ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/thelevelling.blog/2021/11/13/great-war-to-total-war/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!jo5nASZK5_ipWutSpDLPaGmbBamTrno3D7ySvl_SawZQx25b7cXfJ4ELywTz1_C4pizt2Hc7z2mWqSrhYwf0W_nJ$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;From Great War to Total War’&lt;/a&gt;). The EU has done relatively little to push back on this interference, and now has an urgent security (as well as defence) challenge.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This could take various forms.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The first is to penalise EU states that systematically go against the grain of the policies, values and interests of the Union. Hungary is the main offender here and whilst some EU funds have been withheld from Viktor Orban, the EU has in general failed to confront him. In the recent past there has been talk in the European parliament of excluding Hungary from the EU, which is technically difficult, but is a necessary part of a more ideologically consistent Europe, and one where bad actors face a penalty for their actions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;A second strand is to have much greater oversight over the movement of Russians in Europe, and of their capital. Vienna, Milan and the south of France, not to mention parts of Switzerland, are popular destinations for wealthy Russians and some European capitals are saturated with Russian money (Mark Hollingsworth’s book ‘Londongrad’ is instructive here as is Oliver Bullough’s ‘Butler to the World’). To emphasise the point, Russian interference in UK and lately Irish politics has not been aggressively countered, and my fear is that this is much worse in other countries like Germany.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Instead of clamouring to buy rocket launchers, Europe’s political classes have a lot to do domestically to shut the door on Russian interference in European affairs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Then, on a more structural level, there is scope for much greater intelligence sharing across governments and joint task-forces on organised crime (gangs are a favourite extension of the Russian state). From the point of hardware, there is a need for increased joint use of satellites and electronic warfare collaboration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The distinction between security and defence is an important and urgent one and a reminder of how complacent European governments have been. Whilst defence capabilities will take time to build up, the measures to be enacted in the security domain are less challenging to operationalise but constitute a real test of European governments’ mettle.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Full Mettle Jacket

&lt;p&gt;This month, the Unio Global Macro Council (GMC) Outlook discusses the potential outcome of Sunday’s German elections.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Key issues are immigration, economy, and military spending.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This election is set against a backdrop of significant geopolitical and economic challenges, including the Munich Peace Conference's recent pronouncements from American officials, urging Europe to take a greater role in its defence, particularly concerning Ukraine.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We were delighted to be joined this month by guest speakers Dr Martin Moryson, Global Head of Economics, DWS Group and Simona Gambarini, Senior Market Strategist, Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Thank you both for your valued input.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GMC-Outlook-February-2025.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;More in this month's GMC Outlook.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;get in touch here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

German Revival?

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Conor Jordan, private client adviser in Unio's Independent Wealth team, discusses the rise in tech sector redundancies in Ireland, providing practical advice for managing finances during redundancy, including balancing short-term needs with long-term planning, managing outgoings, considering investments, clearing debts, and making pension 'top-up' payments. The article also emphasises the importance of seeking expert financial advice to navigate this transition and ensure long-term financial security. 4 minutes read.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It will be no surprise to read that in Ireland, there has been a significant increase in the number of redundancies within the tech sector.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to Eurofound (the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions), Ireland accounts for the largest proportion (around 40%) of all redundancies in the tech sector in the EU.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sixteen of the top twenty global tech companies and the top three enterprise software providers base their European Operations in Ireland, and 106,000 people are employed within the ICT industry.[i]&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The ‘Great Tech Reset’ began in 2022 and gathered pace into 2023 with an estimated 428,449 global tech workers losing their jobs.[ii] This continued into 2024 with over 150,000 cuts across 542 companies[iii] and according to &lt;a href=&quot;https://layoffs.fyi/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Layoffs.fyi&lt;/a&gt;, the first 2 months of 2025 has seen 47 tech companies lay off a further 11,663 employees.[iv]&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In January 2025 both Meta and Workday announced that they would be looking to make further cuts to their workforce this year. Meta will look to reduce their global workforce by around 5%[v] while Workday plans to cut 1,750 roles.[vi] Both companies employ approximately two thousand people through their Irish operation and those employees are waiting to hear how many of them will be affected by the redundancies.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In today's economic landscape, for clients impacted by circumstances out of their control, facing redundancy can be a challenging chapter in one's career.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Amidst the potential emotional and financial stress of redundancy, making informed and considered decisions about your finances can be difficult.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Balancing the Short and Long-Term Considerations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Redundancy often brings a lump sum severance payment, providing a financial cushion during the transition period.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The immediate, shorter term financial decisions you make during this period could have an impact on your long-term financial health. It can be challenging to balance these more pressurized, short-term decisions while keeping your longer-term financial plan on track.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5 top tips for managing your finances during a redundancy:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;-&lt;/strong&gt;Taking prudent steps to manage your outgoings insofar as it is possible.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-The potential investment of the lump sum for the long-term, if you have another employment to move to, or if you have a sufficient emergency fund already in place.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Considering whether to clear debt, either mortgage related or more expensive short-term debt such as credit cards or car loans.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-The decision as to how you elect to receive your redundancy payment, and particular waiving or retaining your pension tax-free lump sum.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Making a pension ‘top-up’ payment, if possible, to offset the potential interruption of contributions to your pension fund.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Need for Expert Financial Advice&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Seeking professional financial advice becomes paramount during this time. The stress of redundancy may hinder clear, strategic thinking about long-term financial planning. Financial Planners can offer clarity, guiding you through the options and ensuring your decisions align with your long-term financial goals.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Expert advice can provide a clear roadmap, offering insights into optimizing your redundancy payment’s impact, it’s interaction with your pension fund and outlining clearly the steps you might take to safeguard your financial future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Financial Planning should contribute to all aspects of your wellbeing – financial, physical, mental and psychological. We are here to offer straightforward advice, to provide structured Financial Planning and to offer comfort that you are focused on things that you can control.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;get in touch here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sources:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;[1] https://www.idaireland.com/explore-your-sector/business-sectors/technology&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;[1] https://techfundingnews.com/the-ripple-effect-of-big-tech-what-can-we-learn-from-startup-layoffs-in-2025&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/10/tech-layoffs-2024-list&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;[1] https://layoffs.fyi&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/0212/1496282-irish-based-meta-staff-told-of-job-cuts&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/0212/1496282-irish-based-meta-staff-told-of-job-cuts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;[1] https://www.businesspost.ie/tech-news/fears-for-irish-job-losses-at-workday-after-firm-announces-plans-to-cut-1750-roles.&lt;/p&gt;

Navigating Redundancy in the Tech Sector

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;In this article, Shane Keegan explores common biases that investors often face when making financial decisions. He shares insights on how these biases can affect your investment choices and overall financial health. By recognising and addressing these biases, you can make more rational and informed decisions to help you achieve your long-term financial goals. Enjoy this quick 4-minute read!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Many people choose the start of a new year to review their situations and make plans for the months ahead, setting realistic (and sometimes, unrealistic!) resolutions.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While motivation is high, it is also the opportune time to review your current financial situation. Planning now can provide comfort for the year (or even years) ahead, ensuring you can spend the rest of your time focusing on what matters most to you.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We understand that with so many changes happening in the world (such as the recent US election, the resulting impending tariffs and ECB interest rate changes to name a small few), it can be difficult to ensure you keep yourself on track and don’t succumb to any noise being generated from outside sources.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&nbsp;Recognising biases is one thing but addressing them requires a different approach as these are often emotional responses that influence our behaviour. Below, I outline some biases that you may find familiar:&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Market Timing&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Market Timing is where someone believes they can predict the markets. This leads people to believe they can buy / switch into a fund at a low price just before it goes up in value, allowing them to take advantage of this price increase. Unfortunately, a lot of people who believe they can time the market to their advantage do the opposite, buying high and then seeing a decline in fund values. This can lead to a false sense of urgency and trigger transactions that may not be advisable, such as claiming pensions early and risking their entire long-term retirement strategy in the process.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Recency Bias&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Recency Bias occurs when someone places too much stock on recent events rather than looking at the overall trend. An example of the impact on individuals is when they assume a fund will continue to perform well based on recent success, only to experience a subsequent decline in value. In terms of financial planning, this bias can result in portfolios that lack diversification, leading to sub-optimal performance, particularly when planning for retirement.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Anchoring&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anchoring is where people base their decision on the first or most recent piece of information they receive. It can then lead to difficulty in adjusting their views when new information comes to light. Like Recency Bias, this can lead people to remain invested in the wrong fund or asset allocation. From a financial planning point of view, this can put long term strategy and your financial goals in jeopardy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Familiarity Bias&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Familiarity (or Loyalty) Bias can occur when people develop an emotional attachment to a particular fund or stock. This may happen to people who have worked in a particular industry or with the same company for a long period of time and feel a loyalty towards them. People often prefer familiarity, which can offer comfort. However, this can sometimes result in suboptimal investment decisions or long-term performance issues due to a lack of diversification in their portfolios.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Overconfidence&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overconfidence can occur when people believe they have more control over their investments than they do. This can happen when people go against advice or do things on their own without fully understanding the consequences of their decisions (see Timing the Market above). This can result in selecting inappropriate funds or products for their circumstances, potentially leading to suboptimal investment returns, missing out on available tax breaks, or incurring higher fees that negatively affect their overall growth potential.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Loss Aversion&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Loss Aversion occurs when people fear the risk of potentially losing some (or all) of their funds to investment performance more than they wish to see potential returns. In fact, studies have shown that people feel losses twice as much as they celebrate any gains when it comes to fund performance. This can have a detrimental effect as the real value of their money can erode over time if it fails to keep pace with inflation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Framing Effect&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Framing Effect occurs when people make decisions based on how information is framed rather than the facts it is presenting. This can be related to many of the previous examples and may result in people choosing funds that underperform or have higher charges than expected. For instance, a product brochure might highlight fees selectively, resulting in individuals paying more than they realise when there may be another similar product offering the same service with lower overall charges.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio our advisers are experts in navigating these pitfalls and can offer practical and transparent advice to suit your unique circumstances. We can help you cut through the noise and make a plan that is suitable to your individual needs.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We believe that making a plan and sticking to it is crucial to success. We understand that true risk lies not in responding to market volatility or trends, but in failing to meet your long-term goals. We will put in the work to guide you through each step of your journey so you can rest easy knowing your plans will become a reality.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We listen to your story to help make your goals a reality and work with you to ensure you have time to focus on what is most important to you.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser, or &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;get in touch.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Overcoming Investor Bias

&lt;p&gt;Welcome to the Unio Weekly View for the week beginning February 10th, our summary of markets and macro news.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Watch this week's investment briefing📽️&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/wJ1ROIvz1TE?showinfo=0&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This week in summary:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️&nbsp;The biggest macro news of the week is the German Election next weekend: Christian Democrats lead with 30%; far-right AfD rises to 21%&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes for January to be released on February 19th&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️&nbsp;US housing starts and building permits for January due on February 19th&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️&nbsp;Japanese inflation data release on February 21st; current rate at 3.6%&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️&nbsp;HSBC earnings on February 19th; stock up 37.6% in the past year&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Walmart earnings on February 20th; stock up 77.5% in 2024&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, talk to us: &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Unio Weekly View, Week Beginning 17th February, 2025

&lt;p&gt;Will Europe look to trade more with China and India and less with its natural ally the US?&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;What will Europe do if America abandons Ukraine and imposes tariffs on its erstwhile allies?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To discuss this and more Mike O'Sullivan, Director, Unio Wealth Management joined Newstalk's Joe Lynam this morning ahead of today's emergency European summit in Paris.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://link.goloudplayer.com/s/pGsEILdqd3u1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;📻 Listen here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Unio on Newstalk

&lt;p&gt;The number 13 tram in Zurich winds its way through the centre of the city before turning and pushing uphill to the Uetliberg. The inhabitants of the tram are typically older people and bank employees, but occasionally you might come across a few excited, wealthy individuals journeying to look at their gold in the Credit Suisse (now UBS of course) building at Uetlihof. The entrance to the building is on the 8th floor, betraying a deep underground complex where it is said, the bank stores gold bars, and sometimes invites the owners of the gold to view their stash.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Those investors who own gold will be very happy.&nbsp;It has returned 40% in the past two years and is now closing in on the USD 3,000 level, despite a stronger dollar and high interest rates.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There are few assets like gold. The vast majority of investors do not hold it, nor have they a sense of how its price behaves. But there are others who are passionate about gold and hold large quantities of it in their portfolios. Finance theory suggests investors should hold 2% of gold in a portfolio, but my experience is that in practice, it is either 0% or greater than 10%. To that end gold is a ‘Marmite’ asset class, because like the Marmite spread, you either love it or hate it.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It used to be that a difficult interview question for graduates was to ask them what the drivers of the gold price are. Now that question is more likely to focus on the drivers of bitcoin. Bitcoin’s architects likely wanted it to behave like digital gold, but instead it seems to trade like digital Nasdaq futures on steroids.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The gold price has perhaps three drivers – the role of gold as a monetary variable, the effects of commodity or physical demand and its role as a store of value in times of crisis.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Typically, gold as a ‘rival’ for paper money is driven by changes in the monetary environment – namely the value of the dollar and medium-term interest rates. For example, from the early 2000’s onwards the price of gold has moved inversely with the inflation adjusted yield on ten-year US bonds (rising bond yields tend to be bad for gold). But, in 2022, something funny happened – inflation adjusted bond yields rose, but gold kept rising and has not stopped since. Indeed, I now see more and more financial headlines that ‘gold is breaking out’, which is likely a sign that the ‘top’ is not far away.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The strength of the gold price is curious because in many quarters demand for gold has been muted – according to the Banque de France, demand for gold is made up of jewellery (49%),&nbsp;central banks (23%), financial investors (21%) and the electronics sector (7%).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 2024, Chinese and Indian households have been buying more gold, and before that, emerging economy central banks – notably Russia and South Africa had been buyers, most probably to diversify out of dollars and euros given the risk of sanctions and asset confiscation. Financial holders of gold, exchange traded funds (ETF’s) have not been heavy buyers. Overall though, commercial and financial demand for gold has not been dramatically strong in the past eighteen months.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That still leaves a big chunk of gold’s outperformance unexplained (if it were only driven by the interest rate environment gold would likely be trading close to USD 2,000 given the stubbornness of high bond yields). There are likely two factors at play.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first is technical. There is a short squeeze taking place in the gold market, which means that a lot of financial actors (bullion banks and speculators) have short positions in gold (hoping that the price will go down) and now have to buy gold to cover loss making positions. This short-squeeze is exacerbated by a spike in demand for physical gold because of fears of tariffs on gold and silver (from Canada – home to many gold miners).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The second factor that is more interesting and harder to calibrate is geopolitics. Gold is a pure store of value – an asset to run to when the world is turned upside down. For those who live adventurous lives, a belt with gold coins sown in is a good escape plan (I have met at least one person with this plan). In a week where the global security architecture has been dismantled by the Trump administration, the reasons for holding gold are clear.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The disintegration of relations between the US and China, the uncertainty caused by tariffs and generally weak government finances across the G2 and G7 countries are just a couple of more detailed reasons to own gold. In that sense it is a barometer of ‘Trump’s world’, but also highly susceptible to his actions – he could send gold much higher if he announces tariffs on gold, but the prospect that he could let Russia off the financial hook as it were, is a reason to call the top.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Marmite

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The article discusses the importance of regularly reviewing your finances with the help of a qualified financial adviser. It highlights the benefits of financial reviews, including achieving financial goals, saving more, reducing debt, and gaining confidence in financial decisions. 3&nbsp;minutes read.&lt;/em&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Let’s face it: managing your money is not always simple. Between saving for retirement, paying off your mortgage, helping your children or grandchildren through school or university, and planning holidays, it can feel like there’s never enough money or time to figure it all out.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Taking a step back from day-to-day concerns to take an in-depth and holistic view of finances, with the help of an expert qualified financial adviser, is time well spent. It is also among the best investments that you can make in yourself and your future.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Why have a Financial Review?&lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A financial Review is like your financial GPS and helps you map out how to reach your financial goals. It’s not about restricting yourself – it is about making your money work for you. And no, you do not have to give up all the fun stuff (your Netflix subscription is safe!)&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The simplest way to stay on top of your finances is checking in on them at least once a year. A financial adviser can help you figure out where you stand and what steps to take. Think of it as your guide to everything from growing your savings to protecting your loved ones.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Research shows that individuals who review their finances regularly tend to save more, accumulate less debt, and feel more confident about their finances.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;While every client is unique, there is a common theme: everyone has life goals and financial triggers such as saving for their children's education or their retirement,&quot; says David Tighe, Head of Unio Wealth Solutions. &quot;Our team is committed to offering personalised advice and support, giving you peace of mind while helping you make the most of your financial resources.&quot;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reviewing your finances regularly ensures you are prepared.&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Perhaps you have changed jobs, paid off debts, bought property or had another major life event. These changes can seriously impact your finances. A quick check up - reviewing your pension plans, insurance plans, and investments every year keeps everything in sync and can prevent big surprises down the line.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Consulting with a financial adviser provides the foundation of sound financial planning. Embrace the new year as a chance to review your financial goals and put yourself on a sound financial path.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Unio’s Expertise &lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Wealth Solutions Team combines an expert advisory team with a digitally enabled approach. Our streamlined processes mean we can spend more time focusing on your unique needs. &nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For our clients, this translates to a faster service, peace of mind and confidence in knowing that our expert advisory team is handling every detail.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you would like to find out more about how you can take control of your financial future, reach out to your Unio adviser by emailing&lt;a href=&quot;mailto:wealthsolutions@unio.ie&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; wealthsolutions@unio.ie&nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lynda McAuliffe QFA RPA FPRA is a private client adviser with our Wealth Solutions team at Unio Wealth Management. Lynda is based in Unio's Cork office.&lt;/p&gt;

Why Reviewing Your Finances Matters

&lt;p&gt;Welcome to the Unio Weekly View for the week beginning February 10th, our summary of markets and macro news.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Watch this week's investment briefing📽️&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/W_3lV3Q-ixk?showinfo=0&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This week in summary:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ The focus is on US Headline and Core inflation statistics for January. Current headline and core inflation rates are 2.9% and 3.2% annually.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ The US Economic Policy Uncertainty Index is at its highest level since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, as markets continue to digest policy initiatives set by the Trump administration.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Closer to home, UK Year-on-Year and preliminary Q4 GDP data to be released. Whilst growth has slowed considerably over the last 2 years, it’s still expected that the UK economy will grow by 1.1%.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ In earnings news: Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Nestle, and Cisco all release their quarterly earnings this week.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&nbsp;talk to us here. &lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Unio Weekly View, Week Beginning 10th February, 2025

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Have you spent time living and working in the UK? You can maximise your pension benefits by understanding your UK State Pension entitlements and how voluntary National Insurance Contributions (NICs) can fill gaps in your record. This article guides you through the intricacies of the UK State Pension system, providing clear and concise steps to ensure you receive the maximum benefits you are entitled to.&nbsp;4 minutes read.&nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Did you know that, if you have worked and paid National Insurance (NI) in the UK, you may be able to claim a UK State Pension in addition to any Irish state pension you are entitled to?&nbsp;&nbsp;What is even better is that you can make additional voluntary NI Contributions (NICs) which could increase your entitlement.&nbsp;&nbsp;Paying UK voluntary NICs enables individuals to fill any gaps in their National Insurance record to boost their State Pension.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deadline Approaching&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Individuals can usually only fill gaps in their NI record for the previous 6 years. However, as part of transitional arrangements introduced alongside the new State Pension from April 2016&lt;u&gt;,&lt;/u&gt; individuals were given the opportunity to pay voluntary NICs to make up any gaps in their NI record from 2006.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Deadline Extended Until 05 April 2025&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You have until the 5th of April 2025 to pay voluntary contributions to make up for gaps from 2006 and&lt;u&gt; &lt;/u&gt;after this deadline, you will only be able to pay contributions to cover the previous six years.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Am I eligible?&lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Under current UK state pension rules, you need 35 qualifying years to be eligible for the full standard rate.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You must have &lt;strong&gt;10 qualifying years&lt;/strong&gt; on your national insurance record to receive the minimum UK State Pension.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A qualifying year is a year where you were;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;o&nbsp;&nbsp;working and made National Insurance contributions&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;o&nbsp;&nbsp;received National Insurance Credits, for example if you were ill, unemployed or a carer&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;o&nbsp;&nbsp;Paying voluntary National Insurance contributions&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ireland and the UK have a social security agreement which allows you to combine your pension contributions from both countries to meet the minimum eligibility requirements. For example, if you have worked 8 years in the UK and 4 years in Ireland, these can be combined to meet the 10-year requirement for the UK State Pension. It will be based on the number of years you contributed to the UK, and you may also be entitled to a portion of the Irish State Pension.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Alternatively, even if you have not worked the required amount of time to reach the minimum 10 years, you can make voluntary contributions to increase your record if you already have three years contributions. ‘&lt;strong&gt;Buy Back&lt;/strong&gt;’ is often the term used for these voluntary contributions.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You can continue to pay voluntary contributions each year going forward and if you have enough years left until you retire, you could reach the 35-year threshold and claim the full UK state pension.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How much does it cost to buy back years?&lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The rates for the 2024 to 2025 tax year are:&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;£3.45&lt;/strong&gt; a week for &lt;strong&gt;Class 2&lt;/strong&gt; contributions (£179.40 p.a.)&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&nbsp;£17.45 &lt;/strong&gt;a week for &lt;strong&gt;Class 3&lt;/strong&gt; contributions (£907.40 p.a.)&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You usually pay the current rate when you make a voluntary contribution.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Each year purchased will increase your State Pension entitlement by £329 per annum&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Class 2&lt;/strong&gt; contributions apply to anyone living abroad and working abroad, but only if you worked in the UK immediately before leaving, and you have previously lived in the UK for at least 3 years in a row or paid at least 3 years of contributions.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Class 3&lt;/strong&gt; contributions apply to anyone living abroad and not working, but only if at some point you have lived in the UK for at least 3 years in a row or paid at least 3 years of contributions.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It is important to note, the cost of paying voluntary contributions/buying back years, is paid from personal funds.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;UK State Pensions are subject to tax. However, under the Double Taxation Agreement between Ireland and the UK, individuals should not be taxed twice on the same income.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you need to do ahead of the April deadline&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Check your UK State Pension Forecast&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The forecast allows you to see your projected state pension entitlement based on your paid contributions. To check your UK State Pension forecast, you can do so either by phone, website, or post.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Phone&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To receive this forecast by phone, you can contact the Future Pension Centre &lt;strong&gt;- &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;contact details are listed here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Website&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You can apply online here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt; i&lt;/strong&gt;f you have a Government Gateway ID.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Post&lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you would prefer to do this by post, you would be required to complete a BR19 Form&lt;a href=&quot;https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64366b69cc99800013b89381/br19-interactive-application-for-a-state-pension-statement.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt; which may be found here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Pay Voluntary Contributions&lt;/strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once your forecast information has been confirmed and if you wish to proceed with paying voluntary contributions, your next steps are listed below.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Apply to HM Revenue and Customs for voluntary contributions ahead of the deadline.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The relevant Form CF83&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-pay-ni-contributions-abroad/start/about-this-guidance&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt; may be found here&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;strong&gt;. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For further information refer to the following links or reach out to your Unio adviser.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.uk/government/news/deadline-for-voluntary-national-insurance-contributions-extended-to-april-2025&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Extending the deadline for voluntary National Insurance contributions. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-security-abroad-ni38/guidance-on-social-security-abroad-ni38&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Guidance on Social Security abroad: NI38&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the author&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;em&gt;Sarah Dunlea is a Financial Planner with Unio Wealth Management and has a wealth of experience working with high-net-worth individuals and families on how they can achieve their goals.&lt;/em&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us here.&lt;/a&gt;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

Have you checked your UK State Pension Entitlements?

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Does anyone remember the Washington Consensus? Such a phrase might seem odd in today’s world but in the early 1990’s the notion of a ‘Washington Consensus’ was very powerful as a method for globalisation, and hotly debated by the left.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Globalisation worked well because, to be overly simplistic, it was facilitated by a very clear world order that helped to establish the rules of the ‘globalisation game’ and the norms associated with this. At their core, these rules were American, or at the very least, they were made in Washington within the institutions that were set up to marshal the post-World War II world order, the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the World Bank and the United Nations in New York. America held the purse strings of these organisations and regular meetings at these institutions became a means of schooling ministers from both developing and emerging economies in the ways of American economic power.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;These discussions aired what soon became known as the ‘Washington Consensus’ – effectively an approach to world economic development and globalisation, that was denounced by critics on the left as a neo-liberal policy recipe book. With the benefit of hindsight today, the Washington Consensus was valuable in the sense that it was a consensus– though perhaps not agreed – it encapsulated an approach that many countries were content to go along with as part of their first foray into real economic development.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Today, the Washington Consensus is in disarray. The institutions that it was built around, like the IMF are defunct, and others like the WTO have been undermined by both China and the US in recent years. The decision of the US to leave the World Health Organisation is another blow. The ‘Consensus’ is dead because there are now other competing methods as to how countries can develop, and of the independent paths they can take. Here, an important milestone was Xi Jinping’s China Dream speech, in November 2012, which well before MAGA (Make America Great Again) coined the term ‘China Dream’ during a visit to the National Museum of China. Now, countries like Indonesia or Nigeria can try to follow the classical Western model of development, or China’s non-democratic, state led approach. Or, like Argentina and El Salvador, they can pursue the ‘Trumpian’ model that is taking a grip on Washington, but that is anything but a ‘Consensus’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Without going into the day-by-day developments coming from the White House, the second Trump presidency can be seen as a stage in the post-globalisation world order. Globalisation was based on American economic and political strength and promulgated by the ‘Washington Consensus’ and the B-52’s of American capitalism (multinationals). Eventually globalisation ran out of steam, and events like Brexit, the first Trump presidency and the snuffing out of Hong Kong’s democracy shattered it. We are now in a multi-polar world where at least three large powers (EU, China and the US) do things increasingly differently (look at how they treat AI).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Uniquely, this Trump presidency represents an attempt to do something new, and can be seen as an early stage in the formation of the new world order, and to an extent its success depends on the will and the coherence of the groups of people that are driving the Trump project (from sectors like private equity, innovation and wealthy families). One stark difference with globalization is already clear. Globalization was built on the US being umbilically tied to much of the rest of the world, and vice versa, by flows of ideas, money, trade and people. In contrast, it now seems that Trump 2.0 relies on American exceptionalism, attempting to rise above the rest of the world, and in the process severing the relationships and ties built up since the end of the First World War.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For example, consider the words delivered to &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-before-the-canadian-parliament-ottawa__;!!O22_8FOSssc!k4bBqMZCUxMjUlGnV2Ju8mQZki9K1DsirG07FcQUfaukBO_tVo14m7dTbjVpT5ni1MSxzA48r04mCLY_RoDv--mU$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Canadians by President Kennedy&lt;/a&gt; in May 1961 ‘Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies’ and how remarkably different they are to the way the Donald Trump has treated Canada.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In that context, the rest of the world may increasingly choose to avoid America, and the risk to ‘Exceptional America’, notably with the dollar as strong as it is, is that its financial power ebbs, in the way that of many other empires has. The template for this is expertly laid out in Barry Eichengren’s ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.nber.org/papers/w24145__;!!O22_8FOSssc!k4bBqMZCUxMjUlGnV2Ju8mQZki9K1DsirG07FcQUfaukBO_tVo14m7dTbjVpT5ni1MSxzA48r04mCLY_RmHZmXUe$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Mars or Mercury’&lt;/a&gt; paper that analysed the link between empires and their monies, though I feel that in the absence of obviously strong competing currencies, this thesis could take time to play out.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;A more plausible side-effect of ‘exceptional’ America, is the advent of a new point of economic gravity, pinpointed at the UAE (United Arab Emirates). This is my ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/w-e-n-a&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Fourth Pole’ thesis&lt;/a&gt; – that the UAE together with India and Saudi Arabia has the makings of a new pole of trade and commercial activity, with low regulatory barriers and that encompasses a potentially huge market (Prof Afshin Molavi calculates that there are 2.5bn bn people within five hours flying time of Abu Dhabi). The Mercosur trade deal between Latin America and the EU might also be the basis for a new trade corridor.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The other necessary outcome in a world where America is going its own way, is that Europe stops trying to contain Trump, and takes a far more aggressive stance with respect to its risk environment, notably Russia. The German election in two week’s time might be the start of that stance.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Remember the Washington Consensus?

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Technology happens quickly. This time two years ago, few people had heard about ChatGPT, and few investors knew what Nvidia did. On January 6th 2023, I wrote a note entitled ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/thelevelling.blog/2023/01/06/talos/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!jW_fkXuO5C243TaS3Eyb8QWlrZB8KR1DxOQl04Cjx6CP7IfDe0-ZfpfCtz9clZzhoC9B_ooY-M-mx6qRb8SqOBhk$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Talos&lt;/a&gt;’ where I remarked...&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;’A recent development here is the arrival of ChatGPT an interactive ‘intelligent’ bot that has been developed by OpenAI (set up seven years ago to build socially constructive AI, and recently valued at USD 30bn). ChatGPT is catching on quickly, not least because students have found that it can write half decent essays. I recently tested it out, asking for a response to the question ‘Is globalization over?’- the result is below, and in my humble opinion is a good rendition of the kind of response that a ‘two handed economist’ might give (‘on one hand…on the other’). I think I can just about do better, and if there is any lesson to draw it is for human writers to be more opinionated, quirky or style driven in how they write. I am not out of a job just yet.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;I am still writing, and don’t use ChatGPT to do so. In January 2023, my presumption was that because ChatGPT had already been in place for some time, investors knew about it and had factored it into share prices (the theory of efficient markets in finance says that all publicly available information is quickly reflected in market prices).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;This was not the case, and with hindsight, I realise that students of economic and finance of the 1990’s spent far too much time imbibing the ‘efficient markets hypothesis’, which was a big thing at the time and the&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.princeton.edu/*ceps/workingpapers/91malkiel.pdf__;fg!!O22_8FOSssc!jW_fkXuO5C243TaS3Eyb8QWlrZB8KR1DxOQl04Cjx6CP7IfDe0-ZfpfCtz9clZzhoC9B_ooY-M-mx6qRbyp67IFO$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; big guns of academic finance raged about it into the 2000’s&lt;/a&gt;. I suspect that more people today believe markets are rigged than efficient, with the rigging done by vampire squid type funds and central banks, to name a few culprits.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The performance of AI centric stocks (notably Nvidia) shows that the early promise of AI was underestimated, perhaps to the extent to which it is overestimated today. Indeed, the concentration of the top ten companies in the US stock market (they make up 40% of the market capitalisation) is as high as it only has been in 1930. In that context, the apparent supplanting of ChatGPT by DeepSeek (we might call it ‘Chatccp’) in the Apple app store is a reality check.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;It is also an efficient markets check. I had seen the initial model test results from DeepSeek at the start of this year (Azeem Azhar’s blog had mentioned it back in November, and also as far back as &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.exponentialview.co/p/ev-451?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email__;!!O22_8FOSssc!jW_fkXuO5C243TaS3Eyb8QWlrZB8KR1DxOQl04Cjx6CP7IfDe0-ZfpfCtz9clZzhoC9B_ooY-M-mx6qRb-FaIfTY$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;December 2023&lt;/a&gt;). To that end, the technology world has been well aware of DeepSeek for months, so it is a surprise, and another slap in the face for efficient markets hypothesis (I am still a little obsessed about this).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Whatever about efficient markets, the advent of DeepSeek is a reminder of how the cycle of innovation in economies works, and will have some commentators rushing for their Schumpeter. The Austrian economist coined the term ‘creative destruction’, but his views on capitalism are worth re-reading for he believed that it would undermine itself (different cohorts or corporates would effectively block the system) and collapse. His work on business cycles is also well overdue a comeback.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;We don’t quite know whether DeepSeek (who claim to have produced superior model results compared to ChatGPT and Claude AI for a fraction of the cost) have been helped by the Chinese state, whether any espionage is involved nor the extent to which they have piggybacked on work already done by US based teams. Nor is it too important that the bandwidth of the model is restricted in China and that it is unlikely to be widely used in the West.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The important development is that the cost of production threshold for large AI models has been set much lower. Other cheaper models are on the way, Bytedance's Doubao-1.5 or Moonshot's Kimi k1.5 are two emerging examples.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;To that end, the first phase in the AI boom now comes to an end. Much like other key technology infrastructure breakthroughs – railway (railway companies made up 50% of the stock market in 1900), automobiles (France dominated the auto market from 1903 to 1929, at times manufacturing half of the world’s cars) to the internet (anyone remember AOL or Netscape”) – the initial innovation garners huge amounts of capital, is expected to change the world, which it does but often not in the ways investors expect. The legacy is usually a new web of infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In the next phase of AI, Investors will now not likely pay up for model developers but will focus on unique datasets, applications of AI (health) and the AI industrial supply chain - energy for AI for example (see last week’s note ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/humphrey&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Humphrey&lt;/a&gt;’).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The view of the stock market, which quickly rebounded, is that the consumer is the winner – that DeepSeek opens up the prospect of cheaper, better AI for common use, and I think the investor conversation will turn to how this impacts consumption patterns and the way people work (from police officers to teachers).&nbsp;The fact that the stock market took the positive view of the DeepSeek news suggests that the AI bubble in stocks is alive and well.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Elsewhere in AI, model development is accelerating in a sinister way. In a paper entitled &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-red-line-b2687013.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;‘Frontier AI systems have surpassed the self-replicating red line’,&lt;/a&gt; scientists at Fudan university highlight how AI can build replicates of itself, and when this process runs into obstacles, demonstrate a survival instinct (such as rebooting hardware to fix errors). It strikes me that this is the real AI development we need to pay attention to.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Revenge of the Textbook

&lt;p&gt;The January Global Macro Council( GMC) Outlook highlights that 2025 might be the year to move away from expensive, high-performing assets that had strong momentum in 2024. Better diversification could lead to better long-term returns.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this month's GMC, we were fortunate to be joined by guest speakers Moritz Brand Portfolio Manager at Invesco Quantitative Strategies and Fawaz A Chaudhry Partner &amp; Head of Equities at Fulcrum Asset Management. Thank you both for your insights and expertise.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/UNIO-GMC-Outlook-January-2025-_Year-of-the-Contrarian.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Read this month's GMC outlook in full.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In summary:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Market Trends&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Liquidity injections from central banks have driven momentum in markets over the last decade.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Expensive growth stocks have outperformed value stocks.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• The dollar has shown strong momentum in the past two years.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Current Asset Valuations&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Significant capital is tied up in top technology firms, the dollar, and corporate bonds, all at all-time high valuations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• The dollar is the most expensive it has been since the early nineties.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• US stock valuations are close to the highest levels since the late 1990s.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• The top fifteen US companies are worth as much as the Chinese and European equity markets combined.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Investment Strategy&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• There is no bubble in the broad US market, but the significant amount of capital in very expensive dollar assets demands attention and action from investors.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• Better diversification, especially away from very expensive assets, could lead to better long-term returns.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Influencing Factors&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• The collapse in long-term US bonds signals a resurgence of inflation and potential creditworthiness issues for the US.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;• President Trump's executive orders on various topics might warrant a diversification strategy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Year of the Contrarian?

&lt;p&gt;Welcome to the Unio Weekly View for the week beginning January 27th, 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;View our investment brief in full 📽️:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lk2GB8wb0kQ?showinfo=0&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In summary:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ The Magnificent 7 will report quarterly results: Microsoft, Meta, and Tesla on the 29th; Apple on the 30th. These stocks have driven strong equity market performance in 2023 and 2024, dominating the S&amp;P 500 index.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Following Trump's energy emergency declaration, investors await oil companies' outlooks for the year.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ On the macro side, the Federal Reserve's interest rate announcement is due on the 29th, with no change expected however there will be close attention to outlook and forecasts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ In Europe, the ECB is set to cut rates by 25 basis points to 2.9% on the 30th.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;talk to us.&lt;/p&gt;

The Weekly View, Week Beginning 27th January, 2025

&lt;p&gt;I’m glad to mention that my ‘GoldenEye’ note generated a lot of feedback, some of it cursing my good luck to spend a week in the Caribbean. To atone, I spent four days last week in the foggy cold of England, touring from Oxford to Manchester to the Cotswolds and finishing in London. Many of the places I visited are points of reference that I have known for a long time. Some have changed for the better (the Elizabeth line in London is very useful), some for the worse (this Manchester United team is indeed the worst ever), and some have not changed at all (the food at Pepper’s Burgers in Oxford is just as good as it was thirty years ago).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Economically and politically, Britain is worse off. Brexit has been a terrible misstep, and the new Labour government is struggling to even diagnose the sputtering economy. Real-wage growth is feeble, productivity is at multi-decade lows, the fiscal deficit dominates policy making and the bond market is more troubled than when Liz Truss was prime minister. The only saving grace is that Britain isn’t Germany.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In foreign policy, while Britain is an active supporter of Ukraine and still a UN Security Council member, it is at risk of becoming lost geopolitically – Britain is stranded outside the EU and the special relationship between Washington and London is all but dead politically in the Trump 2.0 era.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, Britain is good at remaking itself. I think that at some point it will have its ‘Brian’ moment when, to borrow from the Monty Python film (The Life of Brian), a political leader will emerge, haphazardly or by design, with the force of personality and ideas to right the country. Nigel Farage is not this person, and without being unkind, I am not sure that Keir Starmer is either.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It used to be the case that Britain didn’t need talented politicians; it had a large, expert civil service to run the country. Instead of ‘Brian’s’ it had ‘Humphreys’ after ‘Sir Humphrey Appleby’ the fictional cabinet secretary in the excellent 1980’s tv series ‘Yes, (Prime) Minister’. The series revolves around the art of non-decisions and the careful practice by civil servants of keeping elected officials far from the levers of power.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When the engine of the economy was whirring, the job of the ‘Humphreys’ was to keep politicians from putting a spanner in the works. Now that productivity is dead across the UK (below the US, Germany and France) due to a lack of investment in capital and skills, the country needs to be inspired by new ideas. Thankfully, two of them came along last week.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first was the latest in a series of notes on the UK economy by the excellent &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.longvieweconomics.com/__;!!O22_8FOSssc!i5Mdr0wxE6xjkP0eqq4wJkZVwMa1gNCaoRv5nxABPNcsfebGmi_rs4P8esFEO4OmaQLGMqAXwfjfzbfNROjOnFZ6$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;LongView Economics.&lt;/a&gt; In brief, their diagnosis is that Britain faces several, long-growing problems – to many ‘Humphreys’ or rather too much regulation and bureaucracy (government spending is at seventy year highs), the death of risk capital and the need to re-generate investment flows across the British economy and the financialization of the economy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Two of the solutions flagged by LongView are the needs to reform the NHS and to cut bureaucracy across government. This might happen sooner than many think because the second inspirational idea to come out of the UK was the launch a week ago of the &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-opportunities-action-plan/ai-opportunities-action-plan__;!!O22_8FOSssc!i5Mdr0wxE6xjkP0eqq4wJkZVwMa1gNCaoRv5nxABPNcsfebGmi_rs4P8esFEO4OmaQLGMqAXwfjfzbfNRASdxsRp$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;UK AI Opportunities Action Plan&lt;/a&gt;, which in effect was authored by the venture capitalist Matt Clifford with a little help from the likes of Sir Demis Hassabis. It is applied and well thought through enough that it could not have been written by civil servants. In a week where the USD 500bn Softbank/OpenAI/Oracle AI investment has grabbed the headlines, the UK AI Plan deserves much closer attention and, in my view, is the best framework for an AI value chain.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whilst there are fifty recommendations in the report, all of which have been endorsed by the government, the main ones involve ‘feeding’ AI models by making high quality data more available (changing copyright laws), accelerate investment in data centres and also set up an AI Energy Council to plan the energy sources to power the data centres. There are also plans for a national data library and for the use of AI in the NHS.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;One striking element, announced this Tuesday, is the use of AI assistants to speed up public services, with data-sharing deals across siloed departments; and a new set of AI tools — dubbed “Humphrey”. The aim is to speed up and make the work of civil servants more efficient – with the stated aim of saving GBP 55bn (this is very ambitious and if achieved would cut significantly into the budget deficit).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The plan, at least, is ambitious. Whether or not the Labour government can implement this plan is very much an open question but at least they have in their hands a blueprint for investment and perhaps the beginning of something better for the British economy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Humphrey

&lt;p&gt;Unio Wealth Management has launched its monthly thought leadership series for 2025, the themes of which underpin financial advice to our clients.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Read more: &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Unio-Themes-2025-1.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Unio Wealth Management Monthly Thought Leadership Series&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2025 will see the dawning of a new world where new rules and ways of doing things are crafted, but also one where impatience is a symptom of an unclear future for many countries, companies and households.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this context, Unio is launching a monthly thought leadership series - New World, New Rules, Your Wealth - that will examine and debate how Ireland – from the point of view of its economy, politics and diplomacy – will be affected by this ‘new world under new rules’ theme.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Specifically, we will interrogate a number of strategic themes, that will command investors’ attention this year:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Ireland and the EU&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-The UK Splutters&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Ireland’s Relationship With the US&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Ireland's Security Posture&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Deep Tech and Strategic Autonomy&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Immigration&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-Small States&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A constant thread through these themes is the relevance to financial markets, a sense of what international investors are doing and the implications for our clients’ portfolios: corporate; SME; and, professionals and executives in Ireland.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Watch below as Mike O'Sullivan goes into more detail on each of the themes.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Watch the short clip below:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/MVFDZyvmCFo?showinfo=0&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

New World, New Rules, Your Wealth.

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Navigating Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Pensions: Making Informed Decisions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;This article compares Defined Benefit (DB) and Defined Contribution (DC) pensions. DB pensions offer guaranteed income, while DC pensions involve investment risk for the employee. Employers prefer DC schemes due to predictable costs. Transfer values allow employees to switch from DB to DC pensions, with potential benefits like inheritance options. The decision to transfer involves assessing financial factors, risk, and personal circumstances with the help of a financial adviser. 4 minutes read.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;DB pensions, where your former employer pays you a guaranteed income, have been described as the ultimate gold-plated pension.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Modern Pension Plans &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Most employers now offer a DC pension, where they provide employees with a set amount of money to invest in a pension plan. The employee takes on the investment risk and the uncertainty of whether the pension pot they have at retirement will be enough to support them in retirement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Employer Preferences&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Employers prefer DC schemes, because they know exactly what they need to pay into them each year for their employees, and after that, their obligation is satisfied. In contrast, DB schemes can be a large liability on the company balance sheet, because ultimately, they don’t know how long they will be paying out that guaranteed income – will all of the retired employees end up being centurions, with the company liable to pay them a guaranteed income for thirty or forty years?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Transfer Values&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Facing this uncertain cost, many companies offer pension scheme members transfer values. What this means is that they hand the member a DC pension in exchange for the member giving up their DB pension, that guaranteed income for life. The member takes on the investment risk and manages the pension to give them enough income to live on in retirement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Benefits of Transfer Values &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, there can be upsides to taking a transfer value too for example, what happens if the member passes away? With a DB pension, the pension payable each year is paid to the spouse, but is usually reduced by a third, or in some cases even by half. Then, upon the death of the surviving spouse, it ceases to pay completely. In some cases, there is no spouse’s pension at all, no value can be passed on to their children or other family members. In contrast, with a DC pension, the full value of the pension pot can pass to the spouse and estate just like any other asset.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Factors Influencing Transfer Values &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The transfer value on offer may fluctuate over time, and this is driven by multiple factors. The most important are bond yields and how long the member has left until retirement. Typically, as bond yields increase, we see transfer values reduce, and vice versa. Also, as the member grows closer to retirement age, typically transfer values increase. Other things that can influence the transfer value on offer include the funding status of the scheme, and whether any enhancement is being offered by the sponsoring firm to incentivise the member to take the transfer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Making the Decision&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There are many financial factors to be considered when weighing up a transfer value, but ultimately, it is a personal decision – a huge personal decision. If you choose to take the transfer value, there is no going back into the DB scheme. It can be a daunting decision to make. The process starts with a transfer value offer letter being received by the member, with no further context or analysis beyond the simple numbers of what their defined benefit entitlement is, and what the transfer value on offer is.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Our Approach&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We take a two-pronged approach when a client comes to us with a transfer value offer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;First, we assess whether the transfer value could provide them with the same level of income as the DB pension would, also considering what level of investment risk would have to be taken to achieve this.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Then we assess how the client’s risk profile stacks up against this required risk level.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Comprehensive Analysis&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Following this assessment, we look at the big picture. We run a cashflow analysis incorporating all the client’s assets, income, expenses, and liabilities, with one scenario showing their financial position if they remain in the DB scheme, and a second showing what might change &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;if&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; they take the transfer value.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We then move on to look at the personal side of things. What level of income does the client need, and how do they value security of income? Do they want to leave an inheritance to their family some day? How is their health, is there an increased risk of passing away early in retirement? Then we must assess how the client would deal with investment risk.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Considerations and Conclusions &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These factors represent just a fraction of the many considerations that must be taken into account when deciding whether to accept or decline a transfer value. By speaking to your financial adviser, you can gain valuable insights into the essential context surrounding transfer values, ensuring that your decision is well-informed and made with confidence.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About the author&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;em&gt;Yvonne Clinton is a Financial Planner with Unio Wealth Management and has a wealth of experience in advising high net worth individuals and families on how they can achieve their goals.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; get in touch.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Navigating Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Pensions

&lt;p&gt;Welcome to the Unio Weekly View for the week beginning January 20th, 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;View our investment brief in full 📽️:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/iCWCh6XuNTY?showinfo=0&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In summary:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Earnings season kicked off with a bang last week with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs exceeding earnings and profit forecasts thanks to strong trading revenue.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Looking ahead to this week, several well know companies will report earnings: Netflix on the 21st; Johnson &amp; Johnson&nbsp;on the 22nd; and, American Express on the 24th. Over the past year American Express’s stock has risen c.69% as financial services companies continue to thrive.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Today is a big day in the US as the transfer of power between President Biden and Trump will take place at approximately 12:00 EST inside the Capitol Building.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ On the 21st, UK unemployment data for November will be released. Recent UK macroeconomic data has been generally muted. Bank of England officials may need to respond more quickly if the jobs report indicates weakness.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or get in touch here: &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Weekly View, Week Beginning 20th January.

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;I may well lose half of my readers with the next sentence but, whilst many of you were struggling in sub-zero temperatures I spent much of last week in the Caribbean. As the plane passed south over azure sea and white beaches, I thought to myself that we were not far from Goldeneye, the Jamaican residence of ‘James Bond’ author Ian Fleming. Indeed, the character of James Bond has some local Caribbean flavour, Fleming was a keen ornithologist and named his main character after an expert ornithologist and author of ‘Birds of the West Indies’ called James Bond, who subsequently visited Fleming at Goldeneye in 1964 (Goldeneye was the name of a 1941 intelligence operation in Spain that Fleming as involved in).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Early in his career, Fleming struggled to match his more illustrious father and brother (the excellent ‘Geographies, Genders and Geopolitics of James Bond’ by Lisa Funnell and Klaus Dodd underlines how Fleming’s conception of Bond was influenced by both his brother and father), and his military career really only took off when he took up a role in Intelligence (he worked at Room 37 at the Admiralty).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;He was given charge of a small but telling operation whose aim was to conceive high impact missions that had little chance of success, but that would confuse the enemy. His playbook of operations was called the Trout Memo – after the fly-fishing technique designed to entrap trout. The conception of these high risk missions formed the basis for the James Bond novels, which from 1953 onwards were very popular, and by 1965 the series had reached thirteen books.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In 1965 the writer Kingsley Amis, well known as a serious critic, poet and author, published the book ‘The James Bond Dossier’, an analysis of Ian Fleming’s Bond novels. The book which contains studied lists of Bond’s victims, lovers (at my count Bond prefers English, American, French and then Swedish ‘friends’) and adversaries (few governments, mostly individuals and warped older male sociopaths at that), helped Amis enter the world of popular culture – he clearly had a sense of the allure and longevity of the Bond brand.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Some of the films based on Fleming’s work have been spot on in identifying threats and trends. On the whole and perhaps reflecting Fleming’s own operations, many of them involve the disruption of supply chains and the resulting profiteering – for instance Goldeneye was based on the deployment of an electromagnetic device to rob the Bank of England (don’t forget that Goldfinger plotted to use a dirty bomb to steal gold from Fort Knox), Tomorrow Never Dies Involved the manipulation of the media, in Die Another Day a satellite is used to manipulate the weather over North Korea and so on.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While the Bond film franchise is struggling to settle on a new actor to take over from Daniel Craig, my sense is that we live in a world that is increasingly Bond like in its geopolitics. Whilst the period of globalizations was relatively calm, we are now in the midst of a number of trends that are Bondesque – a Cold War between the US and China, a grey war between Russia and Europe, NATO re-armament (which featured in Thunderball), the rise of oligarchy and the advent of space as a competitive domain, to mention a few.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Every time I leave Europe, the intensity of the US-China struggle for supremacy strikes me, though I feel that most Europeans are not alive to this. Neither are they alive to the shadow war that Russia (with help from China) is prosecuting on Europe. The Polish government (holder of the EU rotating presidency) unveiled a sabotage campaign by Russia to target freight aircraft across Europe. This comes after a series of assassinations, sabotage attacks and hacking campaigns that Russia has prosecuted in Europe.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Back in the Caribbean, a striking event last week was the disintegration of Elon Musk’s Starship, which reminds us of the sharp rise of oligarchs as political operators (as highlighted by President Biden), and of how space is opening up as a new, competitive domain (Bond film Moonraker gave us a taste of this).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;In particular, the entry of Musk into the operation of military innovation and procurement is a sign of a wave of aerospace and defence innovation, that is being pioneered by firms like Shield AI, Helsing AI and Anduril. As a sample of the thinking behind this innovations, one idea that was put to me recently is to replace fighter jets with hypersonic rockets that carry and deploy drones to the battlefield. Of course, the trouble with most of these technologies is that they are unmanned, leaving little room for Bond like characters to distinguish themselves.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;A final element worth mentioning is geopolitical power. Britain is a much less consequential player geopolitically than it was in the 1950’s, but it still retains a seat on the UN Security Council for instance. The trouble is that many of the institutional reference points of the Fleming era are losing their lustre, and risk being replaced by an entirely new set of institutions, and we could speculate that in the future we will see the development of a World Cyber Police, an AI led World AI Safety Institute and an authority to police genetic editing and DNA hacking, all of which might feature in future Bond plots.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;James Bond may be on hold as a cinematic experience, but I wonder if the next Bond movie should be called ‘No Time for Tariffs’.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Goldeneye

&lt;p&gt;Welcome to the Unio Weekly View for the week beginning January 13th, 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;View our full investment brief 📽️:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rl4VjRCiCeQ?showinfo=0&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In summary:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ It’s the start of Q4 reporting this week and JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Blackrock lead the way reporting their Q4 earnings on the 15th. The S&amp;P 500 financials sector rose over 26% in 2024 as banks continue to benefit from higher interest rates.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ UK inflation and GDP data will be released on the 15th and 16th respectively. Current UK inflation stands at 2.6% and is expected to rise to 2.7% due to higher energy prices and increased Christmas spending.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ US inflation data for December will be released on the 15th and the headline rate is expected to rise 0.1% to 2.8%.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Increased demand from China, lower US inventories and continued supply cuts from OPEC+ along with increased winter fuel demand has pushed oil prices to their highest level in over 3 months. YTD WTI crude is up 6.7% at $77.27 p/b.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;get in touch here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Weekly View, Week Beginning 13th January

&lt;p&gt;Mike O'Sullivan, Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio Wealth Management in conversation with John Daly, The Irish Examiner. Mike talks about how despite the many challenges Ireland faces, most notably inflation, the country is still very competitive compared to many other European countries.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“If I had to pick one way in which Ireland is different to other countries, I would say that while it is an old country, it has a young society and younger economy, in terms of structural development,” he says, referencing Joe Lee’s book on Irish history, which speaks of a long history of economic underachievement.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“I illustrate this to people with a chart of Irish GDP compared to that of Britain, starting in 1800 up to today. What it shows is a very long period of economic underdevelopment, right up to 1990, when the Berlin wall fell, globalisation kicked off and Ireland rode its coattails.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;Since then, Ireland has become a wealthy country, but the fact that it has happened quickly, and in a boom-and-bust style, means that the investment infrastructure and culture of infrastructure that you might find in older economies — from Sweden to France — is not yet there.”&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While personal wealth has grown significantly, with the number of people with net assets of over €1m having doubled in the last decade, Ireland is under-served in terms of wealth management advice.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&nbsp;“As a trusted wealth adviser, Unio’s goal is to move our clients from being passive wealth holders to active wealth builders.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;In this context, Ireland has a lot of upsides because we are at the beginning of a generational transfer in wealth, one that hopefully becomes more meaningful in the ways it can help Irish firms to grow. The challenge is to get policymakers to take a very fresh look at the way investment works in Ireland,” he adds.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Challenges facing Ireland&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Looking at the more significant challenges facing Ireland in the future, his instinct is to look beyond 2025. “I think the biggest economic issue will be inflation — and to focus on reshaping our economic model so that it enables Ireland to advance in terms of economic sophistication and as a society. We need a longer-term investment model, more Irish growth companies and a complete overhaul of infrastructure.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The issue Ireland faces is not a lack of money, but a lack of know-how in planning and executing infrastructure projects — which is something other peer countries like Denmark and Sweden have.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ireland has done very well from globalisation, but he points out this is changing fast: “As the ‘tide goes out’, Ireland is being exposed in terms of its lack of defence and security capabilities and a total absence of geopolitical and security alertness in our political class.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;It worries me that, in the same way, Ireland was unprepared for the 2008 economic collapse, we are similarly unprepared for a rougher, chaotic world order.”&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The investment landscape is profoundly influenced by both global and local politics, he says, where diplomatic relations, regional conflicts and political stability all shape investor sentiment and market dynamics.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“At Unio, understanding this interplay is key to navigating financial markets and helping clients maximise their financial lives and futures.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Given how 2024 delivered political and economic turbulence to the eurozone, with its largest economies, Germany and France, facing significant challenges, Mike O’Sullivan takes an optimistic view.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“It seems to me that, in a volatile way, the eurozone has become stronger institutionally through every crisis that has befallen it — Brexit and covid being the latest examples.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;However, across the EU, France and Germany are ‘unwell’ economically, but there is an important power shift to the east, notably the Baltic states and Poland, and Spain is growing strongly.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;I would say that the one element of the European debate that is not felt in Ireland is the need to prepare industry, the technology sector and militaries for conflict with Russia. Denmark, for example, has just added €5bn to its military budget.”&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Global uncertainty&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With incoming US president Donald Trump taking office on January 20, and general anticipation of more global uncertainty, Ireland’s position is better than that of many of our EU neighbours.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In some respects, it is too late to worry — we have known for some time that the economy is over-reliant on foreign direct investment, but policy has not reacted to this. Having said that, those multinationals are deeply embedded in our economy, so a sudden exit is unlikely.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;In addition, in other ways, Ireland is still a very competitive economy compared to many EU neighbours,” he says.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“I think the recent election was a good example of how grounded and local Irish politics is, and that is a good thing. There are other elements of Irish democracy — like the citizens' assembly — that are also admirable. Yet, lower turnout is a worry, as is the impact of social media on public life and the quality of political debate across the world.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The other element that needs to be balanced is that our political system rewards politicians for focusing too much on local issues, often to the detriment of the ‘bigger picture’.&quot;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While maintaining continued contact with his native Cork, Mike readily admits that living in the ‘City of Light’ does have its moments.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;“It’s a wonderful place to live. We are right in the city centre so have witnessed many of the events that define Paris — including the fire at Notre Dame and the Olympics. The city is thriving and very liveable.”&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio Wealth Management, we help high earners achieve their full financial potential. Using our proprietary wealth planning framework we work with our clients to plan their future and importantly, how to fund it. If you would like to speak to a Unio Wealth Management adviser, visit&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Let's Talk | Unio Wealth Management&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.irishexaminer.com/business/companies/arid-41550316.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;This is an excerpt from an article that appeared in The Irish Examiner, January 10th, 2025&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

Ireland’s position is better than that of many of our EU neighbours

&lt;p&gt;We spent a memorable New Year’s Eve on Dursey Island, one of the more remote parts of Europe, whose only point of access to the Irish mainland is by ‘Ireland’s only cable car’, where the principal safety device is a bottle of holy water. In 1602, Dursey was the scene of the massacre of some of the O’Sullivan clan. Some six hundred years before that, it was a staging post for the Vikings.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I am tempted to think that had the Vikings stayed the O’Sullivans could have escaped the slaughter of the Siege of Dunboy, but then again, always optimistic, I contend myself that Dursey – unlike the other Viking island (Greenland) will not attract the attention of the US Navy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My intention this year is to be as least distracted as possible by the geopolitical strategizing of President Trump, but in the context of a far more ideological cabinet, his thoughts have consequences – not least for how they will encourage the enemies of America and the ‘west’ to behave.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For investors, political and geopolitical risks will likely play a much greater role in developed market asset returns than in any time over the past forty years, and the market reaction to Donald Trump’s victory offers them a wonderful opportunity to take a contrarian view and ‘spend American exceptionalism’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To explain what I mean by that, our starting point in 2025 is that an array of US assets trade at very high levels. Indeed, to recap a phrase I used in December markets are starting 2025 from the ‘wrong place’ in the sense that an enormous amount of capital is tied up in assets (the top ‘7’ technology firms, the dollar, corporate bonds) that trade at all time lofty valuations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For instance, Bank of America estimates that the dollar is the most expensive that it has been since the early nineties, and valuations for US stocks are close to the highest levels they have reached since the late 1990’s. The top fifteen companies in the US are now worth the same as Chinese and European equity markets together.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Added to that, quite a few assets have exploded in value because of their proximity to Donald Trump – notably the crypto eco-system and Tesla (which has added USD 850bn in market value around the time of the election, an amount equal to the value of its ten nearest competitors).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is not yet a bubble in the broad US market – many segments such as value stocks (high dividend companies) and small companies have not performed, but there is sufficient capital held in very expensive dollar denominated assets that it demands the attention and action of investors.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Market analysts do not appear worried – in the time-honoured fashion the major investment houses have released their year ahead forecasts, which suspiciously all cluster around the 10% market, and equally suspiciously no investment house is forecasting a negative year for US stocks. This collective conclusion must have required great analytical power because an independent re-running of these same models points to flat or negative returns.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To that end, investors should take advantage of expensive dollar assets and diversify abroad.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They may be convinced to do so by two developments. The first is the collapse in long term US bonds since the Federal Reserve launched into a series of rate cuts from September onwards. In effect the bond market is signalling that it sees a resurgence of inflation ahead, and it is also likely flagging that the credit worthiness of the US may be deteriorating (in the sense that there is little prospect of the budget deficit and government debt being pared back).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Related to this, the second Trump administration begins in a much worse fiscal place as the first Trump government did in 2016. In the period 1960 to 2016 (with the exception of the Vietnam War) the US budget deficit has always followed the tempo of the business cycle (as proxied by unemployment).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That is to say that the budget deficit shrunk when the economy was strong (low unemployment) and it grew when the government spent more to cushion the effects of recession (high unemployment).&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Today, we have the opposite – unemployment is low and the budget deficit is very high. This implies three risks – that too much spending in a ‘hot’ economy creates inflation, that there won't be any money left to ‘rescue’ an eventual recession, and that the rising deficit implies rising debt, which bond markets don’t like.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;None of these risks, and rising bond yields, appear to worry the US equity and corporate bond market, but they should. A contrarian view might look to sell expensive dollar denominated assets and allocate overseas.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So my message to start the year is – don’t invade Denmark, buy its equity market.&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

Contrarians and Controversialists

&lt;p&gt;Welcome to the Unio Weekly View, our weekly investments brief covering global markets and macro news.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;View our full investment brief📽️ below:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/75LJY9eyaSQ?showinfo=0&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The first full trading week of the new year will be keenly watched given the tumultuous Christmas period for markets.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ Turkey's central bank announced it’s first rate cut since Feb 2023, reducing it’s key rate from 50% to 47.5%&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ The release of the FOMC Minutes on the 8th could offer more detail on the Federal Reserve’s outlook for 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ EU inflation rate data will be released on the 7th along with an update on European unemployment rates.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;➡️ In the US jobs data will be front and centre as there will be updates on JOLTs Job Openings (7th), Non-Farm Payrolls and the Unemployment Rate (both the 10th).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; get in touch.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

The Weekly View, Week Beginning 6th January

&lt;p&gt;The December Global Macro Council Outlook highlights four broad themes for 2025: portfolio agility, fiscal policy after elections, trade wars influencing a multipolar world, and risks such as a potential recession in China. Europe is shifting towards strategic autonomy, presenting new private investment opportunities in sectors like space, quantum, and defence.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.unio-eb.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/UNIO-GMC-Outlook-December-2024.pdf&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Read more in this month's Outlook.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Four Pillars for 2025

&lt;p&gt;I filed my article early this week for two reasons. On Friday morning, we headed to Cork for holidays and I attach a link with a short list of&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeosullivan/2024/12/17/what-books-to-read-for-christmas/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;suggested Christmas reading&lt;/a&gt;, and hope you have a chance to get to the bookshop (always a more rewarding experience than buying online).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Granted that it is year end, I am often caught up in the swirl of ‘2025’ prognostications on the economy and politics, and while not a great fan of short-term forecasting, I thought I would lay out a few themes that will condition markets and economies into 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;I wouldn’t start from here.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Financial markets – which are dominated by US equities (over 65% of world market cap), are starting 2025 from a vertiginous place.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Retail investor surveys have never been so optimistic, stock market concentration is at levels last seen in 1929 (the top ten stocks account for 40% of the market) and valuations are stratospheric (a simple measure, the price to earnings ratio, has only been higher in 2020 and 2001). In that respect, many investors might pose the question ‘when is the crash?’. My sense is that absent a damaging trade and supply chain war between the US and China in Q1, we will likely see a very meaningful rotation from US equities to cheaper markets in parts of Asia, but more so Europe (the election of Friedrich Merz as German Chancellor in late February might be the catalyst for this).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Plaza Problem&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A further reason for this is the strength of the dollar, which makes foreign assets cheaper for US investors. Following the election of Donald Trump, a range of key currencies have weakened noticeably – the yen, Brazil’s real, the Indian rupee, renminbi and the euro. Whilst the new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will see the benefits of a strong dollar, the weakness of ‘foreign’ currencies is anathema to the worldview of Donal Trump, who dreams of another Plaza Accord (a ‘Mar-a-Lago Accord’) that might reset the competitiveness of the dollar.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The problem with this view, as we head into 2025, is that the weakness of Asian currencies and the euro, relative to the dollar, is driven largely by diverging economic performance. In that context, a Trump administration that runs the economy ‘hot’ risks postponing a grand currency accord. It also risks a resurgence in inflation (and bond yields), which I suspect will be a story for next summer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;China – Japan or Greece?&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The one factor that could temper inflation is China, a very large political economy that we know increasingly less about. My bet is that commentators will spend much of 2025 debating whether China is ‘Japan’ or ‘Greece’, in the sense of how the deleveraging of its economy materialises. China will become the risk factor for 2025 – economically, geopolitically and commercially in the way it will respond to the onset of tariffs from Washington.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Despite a recent, aggressive financial stimulus, the Chinese economy is gripped by deflation – in house prices, activity and a fall in entrepreneurial activity. Underlying this is a generalized demand problem.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This year’s plenum on economic policy has not done much to repair the structural creaking of the economy and the worry is that internal ‘reform’ (i.e. a political crackdown) further saps the willingness of entrepreneurs to invest, and equally that Xi is shaping China in the form of a more closed state, that curbs the will of those inside, adopts a singularly selfish approach to those outside, and relies on several great strides in technological industrialisation for the prolongation of the ‘China Dream’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The contradiction here, and specifically between the three strands to emerge from the plenum, is that in its policy making and economy China needs innovation but is creating a socio-political system that smothers it.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this respect, the third plenum and the recent liquidity boost missed a trick in not outlining a Keynesian style stimulus for the economy (or even longer-run structural one). The property market is slowing, entrepreneurs are very cautious, and the risks associated with local government debt are rising.&nbsp;While China has so far managed to duck a major recession, the government may have become too complacent about the deleveraging process, and the possibility that this accelerates downwards, dramatically so as was the case for Greece, or tortuously as was the case for Japan.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Bond markets – suffering the hangover from elections&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As China slows, the key variable to watch is the Chinese long bond yield, which has been compressing lower in recent months as investors take a dim view of the economy. Elsewhere, there should be plenty of action across bond markets, driven by the fiscal aftershock of elections across the world.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We still have a general election in Japan and the prospect of an election in Germany next February (23rd). In the cases of the US, UK and France, elections have seen bond yields rise in the context of near record indebtedness and very large deficits.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In that respect, the fiscal hangover begins. Governments across regions will find themselves reined in by bond markets and under pressure to curb spending and in some cases to raise taxes. This pressure alone may eventually tilt economic policy more towards supply side changes, and also change the kinds of issues that politicians focus on such as immigration and identity politics.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Fiscal rectitude may only come to reign after a few bond market tantrums. There are two countries in particular worth watching – France and the US. First, the French budget process has been very drawn out, and with France having to cut its deficit in half over the next three years, it is unlikely that France’s political class, not to mention its public, are ready for deeper austerity. In that way, higher French bond yields will be a fixture in markets and might periodically push much higher.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The other market to watch is the US bond market, which in 2025 may become the limiting factor for equity and other riskier assets. Since the Fed cut interest rates by 50 basis points in September, bond yields have risen and remain stubbornly high. With growth in the US economy strong, and other economies steadying, the risk factor is that inflation rises (though lower oil prices and deflation from China can offset this), driving bond yields higher, or that the desire of the Trump administration to run the economy ‘hot’ provokes a rise in yields. In this sense, the bond market may become Trump’s nemesis. The market reaction to this week’s Fed meeting is a sign of things to come.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This post is a little longer than normal and am now going to ‘down pens’ till you hear from me again on January 12th, when I will focus on some of the risks and potential surprises for 2025.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a lovely Christmas and a very prosperous new year,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

2025 - The Hangover

&lt;p&gt;The New Year is an ideal time to establish healthy money habits and to put yourself on a sound financial path.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Wendy McKeown, Head of Financial Planning&lt;/strong&gt; sets out some simple financial planning tips to get your finances into shape so you can spend more time enjoying the things you love and less time worrying about your money.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Think about your life &amp; financial goals&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Write down your short-term, medium term and long-term life goals along with a timeline for achieving them. Do these goals require financial funding? We often think about when we hope to retire and what that might look like however, along the way there are likely to be other life events and goals you would like to work towards.&nbsp;This could include clearing your mortgage in a particular timeframe or saving for your children’s education.&nbsp;Focusing on your financial goals will help you build a financial plan and with a plan you have a better chance of success!&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Create a budget &amp; track your spending&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The 50-30-20 rule is a good place to start: a budgeting approach that allocates&nbsp;50% of your income to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings. You can build your wealth while prioritising spending on things that matter to you. With a better understanding of where your money is going often comes the availability of extra disposable income, allowing you to invest the money or use it in other ways to improve your financial wellbeing.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Effectively use any surplus cash&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Once you have a handle on your personal finances, consider how you can make your money work for you and invest to achieve your goals. If you already have a pension in place, are you making the most of it? A work-based pension is effectively free money from your employer and your pension fund continues to provide a tax efficient way to save for your future.&nbsp;Think about using any surplus cash to increase your AVCs. The maximum contribution &lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/insights/are-you-maximising-your-pension-contributions&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;on which you can receive income tax relief is determined by your age.&lt;/a&gt; Every extra €100 that you save to your pension is costing you as little as €60* once tax relief is considered. What about your savings? The bulk of savings in Ireland lies in low-yielding easy-to-access bank accounts. It may be time to consider building an investment portfolio that can grow that pot.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Empower yourself&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Understanding your finances is empowering and drives sound choices when it comes to making big financial decisions such as moving house or investing in a holiday home. We aren’t taught about personal finances in school. Most of us learn about money when we start dealing with bills and mortgages. A good place to start is to read the business pages at the weekend or check out a good finance podcast. Key to this however is a good relationship with your financial adviser, someone in your corner who you can ask questions and who understands your needs and goals. They will be able to explain why they’re making certain decisions with your money and how this affects you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Seek advice&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My final tip is to seek expert “advice”. Generally, people who work with a quality financial planning professional enjoy more financial confidence and experience less financial stress. An adviser works with you to help determine exactly what your financial goals are, talks you through your options and provides a personalised financial plan.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The right adviser will help coordinate all aspects of your financial life so you can focus on what’s most important to you and your family.&nbsp;It’s an ongoing relationship built on trust and, if done correctly, your adviser will become an integral part of your life, your counsel for financial decisions. You can take comfort knowing that they will have the time, attention, and expertise to address every aspect of your finances while you focus on living.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This plan is your financial blueprint for life, it’s a living thing and we see its creation and ongoing assessment as a significant responsibility. Expert guidance will help steer you in the right direction. Life can throw curve balls and revisiting and updating your plan is paramount to its success.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;*This figure is based on marginal tax relief of 40%.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At&nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Unio Wealth Management&lt;/strong&gt;, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your&nbsp;Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/uniofinancialservicesltd.newsweaver.com/1ecefqpb45/vqdcidiuenj1wctetzt8n4/external?email=true&amp;a=6&amp;p=64910325&amp;t=33457561__;!!O22_8FOSssc!nfZp5_J4dNquUJWjgK06GKZUAVcTx3BtsZ-MUVNXTr8w1_uqlPWliA8FxUcAxkdQ6PRrdSgbD-BUj0Mcdw$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;get in touch here.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Get Your Finances in Shape for 2025 and Beyond.

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;A few weeks ago, it would have been inconceivable to most foreign policy experts that Israeli aircraft could bomb Syria at will with their tanks apparently in shooting distance of Damascus, all the while a new Islamist regime installed itself there. This latest turn in the topsy turvy geopolitical world gives a glimpse of some of the regime shifts to come and the fragility of erstwhile brutal, long lasting dictatorships.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;I absorbed the implications of the event in Abu Dhabi, which in terms of its success and trajectory, underlines the view of some that there are ‘two middle easts’.&nbsp;At the same time, Abu Dhabi has risen to a point of influence that it will be the lodestar in building the economic structure of the region once a viable peace plan for Israel/Palestine has been found.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The surprise departure of Bashir al-Assad will likely accelerate the reordering of the region and give food for thought to other ‘strongmen’. It may eventually be that a gang of them ends up living out of the Ritz Carlton in Moscow.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Indeed, &lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/688225__;!!O22_8FOSssc!ms1jRbEU0XGArti1murXZun3TGrhUF5t3F-s8dKZGzUaJx71NxVWh1ZA98XMpVNjyf_60szb_fjLLilbq0uiCUF8$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;a couple of academics&lt;/a&gt; have tracked the flight of deposed dictators and state that&nbsp;‘&lt;em&gt;we find that dictators are more likely to go into exile in states that are close neighbors, have hosted other dictators in the past, are militarily powerful, and possess colonial links, formal alliances, and economic ties. By contrast, fleeing dictators tend to avoid democratic states and countries experiencing civil conflict’&lt;/em&gt;. More specifically, in Europe the top three destinations for dictators are Russia, the UK and France!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Despite Assad’s fall, Syria itself is not out of the woods – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham may be media sensitive, but they are also deadly, conservative Islamists. They have manifestly been given a firm helping hand by Turkey, which is re-establishing itself as a regional power.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Turkish foreign policy is an enigma, wrapped in a mystery. In the past I have written how, in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, many countries in north Africa wanted to follow the ‘Turkish model’ of development. Since then, Recep Erdogan has enfeebled the country’s institutions and its economic backbone and has turned a foreign policy that used to be based on ‘no trouble with neigbours’ to one of ‘trouble with neighbours’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;However, Erodgan is a key player now – especially in terms of how he negotiates Russia’s military withdrawal. There remain many open questions, notably how the fall of Syria further weakens Iran and what implications this has for Iraq. Larger regional countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia will welcome the toppling of Assad and the further undermining of Iran, but now have to face up to the prospect of a regional peace deal where the strength of their support for Palestine will be tested.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;If in 2025 a peace deal is struck that keeps in place the two-state formula, then the prospect of a regional economic recovery, led by the UAE (or Abu Dubai as some call it), may not be far off.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;Visits to ministries, financial institutions (including Abu Dhabi Finance Week) and infrastructure players, with Prof. Afshin Molavi and several other economists and writers, gave a sense of the ambition of the region.&nbsp;In particular compared to previous visits to the region, two things stood out as ‘new developments’.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The first is a growing sense of independence on the part of the UAE to go its own way in terms of how it makes policy (as opposed to being a policy taker from the US and the EU). This is evident in finance, infrastructure, labour markets and trade. On trade specifically, the UAE has to be geopolitically ambidextrous in how it builds relationships with the US and China, though when it comes to technology, the sense is that it is very much plugged into America.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The second element worth commenting on is the idea of ‘&lt;a href=&quot;https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/Working-with-Gulf-states-India-can-build-a-new-center-of-power__;!!O22_8FOSssc!ms1jRbEU0XGArti1murXZun3TGrhUF5t3F-s8dKZGzUaJx71NxVWh1ZA98XMpVNjyf_60szb_fjLLilbq7WGtinb$&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Fourth Pole’&lt;/a&gt;. I have written on this in the last year, and the idea is that in a multipolar world made up of three ‘poles’ (US, EU and China) there is room for a fourth pole made up of India, the Gulf States and other players across the ‘region’ (which we could define as those countries&nbsp;a&nbsp;five hours&nbsp;flight&nbsp;away from the&nbsp;UAE,&nbsp;which includes some 2.4 billion people across Asia, Africa, Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;text-align: justify;&quot;&gt;The notion of the ‘Fourth Pole’ is gathering pace around the very close relationship between the UAE and India (the very popular Hindu Temple in Abu Dhabi is just one sign), and the web of trade, finance and infrastructure deals they are engaging in across the region. This relationship may not ultimately become as deep as that of the EU countries, but it is beginning to look like a modern version of the ‘Coal and Steel’ community. The risk however, is that they overbuild capacity in the face of a forthcoming economic shock or recession.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As a final word, the best indication that I had that the UAE is feeling both confident and more independent is that some&nbsp;well-connected government advisors&nbsp;have come up with an acronym for the west – W.E.N.A (Western Europe and North America)!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

W.E.N.A

&lt;p&gt;Welcome to the Unio View for the week beginning December 9th, our weekly investments brief covering global markets and macro news.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This week in summary:&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Several major events impacted financial markets last week.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-The French government collapse tested bond markets, and attempts to enforce martial law in South Korea were rejected.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-The week concluded with the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's government.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-This week, watch for US inflation data on the 11th (current rate at 2.6%) and the ECB’s interest rate decision on the 12th (expected cut of at least 25bps from 3.4%).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;-In stock news, Oracle Corp’s Q2 earnings release is today (YTD stock rise of 84.2%). Look out for Microsoft’s AGM tomorrow and Adobe’s Q4 earnings on the 11th.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;View our full brief below:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;iframe frameborder=&quot;0&quot; scrolling=&quot;auto&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kg_tNjtMYdM?showinfo=0&quot; width=&quot;560px&quot; height=&quot;315px&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or get in touch here: https://unio.ie/lets-talk.&lt;/p&gt;

The Weekly View, 9th December 2024

&lt;p&gt;Monday morning started with an early sprint from Baker St to Marylebone train station in London, passing close to 221b Baker St, the fabled home of Sherlock Holmes. However, Holmes was not on my mind, but rather his nemesis, Professor James Moriarty.&nbsp;I was on my way to a seminar on the future of crime (especially as it concerned robots and social robots) organized by the excellent team at UCL’s Dawes Centre for Future Crime.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The rumour is that Conan Doyle based the character of Moriarty on George Boole, Professor of Maths at University College Cork from 1849 until 1864 (disappointingly his former home on Grenville Place is in a state of dereliction). Boole, one of the great mathematicians, created Boolean algebra which laid the foundations for computer language and is this the structure around which scientists use machines to mimic and ‘improve’ on human behaviour. To that end, Moriarty and the idea of the ‘future of crime’ should be of all the more interest to us in an AI driven world.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whilst many serious crimes are in abeyance – murder rates in small open democracies (Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Ireland for instance) are very low, and those in the large EU economies – France, Germany, the UK and Italy trend below 1 per 100,000 (the USA is seven times higher), new forms of crime are on the rise, many of them driven by technology. Mobile phones and social media have become an entirely new vector for crime in terms of the theft of passwords, online bank details, identity theft and the harassment and abuse of people online. Similarly, crypto currencies are the conduit for much criminal activity, and it is believed that confiscations have made the FBI the biggest holder of bitcoin. In addition, the metaverse has opened up an entirely new legal space, where injuries and attacks carried out in an apparently unreal world can have consequences in the real world.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this context, the issue at stake at the Dawe’s Centre seminar was whether socially intelligent robots can create new forms of crime, that are not yet covered by legal frameworks and for which countermeasures have not been conceived.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It is a terrifying prospect – robots could not only be primed to deliver drugs or explosives but imagine the consequences of robot bodyguards and guard-dogs who take it upon themselves to attack specific targets. In many cases, the prosecution of an assault by a robot would likely follow the logic of charging the owner of a dog (Britain’s Princess Anne was famously prosecuted when her pitbull ‘Dotty’, bit two children). On a more mundane basis, robots increasingly interact with vulnerable humans – the lonely, the elderly and for instance autistic children, and while these interactions are very helpful, they also open up scope for abuse. In time the growing prevalence of sex robots will cause all sorts of controversies.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, in cases where the robot acts intelligently and autonomously, the law is not clear and frameworks on AI offer only meagre guidance. Robert Harris’ book ‘The Fear Index’ is a good illustration of what might occur when an intelligence ‘bot’ takes over a critical infrastructure, and the use of AI on the battlefield is chilling in its ruthlessness.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Heavy duty robots also permit the exploration, surveillance and protection of faraway places (the deep sea, space and remote parts of the earth) though at the same time they permit mischief by various actors such as attacks on critical marine infrastructure.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It may well be that, as in the case of driverless cars, socially intelligent robots are less dangerous than humans, though the notion itself of criminal robots is cause for concern. For the time being, many of the impetuses to the ‘future of crime’ are human factors. Some of them relate to changes in wealth – such as the rise of powerful oligarchs, and a rich ultra-high net worth class of people who on one hand are targets for crime and on the other hand have the means to dominate others and push their own visions of what society should look like. We may see more of this type of behaviour in coming years.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then, we really get into ‘Moriarty’ territory when states begin to collaborate with individuals and gangs, as is the case with Russia for instance. States have access to intelligent and often lethal robots and can enable organized criminals to use them – it is not impossible that gangs might start to use drones in contract killings. The other, related area that is increasingly relevant here is corporate intelligence and security (Lewis Sage-Passant’s book on this topic is very good) where many corporate security teams have to combat hacking and other attacks by robots, from criminal gangs, and as was sadly demonstrated in New York last week, assassins.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If Moriarty existed today, and perhaps he does, corporates as well as governments might be his preferred targets, and he would very likely equip himself with robotic henchmen (and women) who could subvert the human world.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The question is, what would Sherlock do?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Have a great week ahead,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mike&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About the Author&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A native of Cork, now living in Paris, Mike O’Sullivan started his career as an academic at Oxford and Princeton. Mike has over twenty years’ experience in global financial markets, most recently as CIO at Credit Suisse Wealth, and is an expert in European financial policy, working with several European fintech firms. A regular contributor to Newstalk and Forbes, Mike is the author of The Levelling (What's next after globalization?). He has written two books on Ireland ('Ireland and the Global Question', and 'What did we do right?') and was an independent member of Ireland's National Economic Social Council (NESC) from 2011-16. He is a Director and Strategic Adviser at Unio and chairs the Unio Global Macro Council and the Unio Investment Committee.&nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At Unio, we are on a mission to guide, guard and grow our clients' wealth by providing unparalleled full financial life advice. If you want to learn more, speak with your Unio adviser or&nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://unio.ie/lets-talk&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;talk to us&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Unio.&lt;/p&gt;

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