Come and knock on our door …

Three’s company, with both BlackRock and now State Street lining up to launch Nasdaq 100 ETFs. The funds would challenge long-time leader Invesco, which has dominated the space with its highly successful Invesco QQQ Trust. State Street Investment Management filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday for the SPDR Nasdaq 100 ETF, just a day after BlackRock’s iShares filed for its own. Those forthcoming funds are a result of Nasdaq opening up licensing for the index, which includes the 100 biggest US companies, excluding financial services.

Whether the two new entrants will be able to take market share from QQQ, and the company’s smaller Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQM), may come down to fees and brand preference. But the yet-to-be-launched funds may also have something to do with a potential IPO on the horizon. “A big part of it is just that there are folks who are brand loyal,” said Dave Nadig, president and research director at ETF.com. “So if you want to get exposure to the Qs’ because you’re trying to game the SpaceX inclusion pop, then having a BlackRock or Vanguard or State Street, etc., way to play it makes some amount of sense.” On that note, the existing iShares Nasdaq Top 30 Stocks ETF (QTOP) may also be a way investors look for SpaceX exposure after the initial public offering, he said.

Jack of all Trades

ETF investors are cost-conscious. Over the past 12 months, QQQM has pulled in more money than QQQ, which likely is partly because of its 3 basis-point fee advantage (QQQ charges 18 bps, compared with 15 for QQQM). And in the first two months of 2026, the $70 billion QQQM raked in $1.6 billion, compared with net outflows of $8 billion from QQQ, per data from Morningstar Direct. “Fees will likely play a very significant role when competing with QQQ’s existing scale. Assuming lower fees and the fact that both BlackRock and State Street have well-established ETF suites, it shouldn’t be difficult to attract investors to these products,” said Roxanna Islam, head of sector and industry research at TMX VettaFi. “It’s an interesting move, given the recent news that SpaceX and other potential IPOs might be able to join the Nasdaq 100 more quickly after going public.”

Nasdaq pointed to more licenses for a “select set of partners” in the US, but it did not name names or specify how many companies might be able to add Nasdaq 100 ETFs, in comments it issued Monday. For its part, Invesco cited the 25-year history of its flagship ETF, stating that, “There is only one QQQ.” Following BlackRock’s filing, Bloomberg reported that Invesco’s stock dropped by over 5%. It’s also worth noting that while the stock is down 15% year to date, it’s up 79% over a year.

Three’s a Crowd? Having significantly lower fees would certainly steer some investors to the new ETFs, but even that won’t convince everyone, Nadig said. “Assuming that Nasdaq license fees aren’t insane, there’s plenty of room for cost competition, too. The cheapest way to get exposure right now is 15 basis points,” he said. “Given that 3 [basis points] is a pretty good passive baseline, that’s about 12 basis points of erosion you could expect from new players if somebody really wanted to come in and try to kick the Qs to the curb.”

With apologies to Bob Marley, it’s a different sort of redemption song for the private credit industry.

Asset management giant Blackstone said Tuesday it closed an oversubscribed $10 billion opportunistic credit fund, suggesting the panic surrounding the private debt market isn’t gripping everyone.

No Time Like the Present Selloff

The $1.8 trillion private credit market’s ills are well known. A handful of high-profile implosions last year, led by UK lender Market Financial Solutions, US auto lender Tricolor and auto parts supplier First Brands spooked investors about loan quality. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, whose every word can move markets, followed with his now-trademark “cockroach” warning about more defaults to come. Although it should be noted Dimon said, in a CNBC appearance, that he didn’t believe the risks associated with private credit were systemic, adding his concern is with broader underwriting standards in which the “bad actors may be banks, not private credit.” Meanwhile, finishing a trifecta of investor anxiety was the sector’s significant exposure to the software industry, which has faced sell-offs over the potentially existential risk posed by artificial intelligence.

For many investors, the mounting anxiety has become too much to bear. In recent days and weeks, private credit funds at KKR, Morgan Stanley and Blue Owl Capital have enforced redemption caps after retail investors, in particular, overwhelmed them with requests to pull their cash. Even at Blackstone, senior staff chipped in $150 million earlier this year to help cover $3.8 billion in redemption requests at its flagship fund. So what’s Blackstone’s sudden tonic?

• The new Blackstone Capital Opportunities Fund V will target both performing investments and opportunistic ones, which is code for undervalued assets, suggesting the recent panic has created a chance for bargain buying.
• “This is a very attractive environment to deploy flexible capital in private corporate credit as well as to provide opportunistic and structured solutions to companies in sectors with strong thematic tailwinds,” said Rob Petrini, co-portfolio manager of the new fund.

Doubts Remain: Moody’s downgraded its outlook for business development companies, seen as a close public market proxy for private credit, to negative from stable Tuesday, citing the wave of redemption requests. What would bring back stability? A little less yanking of cash, naturally. With Barings becoming the latest firm to impose a fund cap on Monday, there’s no sign of waning anxiety just yet.

More money, more problems? Yes and no.

Even with the criticism leveled at the 401(k) plan industry, it has helped baby boomers accumulate massive retirement wealth. Many spent years doing what they were told: maxing out contributions and leveraging tax-deferred, compounding growth over decades. After years of strong (if volatile) market returns, affluent boomers’ account balances are sky-high. So, too, is the amount of risk they face in retirement, raising the demand for tax-savvy decumulation and longevity planning. Forward-thinking advisory firms are taking note.

“There’s a big group of baby boomers out there who have found themselves sitting on $3 million, $5 million or even $10 million in net worth, much of it in retirement accounts,” said Debbie Taylor, Carson Group’s chief tax strategist. “Even a decade ago, they couldn’t have dreamt of reaching balances like these. They’re not trained on how to unlock these gains and manage this wealth through their retirement.”

It turns out that many advisors aren’t either, having been solely focused on the accumulation question. That’s why firms across the industry are investing in tax planning capabilities, including Carson and its AI platform, affectionately named Steve. To Taylor, it’s an extremely exciting time to be a tax expert, and one thing is very clear: desirable clients are going to vote with their feet.

A Modern Tax Planning Strategy

Taylor’s own firm was formally acquired by Carson Group in 2024, and while it wasn’t the largest deal by any means, Taylor Financial’s specialized tax planning capabilities were expected to make a big difference for both advisors and clients.

“What’s so exciting about this moment is that the technology has progressed far enough to allow us to be so much more efficient,” Taylor explained. “The old way required advisors to move between three or four different platforms to manually gather client data, and then you’d have a 15-column spreadsheet that you used to generate a thoughtful tax recommendation. Totally not scalable or profitable.”

What used to be manual and time-consuming is fast morphing into a fluid, efficient planning process for both the advisor and the client across the industry. Rather than simply deferring taxes, the goal is to consider both the accumulation phase and the distribution phase at all times, coordinated at the household level.

Ante Up. “This type of planning is becoming table stakes for the wealthy baby boomers that many firms want to serve,” Taylor said. “They’re facing large RMDs, they have big questions about estate planning and they don’t know how to structure their income. Distribution planning is so critical, but many firms aren’t giving it the attention it deserves.”