There’s about to be a new kid on the block.

Anthropic is expected to go public in the coming weeks at a valuation of about $2 trillion, making it one of the hottest IPOs ever. Investors can get early access through ETFs and other vehicles, but they should vet their chosen fund carefully. SpaceX’s June debut, with a record-breaking $1.77 trillion valuation, holds a few lessons for advisors.

“Know what the heck you’re buying, number one. Know what it’s actually worth, number two,” said David Shapiro, CEO of OpenVC. SpaceX briefly hit $201.80 per share after the IPO but has since declined, now trading at about $150. “It shook out to where the sophisticated investors were holding it pre-IPO. That means if you bought it in one of these closed structures with a significant premium, you’re actually probably underwater,” Shapiro said. “It goes to show it’s really, really important for folks to have an innate understanding of where the value of these companies sit ahead of that IPO.”

Watered Down

A private company’s weight in an ETF can be diluted as more investors pile in, since issuers can’t always acquire enough shares to keep pace. “This is what was happening with XOVR, that people were getting so excited they were buying for their SpaceX exposure,” said Athanasios Psarofagis, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “But as more people came into it, the SpaceX weight basically went down to nothing.” That issuer, ERShares, increased its SpaceX holdings after the surge in flows diluted its prior position.

Several ETFs already carry Anthropic exposure, per Bloomberg data:

• The Tema Photonics and Optical ETF (LAZR) has the most, at about 15%, followed by the Alger Concentrated Equity ETF (CNEQ), with over 5%.
• The Alger 35 ETF (ATFV), the KraneShares Public-Private AI & Technology ETF (AGIX), and the iShares A.I. Innovation and Tech Active ETF (BAI) each hold between 1% and 2%.
• The T. Rowe Price Capital Appreciation Equity ETF (TCAF) and Technology ETF (TTEQ) both hold less than 1%.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Investor interest in the Anthropic IPO may be muted because of the cultural hype around SpaceX and because investors’ portfolios are already AI-heavy, said Jack Shannon, a principal of equity strategies at Morningstar. “SpaceX does have a big part of the business that’s not directly tied to AI, whereas Anthropic is obviously all AI, and people already have that,” Shannon said. “But then again, clearly it looks like it might be on track for the biggest IPO raise ever.”

Paying off your mortgage used to be something people aspired to. Now, many Americans fantasize about simply getting one.

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that US home sales fell 2% month-over-month in August to a 14-month low. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million residences, the lowest since June 2025, was weighed down by stubbornly high mortgage rates and home prices.

Gen Z’s Morbid Wish

Two major factors are driving up borrowing costs. First, the resumption of US and Iranian strikes in the Persian Gulf means oil prices are surging again. International benchmark Brent crude closed above $107 Thursday, up 22.5% from a month ago. Higher energy prices mean the market prices in higher inflation, which pushes up long-term Treasury yields. Second, concerns about the US public debt, which at $40 trillion has surpassed even the price of one beer at MetLife Stadium, are also driving up bond yields.

Bond yields heavily influence how lenders price home loans, meaning they’re helping to drive up mortgage rates. According to Mortgage News Daily data, the popular 30-year fixed mortgage rate surpassed 7% for the first time since May 2025 on Thursday. “Mortgage rates and home sales move in opposite directions, so it’s not surprising to see a mild dip in home-buying activity due to high mortgage rates,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

Home prices, meanwhile, aren’t yielding to anyone. The median existing home sold for $429,100 in August, up 1.6% year-over-year. Compare that to research by Apollo Global Management, which suggests 56% of US households can only afford a home under $300,000. No wonder 58% of Gen Z respondents said in a survey by Clever last month that they’re rooting for a housing market crash. The market is proving resilient, even if macro conditions prevent it from breaking out of the current downcycle:

• “Home prices are rising, and existing home sales are actually up 1.6% year-to-date through the first eight months of the year,” Yun said.
• The high cost of mortgages is likely disincentivizing potential sellers who locked up a better rate or refinanced years ago when borrowing costs were lower. Apollo Global’s research shows only a quarter of mortgages have a rate above 6%, suggesting there’s plenty of supply that could come on the market if and when borrowing costs fall.

Plenty Inventory: In unabashedly good news for those looking for a place to call their own, existing housing inventory rose 3.2% to 1.62 million homes last month. That’s the highest level since November 2019 and a 5.9% increase from a year ago. “The ample supply of homes for sale on the market is giving homebuyers better opportunities to negotiate,” Yun noted. So buy away, if you can afford it.

People often spend decades preparing for retirement, and there’s a natural tendency to look at the end of one’s career as the finish line for financial planning. In reality, the first few years of retirement present a critical planning window, especially for clients who have a sizable estate. It’s a time when skilled financial advisors can shine, but only if they’ve put in the hard yards of building trust across generations of their clients’ families.

“One of the biggest misconceptions around estate planning is that having a will or trust drafted years ago means the work is finished,” said Sean Houghton, director of personal trust services at New Hampshire Shores Trust. “Most people will have experienced changes in family dynamics, changes in wealth, a move to another state or evolving wishes for beneficiaries. These are all reasons to revisit the plan.”

Building Trust(s)

The estate plan isn’t just a set of documents, Houghton said. Instead, it’s an ongoing process that has to keep pace with changes in the law, a family’s wealth, relationships, tax circumstances and more. So, while clients planning their estates during their 40s and 50s is a positive thing, that early effort also brings risks if the plan is allowed to go stale.

“A good review starts by reconfirming the estate plan still reflects the client’s wishes,” Houghton said. “Then you get more granular and review wills, revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney and beneficiary designations.”

Other steps include:

• Making sure assets are actually titled the way the plan requires, as even a beautifully drafted trust will accomplish little if it was never properly funded.
• Periodically reconciling trust documents with account registrations, real estate holdings and other major assets.
• Determining which assets will fund retirement spending, taxes, charitable gifts and potential estate expenses and whether selling or distributing assets could undermine the intended trust structure.

It’s also critical to frequently revisit trustee and successor-trustee designations. Clients should ask directly whether the people originally named are still appropriate, willing and capable. If not, professional trust administration is worth considering, especially if familial conflict is a factor.

Estate Plans: Next Generation. The final key has less to do with dollars and cents and more with trust and human connection, Houghton said. “You’re going to be a lot more successful at helping the next generation inherit wealth if you’ve taken time to build a genuine relationship with them,” he said. “It’s going to be very difficult to establish credibility if you’re just coming in at a moment of crisis only focused on technical things. If that’s your approach, the next generation is going to move on pretty quickly.”