Love is in the air, and so are massive deals this February. Aviva Investors finally got off the blockchain sidelines and coupled up with Ripple to tokenize funds on the XRP Ledger. David Einhorn, the man who publicly called the Lehman Brothers collapse, now has his heart set on gold, convinced the Fed is going to slash rates far more aggressively than anyone expects. Hedge funds seem to share that feeling that the old playbook is done, posting back-to-back double-digit years and threatening the 60/40 portfolio. The soul searching extends to real estate, with Hazelview urging Canadian pensions to stop ghosting public REITs, and rounding things out, Nuveen acquired Schroders for $13.5 billion, ending a family dynasty that survived Napoleon but couldn’t survive the consolidation wave in the process.

Aviva Investors Said “Hold My Tea” and Jumped Into Tokenization With Ripple

One of the U.K.’s biggest asset managers just made its blockchain debut and picked the XRP Ledger to do it. Aviva Investors has partnered with Ripple to tokenize traditional fund structures on-chain, and the two plan to build out regulated, blockchain-based products through 2026 and beyond.

The Old Guard Meets the Chain Gang

Aviva Investors, the asset management arm of U.K. insurer Aviva, has never dabbled in tokenization, and Ripple has never worked with a European investment manager. So, this partnership is a first for both. Ripple will help Aviva Investors issue and manage tokenized funds on XRPL, a public blockchain designed for payments and financial transactions. XRPL has been running since 2012, processing over 4 billion transactions across more than 7 million wallets, all secured by 120 independent validators rather than energy-intensive mining.

Aviva’s Joining a Growing Guest List

BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Hamilton Lane have already moved tokenization from pilot stage to live, regulated products for institutional investors, and it’s easy to see why. Faster settlement, lower costs, broader distribution, fractional ownership, and baked-in compliance make a compelling case. Asset managers across the industry are tokenizing everything from money market funds to private credit to real estate, and Aviva Investors clearly figured it was time to join the new frontier.

The Guy Who Called Lehman’s Bluff Now Says Gold Is Coming for the Dollar 

David Einhorn built his reputation by publicly embarrassing overleveraged companies right before they cratered. Now he’s turned that same skeptical eye toward the U.S. government’s balance sheet, and he likes what he sees in gold.

From Shorting Lehman to Longing Gold Bars

David Einhorn built his reputation by spotting trouble before anyone else. His research-driven bets against Allied Capital in 2002 and Lehman Brothers in 2007 were so devastating they coined the term “the Einhorn effect.” Now the Greenlight Capital founder sees similar cracks forming in U.S. fiscal and monetary policy. “Our fiscal policy and our monetary policies don’t make any sense,” he told CNBC last week. With the CBO projecting a 6.7% deficit-to-GDP ratio by 2036 and deficit spending already at $1.9 trillion, he believes gold has become the obvious safe haven for central banks tired of holding IOUs from a government that won’t stop borrowing.

$5,300 and Counting (Well, Almost)

Gold topped $5,300 per ounce last month before pulling back to around $5,100, and Einhorn thinks there’s more room to run. Central banks are already swapping Treasuries for bullion, and he expects the Fed to cut rates more aggressively than markets expect: “substantially more than two cuts” by year’s end, driven in part by incoming Fed chair Kevin Warsh, who Einhorn believes will push the committee toward action.

Hedge Funds Are Having a Main Character Moment

Hedge funds just posted double-digit returns for the second straight year, and the industry hasn’t looked this good in a long time. Average returns hit 11.8% in 2025 and 11.9% in 2024, with the share driven by genuine alpha at its highest level in over 30 years. It’s no wonder Goldman Sachs is bullish.

The 60/40 Portfolio Has Real Competition

Part of what’s fueling the hype is how badly hedge funds are outperforming the old reliable 60/40 portfolio. Since the Fed started hiking in 2022, hedge funds have beaten that benchmark every single year, outperforming by nearly 190 basis points annually. That’s a complete 180 from the prior decade, when they actually lagged it. It makes sense why: with stocks and bonds increasingly trading in sync, investors need returns that don’t depend on either one cooperating.  

Everyone Wants In, Especially on Quant

So naturally, the money follows. A record 49% of allocators plan to increase hedge fund exposure in 2026, up from 37% last year, and only 4% want out. Quant funds are the top pick at 25%, with discretionary macro right behind at 21%. Endowments, foundations, and family offices that used to stick with equity long/short are rotating into absolute return strategies. The proof is already in the flows: $79 billion net came in during 2025, the first positive year in a while. Goldman expects that to pick up.

Pensions Love Private Real Estate: Hazelview Says They’re Missing the Other Half

Canadian pensions have poured money into private real estate for years. Yet, Hazelview Investments’ managing partner Samuel Sahn believes that this one-sided approach leaves returns on the table and makes a straightforward case: public REITs deserve a real allocation, and active management is what makes it work.

The Volatility Excuse Doesn’t Hold Up

The knock on public REITs is that daily pricing makes boards uncomfortable. Sahn gets it. But stretch the timeline to five or 15 years, and public real estate matches or beats private, with better liquidity, lower fees, and more diversification. The asset class has also changed. REITs now cover data centers, energy grids, transportation, and renewables, and geography creates real arbitrage. For instance, Japan is up 34.9% year to date while the U.S. sits around 3.5%. 

Stock Pickers Wanted (Passive Need Not Apply)

Hazelview found active global REIT strategies beat passive by 151 basis points a year over 15 years, with lower volatility and better risk-adjusted returns. The advantage comes from fishing in waters that indices don’t reach: real estate companies structured outside traditional REITs, overlooked markets, and property types with tailwinds. The spread between the best and worst sectors tops 50 percentage points, so there’s plenty of room to own outperforming sectors while avoiding underperforming ones.

Nuveen Just Wrote a $13.5 Billion Check to End a 221-Year-Old Dynasty

London’s Schroders has survived Napoleonic blockades, two world wars, and the great fee compression era. But it couldn’t survive the consolidation wave. Nuveen, the asset-management arm of TIAA, agreed to acquire the storied British firm for $13.5 billion, and the Schroder family is ready to let go.

The Sugar Traders Who Became a $1.3 Trillion Giant (and Still Got Swallowed)

It all started in 1804, when the Schroder brothers set up in London’s financial district to trade sugar while Napoleon tried to choke off British commerce. From there, the family threaded itself through nearly every major chapter of global finance, funding Confederate bonds during the Civil War, bankrolling Japan’s first railway, and eventually building one of the city’s premier merchant banks. They dropped the German umlaut at some point, sold the investment banking side to Citigroup in 2000, and then watched things slowly unravel. Over the next two decades, traditional mutual fund outflows bled the business while expensive bets on private equity and real estate never paid off. The stock drifted 30% below its 2021 peak.

Two Old-School Giants Team Up to Fight the BlackRock Machine

Combined, Nuveen and Schroders would manage close to $2.5 trillion AUM, enough for 10th place globally but still a fraction of BlackRock’s $14 trillion. The logic is straightforward: Nuveen gets Schroders’ deep client relationships across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, while Schroders gains access to TIAA’s enormous American annuities pipeline. Private markets account for roughly 17% of their combined book, and both sides see that as the growth engine going forward. 

Your Strategy Is Only as Good as Your Back Office

Markets are moving fast, and whether you’re tokenizing funds, loading up on gold, or closing billion-dollar deals, none of it matters if your books, compliance, and tax filings can’t keep up.

Here’s what we at Michael Coglianese CPA, P.C. can do for firms like yours:

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