Nah old Joe. Do respect your comments but disagree. I've read many many left comments on the financial boards here I feel you are calling me out because of my views are not in alignment with a far left political perspective.
Respectfully submitted
Baseball fan

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1413594/000110465922126922/a22-31651_7497.htm
abrdn Funds
(the “Trust”)
abrdn Emerging Markets Debt Fund
(the “Fund”)
Supplement dated December 14, 2022 to the Summary Prospectus, Prospectus and
Statement of Additional Information dated February 28, 2022, as supplemented to date
On December 14, 2022, the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of the Trust approved a Plan of Liquidation for the Fund pursuant to which the Fund will be liquidated (the “Liquidation”) on or about February 16, 2023 (the “Liquidation Date”). Shareholder approval of the Liquidation is not required.
Suspension of Sales. Effective after market close on December 16, 2022, shares of the Fund will no longer be available for purchase by investors with the exception of: (1) existing shareholders (including shares acquired through the reinvestment of dividends and distributions); (2) employer sponsored retirement plans; or (3) fee-based programs sponsored by financial intermediaries that have selected the Fund prior to market close on December 16, 2022. Any applicable contingent deferred sales charges will be waived on redemptions and exchanges out of the Fund following the close of business on December 16, 2022. Effective after market close on January 31, 2023, the Fund will be closed to all investments except shares acquired through the reinvestment of dividends and distributions.
Liquidation of Assets. The Fund will depart from its stated investment objective and policies on or around December 14, 2022 as it liquidates holdings in preparation for the distribution of assets to investors. During this time, the Fund may hold more cash, cash equivalents or other short-term investments than normal, which may prevent the Fund from meeting its stated investment objective. On the Liquidation Date, the Fund will liquidate and distribute pro rata to the shareholders of record as of the close of business on the Liquidation Date such shareholders’ proportionate interest in all of the remaining assets of the Fund in complete cancellation and redemption of all the outstanding shares of the Fund. See “IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR QUALIFIED ACCOUNT HOLDERS” below if you are a qualified account holder. Contingent deferred sales charges will be waived in connection with any redemptions prior to the Liquidation Date. The Fund’s investment adviser, abrdn Inc., will bear all expenses of the Liquidation to the extent such expenses are not part of the Fund’s normal and customary fees and operating expenses; however, the Fund and its shareholders will bear transaction costs and tax consequences associated with turnover of the Fund’s portfolio in anticipation of the Liquidation.
Alternatives. At any time prior to the Liquidation Date, the Fund’s shareholders may redeem all or a portion of their shares or exchange their Fund shares for shares in the corresponding class of another series of the Trust pursuant to procedures set forth in the Trust’s Prospectus. If you wish to exchange your shares of the Fund into another series of the Trust, or would like to request additional copies of the Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information for the Trust, please call abrdn Funds Shareholder Services at 866-667-9231.
Holders through Financial Intermediaries. If you are invested in the Fund through a financial intermediary, please contact that financial intermediary if you have any questions. If you are invested in a tax qualified account, please see important additional information below.
Income Tax Matters. The liquidation of the Fund, like any redemption of Fund shares, will constitute a sale upon which a gain or loss may be recognized for state and federal income tax purposes, depending on the type of account and the adjusted cost basis of the investor’s shares. Please contact your tax advisor to discuss the tax consequences to you of the Liquidation...

@Baseball_Fan- Speaking personally, I really do not appreciate your continuous introduction of contentious political perspective into otherwise financial matters.
MFO has an Off-Topic section for the type of commentary which you seem to prefer. It would be appreciated if you could make at least a minimal attempt to respect the general guidelines as requested by David Snowball:
"Mostly there are Fund Discussions and Off-Topic Discussions, which range from market calls to book recommendations. If you want to read only the fund-relevant stuff, click on the category called Fund Discussions"
As is common with those who are in agreement with your political perspective, you act as if the rules were made for everyone but yourselves. Your ex-president is certainly a prime example.

I'd like to be carefree about the matter but I've always felt that any of these financial entities could be hacked at any point in time exposing me to complications with an account at a connected entity. No thanks.

In another current MFO thread the issue of safety with respect to financial account aggregation was raised. It seemed to me that this whole topic might deserve a thread of it's own. I'd sure be interested in hearing a range of opinion on this question. For starters, I did find some information regarding this topic, but nothing that specifically went into much detail on the potential security risks.
Here are a couple of excerpts:

From Investopedia
What is Account Aggregation?
How Account Aggregation Works
Account aggregation usually occurs only within a single financial institution. However, certain assets held outside a financial institution may be included if the account holder has agreed to that.
Many personal finance services offer customers the ability to aggregate data from all of their savings, checking, and brokerage accounts, as well as other financial assets across all the institutions with which they do business. These services usually require that users provide account-access information, such as a username and password, for each of the accounts that they wish to include in the aggregation. Using this information, the service "scrapes" or downloads account balances and other data from each account to include in the aggregation.
However, account aggregation software is often allowed only to access balance information and transaction records. And for security reasons, many aggregation services do not permit users to make transactions from within the service.
In addition to aggregating data from savings, checking, brokerage, and other financial accounts, some aggregation services and software—particularly those used by professional financial advisers on behalf of their clients—aggregate additional net-worth data, such as recent home-value estimates. Account aggregation platforms may also categorize cash inflows and outflows.
From "The Balance"
Account aggregation services only give the software permission to view your account balances and transactions, not make transactions. If you actually want to access your money or move it, you would need to sign in to each account's website.
Additionally, the software draws on many advanced security features. For example, if you are logging on from an unknown computer or device, additional authentication will likely be necessary.

I've used account aggregation at Schwab and First Republic Bank for several years now. I did wonder about the potential security risks, but rationalized that if the risks were significant then large banks and brokerages probably wouldn't involve themselves with the service, especially as it's likely there isn't much profit in it. Maybe I'm being too complacent about all of this.

At the risk of gloating, I'll admit the market lessons learned and observations made as a futures trader during the Great Financial Crisis in 2006-08 served me *very* well and thankfully kept me safe during my brief but profitable forray into cryptocurrency.
Things like due diligence, pondering counterparty risk, agility, and critically analyzing company's priorities/actions/visibility during irrationally bullish markets can *really* save your arse before things turn bad/ugly/catastrophic.
edit: SBF denied bail, deemed a flight risk. Extradition hearing set for February.

Look at the other side, or what happened to McGraw Hill that owned S&P then? It self-destructed. It now exists as private McGraw Hill Education and public S&P Global/SPGI.
FWIW, no other rating agency followed S&P.
One consequence of this was that no other US financial has been rated better than AA+ on the logic that none could be sounder than the US Government. In fact, only JNJ and MSFT now are 2 AAA rated US companies.

Friday, slightly higher monthly Producer Price Index and Core PPI dinged yields to move a bit higher; although the 12 month PPI's trend continues to move lower. Survey says, inflation expectations lowest since 2021 .......only a survey of humans, Univ. of Michigan consumer data and economists, too; .....absorb the information with caution. Most bond sector prices were positive for the week, until Friday; when prices had the largest daily move down.
As with all investing, a lot of moving parts affecting a variety of shorter term movements. For me, the hardest decisions are attempting to discover bottoms along the way and try to determine the 'why's. Why is a particular sector 'oversold', or 'overbought'; and how long will this last. Age old questions, eh?
Perhaps the recent (since October 25) price strength in the longer duration bond areas is a prelude of what is to come; if/when there is a FED induced recession, and/or the need to again back down on yield increases. Normal expectations, IMO; although the market place(s) remain in a 'this time is different' financial mode. AND next week brings CPI numbers and FED speak on Wednesday.
And if you were wonding, but hadn't taken a peek; both of the below links also have various internal tabs for other data.
Long duration bull and bear bond etf's, list 1
Long duration bonds, list/view 2
---Several selected bond fund returns since October 25.
NOTE: I've kept the prior dated reports in the beginning of this thread; and have added YTD to this data.
For the WEEK/YTD, NAV price changes, December 5- December 9, 2022
--- AGG = -.5% / -11.6% (I-Shares Core bond etf) widely used bond benchmark, (AAA-BBB holdings)
--- MINT = +.08% / -1.31% (PIMCO Enhanced short maturity, AAA-BBB rated)
--- SHY = -.11% / -3.9% (UST 1-3 yr bills)
--- IEI = -.51% / -8.8% (UST 3-7 yr notes/bonds)
--- IEF = -.84% / -13.5% (UST 7-10 yr bonds)
--- TIP = -1.6% / -10.9% (UST Tips, 3-10 yrs duration, some 20+ yr duration)
--- STPZ = -.85% / -4.3% (UST, short duration TIPs bonds, PIMCO)
--- LTPZ = -2.8% / -27.3% (UST, long duration TIPs bonds, PIMCO)
--- TLT = -.71% / -26.8% (I shares 20+ Yr UST Bond
--- EDV = -.4% / -33.3% (UST Vanguard extended duration bonds)
--- ZROZ = -.39% / -34.8% (UST., AAA, long duration zero coupon bonds, PIMCO
--- TBT = +.8% / +70% (ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (about 23 holdings)
--- TMF = -2.4% / -66% (Direxion Daily 20+ Yr Trsy Bull 3X ETF (about a 3x version of EDV etf)
--- BAGIX = -.31% / -12.3% (active managed, plain vanilla, high quality bond fund)
*** Other, for reference:
--- HYG = -.69% / -9.8% (high yield bonds, proxy ETF)
--- LQD = -.51% / -15.5% (corp. bonds, various quality)
--- FZDXX = 3.81% yield (7 day), Fidelity Premium MMKT fund
*** FZDXX yield was .11%, April,2022. The rate of rise in the yield remains stagnate again for this past week, versus the past six months.

Remain curious,
Catch

I was happy with Washington Mutual (WaMu) for a number of years.
They had many branches close to my home, their personnel were friendly, and customer service was great.
Under Kerry Killinger in the 90s, WaMu expanded from 84 branches in 1991 to 248 in 1995.
The following decade Washington Mutual became the country's largest savings-and-loan bank
and also the largest mortgage originator. Subprime loans accounted for some of this rapid growth.
When the subprime lending crisis culminated, the Office of Thrift Management seized the bank on 09/25/2008.
Washington Mutual was sold to JPMorgan Chase hours later. This was the largest bank failure in U.S. history.
I was not pleased with JPMorgan Chase.
They were much more "corporate" than WaMu.
Their lobbies felt sterile and their associates were impersonal.
I switched to a local credit union in 2010 and haven't looked back.
Most of my banking is conducted online with other financial institutions
but it's nice to have an option with a nearby physical presence.
When a medallion signature guarantee was needed to transfer my Roth IRA a few years ago,
the credit union provided a convenient avenue to obtain this guarantee.

On Tuesday Gal Pal received info on class action suit. To much legal mumbo jumbo so she reached out to financial consult to figure it out. Thinking the lawyers tracked her down to make another $ or 2 ? It seems the person in charge of her IRA at that time had her invested at some % in this fund.
@TheShadow : thank you for the update @hank for starting this thread.

While my personal perspective is very much in empathy with the comments above, I would gently remind everyone that commentary such as this has, in the past, caused significant problems for the folks who maintain MFO.
As a result of past contention it was well established that the majority of MFO members are primarily interested in financial matters, and do not appreciate excursions into politically contentious arenas.
Those of us who have been very long-term MFO participants will recall that this tension resulted in such divisiveness among MFO posters that management decided to disallow virtually all non-financial commentary. It took a lot of persuasion to create the Off-Topic section as an arena for such discussions. The commentary in that section does not migrate to any of the other discussion sections, so as keep those sections primarily confined to purely financial matters, honoring the preferences of the majority of MFO posters.
It's in the best interests of all of us to keep this in mind as we post. I realize that sometimes it's hard to do that- occasionally I find myself compelled to go a bit over the line. The previous presidential administration certainly made it very difficult to insulate financial commentary from the stench of political reality.
Anyway, try to keep all of that in mind as we wade through life.
Thanks- OJ

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/929521/000119312522300645/d426006d497.htm
497 1 d426006d497.htm WANGER ADVISORS TRUST
Supplement dated December 8, 2022
to the Prospectus, Summary Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information (SAI) of the following Fund:
Fund Prospectus, Summary Prospectus and SAI Dated
Wanger Advisors Trust
Wanger Select May 1, 2022
In December 2022, the Board of Trustees of the Fund, having determined that a reorganization of the Fund was in the best interest of the Fund and its shareholders, voted to approve an Agreement and Plan of Reorganization to reorganize the Fund (the Target Fund) with and into Wanger Acorn (the Acquiring Fund).
Pursuant to applicable law (including the Investment Company Act of 1940) the reorganization may be implemented without shareholder approval. The reorganization is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2023 and is expected to be a tax-free reorganization for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Additional information about the reorganization will be made available to shareholders in a Combined Information Statement/Prospectus prior to the reorganization date.
The foregoing is not an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to buy, shares of the Acquiring Fund, nor is it a solicitation of any proxy. Because the Target Fund will reorganize into the Acquiring Fund on its reorganization date, you should consider the appropriateness of making a new or subsequent investment in the Target Fund prior to its reorganization date. You should consider the investment objectives, risks, strategies, fees and expenses of the Acquiring Fund and/or the Target Fund carefully before investing. To obtain the Acquiring Fund’s current prospectus, shareholder reports and other regulatory filings, contact your financial intermediary or visit columbiathreadneedleus.com.
Shareholders should retain this Supplement for future reference.

Vanguard is quitting the Net-Zero alliance NZAM/GFANZ.
GFANZ (Global Financial Alliance for Net-Zero; 04/2021- ) includes 550 members with $150 trillion AUM. Mark Carney (BOE) has been the prime mover for GFANZ; Michael Bloomberg is Co-Chair. Within GFANZ, there are 7 sector specific alliances and NZAM is for asset-managers.
Vanguard said that in managing its index funds, it didn't want to be constrained by Net-Zero objectives; it also didn't want its investors to be confused by contradictions from its membership in NZAM/GFANZ. Some other US companies are also thinking of leaving GFANZ after a rush to join this new alliance.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-07/vanguard-quits-net-zero-alliance-marking-biggest-defection-yet
GFANZ https://www.gfanzero.com/
NZAM https://www.netzeroassetmanagers.org/

@Lewis
Forecasting, having and using cash reserves + line of credit to prevent a run on the bank is a common practice amongst seasoned managers.
Managers who have spent a decade or more to build a reputation will "generally" not resort to ethically questionable practices at the risk of the fund blowing up. You've described a few BDC's taking a 50% haircut but this is anecdotal stuff as opposed to the hard 4 bips and $1.2B loss numbers estimated (as an overall market aggregate) in the article link you provided.
Any financial investment outside of FDIC guaranteed CD's and US Govt guaranteed bonds can blow up. During the last crisis some MM funds broke the buck which was deemed unthinkable.
The ghost of Bernie can emerge anytime and anywhere and a dozen or more things can go wrong outside of CD/USG bonds.
Should all of that result in one investing only in the guaranteed stuff? Personal to everyone of course and clearly you and I have different views on this.
Investing beyond the guaranteed stuff entails risk of partial or full loss even if the auditors are one of the Big 4. It comes down to investing based on an individual assessment of the risk/return tradeoffs.

Source: Barrons
"Small-caps outperformed during recessions in the 1970s and early 1980s, when the Federal Reserve was fighting high inflation, as it is now. The group has higher proportional exposure than large-caps to inflation beneficiaries, like energy. It’s also more domestic and more tied to capital spending, which is a plus if U.S.-based manufacturers continue moving factories home. But small companies generally have less financial flexibility than large ones, which is a negative if borrowing rates stay elevated.
One way for investors to add small- cap exposure is with a low-fee index fund like the iShares Russell 2000IWM –2.75% exchange-traded fund (ticker: IWM). Then again, switching indexes might be an upgrade. The S&P SmallCap 600SP600EQ –2.60% index has outperformed the Russell 2000 index by more than a percentage point a year over the past five, 10, and 20 years, and has generally been less volatile. The biggest reason: S&P uses a profitability screen to admit index members. SPDR S&P 600 Small CapSLY –2.81% ETF (SLY) is one fund option there.
If a profitability screen helps, how about a value tilt? The aforementioned indexes weight small-caps by market cap. Asset manager Research Affiliates has an index that weights them by fundamental measures of value like sales, cash flow, and dividends. Investors can buy in through Schwab Fundamental U.S. Small Company Index ETF (FNDA). It’s more expensive than the other funds, but still cheap, with yearly expenses of 0.25%. Since inception in 2013, the fund has returned 7.4% a year, beating the Russell 2000 by nearly a point through Sept. 30."
"For actively managed funds that are open to new money, Columbia Small Cap Value II (NSVAX) and Wasatch Core Growth (WGROX) get high marks from Morningstar. Each costs a little more than 1% a year and has beaten its category by about a point a year over the past decade."

Banks & financials can count preferred as Tier 1 capital only when they are noncumulative; some exceptions may apply. So, there are rarely any bank/financial preferreds that are cumulative.
https://content.next.westlaw.com/practical-law/document/I21061766ef0811e28578f7ccc38dcbee/Tier-1-Capital?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)

@Observant1, interesting info about REFLX REIT under the newer interval-fund structure, not the older, opaque Nontraded-REIT structure.
So, DAILY valuations, DAILY purchases at NAV at market close (may include applicable sales load), minimum 5% REDEMPTION per quarter. Purchase MINIMUM of $1 million mentioned in the prospectus but not in other web or PR documents (brokers and financial advisors may have other minimums); institutional class only for now.
Prospectus

"A federal judge in New York formally dismissed the last remaining indictment against Huawei's chief financial officer after prosecutors agreed Meng had abided by the terms of her deferred prosecution agreement."
Apparently arrested, arguably under sketchy circumstances, under the past administration. Struck a deal with prosecutors. Held up her end of the deal and the government, under a new administration, held up its end? I mention that "both Trump and Biden era" part because much of the online chatter implies that the judge was a political tool doing the bidding of one or another of those administrations, which doesn't immediately seem to be the case.
For what that's worth, David

Cash fines for tech firms that are cash gushers is the equivalent of fining somebody 1 bottle of water after they broke in and raided all of the drinks and snacks from the break room vending machine. It is a flick on the wrist. A threat of booting them out of the market would focus the mind.
This is entirely anecdotal but I have personal experience working in a Top 3 bank in the US where one aspect of ranking the priority of compliance projects was the size of the regulatory fine.
Once you remove jail time from the worst case penalty, all kinds of malbehavior occurs. To cite a real life example, several execs from Countrywide Financial were fined by the SEC for the toxic trash loans originated by Countrywide but the vast majority of the actual fines were paid by insurance firms and not by the culprits. The execs collectively parachuted out with more than $1B, were collectively fined less than $100M and paid less than $10M out of pocket. Heads I win, tails you lose. Staff and investors got pennies to the dollar.

Congressional bills regarding cryptocurrency (S. 4760 / H.R. 8730) have at most a tangential relation to DOL's regulation of 401(k) plan investments.
Here's a brief negative critique summarizing the bill(s): https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2022/09/news-release-cftc-should-have-narrow-role-in-crypto-to-preserve-sec-primacy/
For more specifics, that links to a letter detailing several concerns:
https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/AFR-Letter-Stabenow-Bill.pdf
And a similar letter with some different items described:
https://www.nasaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/NASAA-Letter-to-Committee-Leadership-Regarding-the-DCCPA-9-9-22-F.pdf
Finally, a set of slides on the state of cryptocurrency regulation in the United States, "Brought to you by the Connecticut Department of Banking and the Securities Advisory Council to the Banking Commissioner", dated November 15, 2022.
Among other things, it explains how cryptocurrencies can be viewed as securities by the SEC, as a commodity interest by the CFTC.
https://www.daypitney.com/wp-content/uploads/2022-11-15-Unmasking-Crypto-Presentation-Final.pdf
The Congressional bills were referred to the House Committee on Agriculture and to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. I suppose given the risks involved, it makes a kind of warped sense to lump crypto in with pork belly futures :-)
As to DOL fiduciary duty, my feeling is that it doesn't go far enough. The standard is what a prudent investor would do, not what each individual employee would do.
While I would personally be delighted with a brokerage window, I do not think that it serves a typical employee well. Studies have shown that employees when faced with a myriad of options (even without a window), are paralyzed. They may dump everything into cash, or divide their money evenly among all options, or not even participate. More choice is not necessarily better choice.
See, e.g.
https://www.marketplace.org/2022/01/11/default-options-are-popular-in-financial-decision-making-but-are-they-effective/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-too-many-choices-costing-401-k-holders-1454900917