August 2025

In the universe of investment management firms similar to Woodstock, we were an early adopter of the Global Investment Performance Standard (“GIPS”). We decided to have a large composite be our flagship:[1] our Growth Composite, which has covered over 80% of assets under management at Woodstock for 20 years. Clients included in the Growth Composite range from grandparents to grandchildren and include those drawing from their account and those accumulating. Most are taxable accounts. On June 30, 2025, we reached 20 years of performance recording under GIPS.

The S&P 500 Index returned 11.0% in the second quarter of 2025, fully recovering from its -21.3% peak-to-trough sell-off after bottoming on April 7, and finished the mid-year at an all-time high. Investors were relieved in April when President Trump revealed his more pragmatic side, quickly deferring the tariffs he had announced on April 2. Investors have since grown more accustomed to his negotiating strategy of taking extreme positions before walking them back.

While the US stock market recovered to all-time highs, the US dollar had its worst half-year performance since 1973, suggesting stock market enthusiasm may stem more from anticipation of easier monetary policy than from faster economic growth. US stocks underperformed most other world markets in dollar terms. The yield of the 10-year US Treasury bond traded down about one-third of a percentage point from the beginning of the year.

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law. Many of the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 were set to expire at the end of 2025. OBBBA makes these provisions permanent. These include:

• 10, 12, 22, 24, 32 and 35 percent tax brackets
• Elimination of personal exemptions
• Increased alternative minimum tax exemption and threshold amounts
• Lower limitation on the deduction of mortgage interest
• Limitation of casualty loss deduction
• Termination of the miscellaneous itemized deductions