2025 Q3 Market Review

By Schultz Collins Investment Counsel on November 12, 2025

The third quarter was broadly positive for both equity and fixed income markets. The quarter was marked by continuing optimism for AI’s potential, relaxing tensions around global trade, and softening policy from the Federal Reserve.

The MSCI All Country World Index, a benchmark for global equity markets, rose 7.74% during the quarter and is up 17.8% during the last twelve months. In domestic equity markets, the S&P 500 Index of large U.S. companies returned 8.12% in the last three months and 17.6% in the last twelve. Small U.S. companies, as measured by the Russell 2000 Index, was up 12.39% in the third quarter and up 10.76% in the trailing twelve-month period. The Dow Jones U.S. Select REIT Index of U.S. real estate markets gained 5.09% from July to September but is down 1.7% over the trailing 1-year period.

International equity markets were also up for the third quarter. The MSCI EAFE Index of large company stocks in foreign developed countries returned 4.83% over the quarter and returned 15.58% over the last four quarters. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index, a benchmark for international equities in emerging markets, gained 10.95% in the last three months and 18.17% in the last twelve months.

In general, bond markets experienced gains during the third quarter. The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index rose 2.03% during the quarter and 2.88% during the last twelve months. Intermediate-term corporate bonds, as measured by the Intercontinental Exchange Bank of America (ICE B. of A.) U.S. Corporate 5-10 Year Bond Index, returned 2.72% in the last three months and 5.34% in the last twelve. Global bonds, as proxied by the Financial Times Stock Exchange World Government Bond Index, ended the quarter up 0.16% and ended the trailing twelve-month period up 1.59%.

Falling yields on fixed income securities coincided with higher expectations of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates. For the first time this year, the Fed cut interest rates by a quarter of a percent. The 10-year yield also fell during the quarter from 4.26% to 4.16%. The 10-year yield is a common benchmark for long-term borrowing cost. Lower interest rates makes its easier for individuals and businesses to borrow money, all else.

Schultz Collins Client Portal

The portal is our primary way of securely exchanging documents with you. Examples of documents to be deposited into the portal include:

• Trades proposals to be reviewed and approved
• New account documents with sensitive personal information
• Financial statements
• Trust documents
• Quarterly and other performance reports

The portal protects the contents of the documents stored there whereas an application like email is not secured and can potentially be hacked and your sensitive information stolen.

Use of the Client Portal to exchange these and other documents can be discussed with your Advisor.

Some of the topics to be covered in this video include:

• Registering your account
• Changing Password
• Adding an Authenticator app to your account (new feature just released)
• Accessing and utilizing Box (the application where files are stored)
  • Upload and download files
  • Renaming files
  • Recovering deleted files
  • Setting notifications of file/folder changes

Once you have decided to setup Client Portal access, a member of the Operations staff will send you an email similar to below detailing some the steps involved to set up your account.

You will need to have your mobile device on hand to complete registration.

==========================================

 Here are next steps to follow: 

• You will receive an email titled, ‘Welcome to Your Portal’ from no-reply@well-thview.com
  • Click activate account
  • Your email address will be your username
• The Portal will open in your browser
  • Select ‘Set up’ Password
  • Input password twice
  • Verify with your phone (if this is listed incorrectly, please email us)
• Select ‘Set up’ Security Question
  • Verify by choosing or creating your own security question
• Optionally setup Multi-Factor Authentication device
• You will then be taken to the Client Portal.
  • Phone authentication will be needed every 90 days (If you would like this to be more frequent, let us know).

==========================================

Registering Your Account

Following this email, the operations staff will configure your Client Portal access and then you will receive an email from the system notifying you that it is complete and ready for you to register your account and setup access.

This is what that email looks like from a Gmail Account, your view may be slightly different depending on your email client.

Once you click the “Activate Your Account” button in the email, you will be taken to a web page to setup your access.

First, you will need to setup your password following the requirements for complexity. We recommend using a password at least 10 characters in length to help keep your account secure.

Once you’ve entered your password, the system will need to verify you via Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) using SMS. Click on the “Receive a code via SMS” button. You can also optionally request a voice call wherein the system will read off the code to be used.

Once you receive the code on your mobile device, enter it on the next screen when prompted.

Once you have validated using the 2FA code provided, you will then be prompted to setup a security question to help authenticate and reset your account should the need arise.

You can choose from the options displayed to include creating your own question. Just follow the instructions as they are presented.

You will then be prompted to add an optional authenticator app. The portal’s default is the Google Authenticator app but you can use others. The use of Authenticator apps will be covered in a different section.

You can skip the Authenticator setup by clicking Continue if you wish to use an authenticator app besides Google’s.

You will then be presented with a “Terms of Use” screen. You will need to scroll to the bottom of the terms to accept them. This is only a screen capture of part of the terms, not the complete terms.

Once you accept the terms, your account setup will be complete and you will be taken to your portal.

Accessing the Portal

After the initial setup is complete, the simplest way to return to the Client Portal is to go to our web site https://schultzcollins.com and there is a link to the portal in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

The login page looks like this. Your username is your email address. If it’s not already filled in, enter your email address and then your password and click the “Login” button.

If it has been a while since you’ve logged into the portal, you may be prompted to go through the 2FA the further authenticate. If you are a regular user of the portal, you will be prompted to use the 2FA procedure approximately every 90-days.

Enter the 2FA code when prompted.

Once you complete the 2FA process, you will be taken to the main page of the portal.

Updating Login Password

There are a couple of ways that you can update your password for the Client Portal.

The first is from the login page. From this screen select “Forgot Password”. Then enter your username (email address) then press the “Request New Password” button. You will need your mobile device handy to reset your password.

Enter the Validation Code that was sent to your mobile device.

Enter the answer for your Security Question on the next screen.

You will then be prompted to create a new password.

Once you’ve created your new password, you will then be logged into the Client Portal.

The second way to reset your password is from the newly added Profile Page. In the upper right-hand corner of the Main Portal Page, it will show your name with a down arrow just to the right. Click the down arrow and select Profile.

When you click the Reset Password button, you will then be prompted to update your password.

Enter your new password twice and then click the Update Password button.

Adding Authenticator app to your profile

A new feature recently added to the Client Portal is that you can now add an Authenticator app to your profile that will replace the SMS 2FA function.

The Key Benefits of using an App include:

• Enhanced Security: Authenticator apps generate time-based codes that are harder to compromise.
• Greater Reliability: Works even when clients have poor cell service or SMS delivery issues.
• More Control: Clients can choose the MFA method that works best for them.

Examples of Authenticator apps include Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Duo Mobile, Twilio Authy or Symantec VIP Access.

From the profile screen, click the enable Authenticator button and follow the instructions on the next screen.

From here scan the QR Code in your preferred app, enter the 6-digit code generated by the app, then click Verify Registration.

Once verified, the profile screen will how show that your Authenticator app has been enabled.

Once enabled, you will have to option to use the Authenticator app at login.

Select Use my registered Authenticator app and click Sign In. Enter the 6-digit code from your app on the next screen.

The system will then log you into the portal.

If you don’t already have an Authenticator app associated with your account, you may be prompted to add one at your next login. Click the Set Up Authenticator app button.

Scan the QR code using your selected Authenticator app.

Follow the prompts to verify with the code provided.

Once completed, your Authenticator app will be used for future logins.

Removing Authenticator app from your profile

You can also disable Authenticator app usage on your profile page.

Simply click the Disable Authenticator button on the profile page and then confirm on the following screen.

Client Portal Main Page

On the main page your advisor and their contact information will be displayed at the top of the screen.

The profile screen information will show the contact information we have on record for you (Email address, mailing address and phone number). If any of this information is incorrect, please let us know immediately so we can get it corrected.

There will be links in the three columns of the main page. The left column takes you to the Box Folder structure (to be discussed shortly), the middle column shows links to your custodian page(s) and the right column shows the most recent articles we have posted to our web site.

When you click the “View Your Shared Files” icon, it will open a second tab or window (depending on your browser settings) into the Box interface for your Client Portal folder structure.

Box Folder structure

Because of Box security, you will not be able to upload files at the root folder, before you can upload any files, you first need to browse into one of the sub-folders by clicking on the folder name.

Once you click into your main folder, there are a number of existing folders that have already been created.

Uploading Files

Left-click the folder name where you want to upload files. If a particular folder has no files present, Box will show a screen similar to the following.

Adding files to a folder is as simple as drag and drop or you can click the “Upload” button and browse to the file(s) you wish to upload.

In this example, after clicking “Upload”, it shows Windows File Explorer to browse and select file. The equivalent for Mac platforms would be in Finder.

You can select more than one file at a time. Then click the Open button at the bottom of the window. The files will then be uploaded to your Box folder.

Once your files are uploaded, they will be displayed in the folder.

In general, when you upload a file to the portal your advisor is not notified so it is recommended that you send them an email letting them know the file(s) is/are ready for them to review.

You can also drag-and-drop from your file manager window into the displayed Box folder. A message will be displayed as the files are uploaded.

Downloading Files

To download a file, you need to hover over the file name, then click the three dots and then select “Download”.

Depending on your browser and its configuration, you will be prompted to “Save” the file.

Google Chrome will display a small prompt in the upper right-hand corner showing where the file has been downloaded. From here you can open the file or the folder into which the file was downloaded.

Microsoft Edge shows a slightly different download prompt, from here you can select where to save the file (using the “Save as” button) and once the download completes, you can again open the file or the folder where it was saved.

Another way to download files is by clicking on a specific file, Box will then display the selected file in a preview screen. You can close this screen by clicking the “X” in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

You can then click the download button (second from the right above) and it will save the file(s) to your computer.

If you select multiple files, the system will create a ZIP file that will contain all the files you selected. The file will be saved to your computer and you can then extract the files using whatever file manager is part of your computer’s operating system.

Renaming Files

When you hover over a file name, a pencil icon will appear just to the right of the file name.

Click on the pencil icon and it will open a small window where you can edit the file name. Then click save to make the change.

Recovering Deleted Files

When you delete a file in Box they are moved to a “Trash” folder for easy recovery.

To access the Trash folder, on the left side of the screen is a menu, click the “More” option and a sub menu will be displayed and from there you can select the “Trash” folder.

The display will show all files/folders that have been deleted recently. When you click on the three dots menu, it will drop down options for “Restore” or “Delete”.

When you select restore, the system will restore the file to its original location; you cannot choose where to restore the file. So, you will need to remember where the file was originally.

Box will then show the file in a preview screen and when you close that screen it will return you to that file’s original location.

If you select Delete, it will pop-up a small window prompting you to confirm or cancel the file deletion.

Warning: Once you click “Okay” on this screen the file is permanently deleted with no recovery options. Files are kept in the Trash folder for up to a year and they are automatically removed if space is needed.

Marking Folders as Favorites

If you wish to mark a folder as a “Favorite” to make it easy to access directly; this can be done in a couple of ways,

From the folder structure you can “drag and drop” the folder to the “Favorites” section of the left menu. This will add it to your Favorites list.

You can also hover over the folder name, select the “Add to Collections” button , then put a check box in the Favorites box.

The folder(s) will then show up under “Favorites” in the left menu of Box.

Notifications of file or folder changes

By default, you will be notified via email any time a file or folder is changed or a new file is uploaded to your Client Portal.

To change these settings, first return to the root folder of your Client Folder structure.

Then, hover over the line with the folder name, click the three dots and finally select “Settings” in the menu displayed.

Scroll down to the section labeled “Email and Notifications”. Click the radio button saying “Override default settings”. Then uncheck all the boxes and then click the “Save Changes” button at the top of the screen. The system will save the changes and return you to the folder listing.

Making this change at the root folder will change the notifications settings for all folders below.

If you wish to only change a specific folder, say the “Presentations & Meetings” folder, you can hover over that folder name, click the three dots for the menu, then select settings and make the changes for that specific folder.

Other Helpful Settings

To make changes to other settings, click your initials in the upper right-hand corner, and from the drop down, select “Account Settings”.

On the Account Tab, under the General Options section, you can select your Home Page for when the portal opens, you can also change how many files/folders are displayed on a page.

Also on this page, you should double-check the “Time Zone” settings and make sure it matches yours.

You can change the global Notifications settings on that Tab. Keep in mind, if you make a change here, it will override any folder specific settings you may have previously set.

Download a copy of the article here.

Disclaimer: Schultz Collins is a group comprised of investment professionals registered with Hightower Advisors, LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser. Some investment professionals may also be registered with Hightower Securities, LLC, member FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services are offered through Hightower Advisors, LLC. Securities are offered through Hightower Securities, LLC.

This is not an offer to buy or sell securities. No investment process is free of risk, and there is no guarantee that the investment process or the investment opportunities referenced herein will be profitable. Past performance is neither indicative nor a guarantee of future results. The investment opportunities referenced herein may not be suitable for all investors.

All data or other information referenced herein is from sources believed to be reliable. Any opinions, news, research, analyses, prices, or other data or information contained in this presentation is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. Schultz Collins and Hightower Advisors, LLC or any of its affiliates make no representations or warranties express or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, or for statements or errors or omissions, or results obtained from the use of this information. Schultz Collins and Hightower Advisors, LLC assume no liability for any action made or taken in reliance on or relating in any way to this information. The information is provided as of the date referenced in the document. Such data and other information are subject to change without notice.

This document was created for informational purposes only; the opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s) and do not represent those of Hightower Advisors, LLC, or any of its affiliates.