Do you actually know what you are invested in?  Are you diversified... or are you over-diversified?  If you are invested in a broad range of funds or ETFs, it is likely that you have no strategy.  Something goes up but something else goes down...  You are paying your advisor to tread water - losing out on opportunities to capitalize on structural trends.   Meta Point Advisors cuts through the financial jargon and groupthink to deliver clients' portfolios that are diversified, transparent, and have a record of beating their financial benchmarks.  Meta Point newsletters explain why many investors' portfolios are sub-optimal and muddied.  

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Marisa (Maya) Joelson founded Meta Point Advisors after several years at Merrill Lynch. 

Maya is a Harvard-trained economist who leverages her two decades of top-level experience across advanced technology, Wall Street, and emerging markets to devise investment strategies for her clients.  Maya's clients benefit from her ability to provide savvy active management without the cumbersome costs and structure of mutual funds. Maya enjoys working wih her clients to understand their personal needs so she can craft tailored financial plans.  Maya's investment views have been featured in The Wall Street Journal and Barron's.

Maya excels at deriving "Meta Points" from economic and market data.  She strives to apply these insights to achieve superior outcomes for her clients. Her ability to abstract important concepts and communicate them has differentiated her, whether writing about Russia's conversion to capitalism while at Harvard, women in business at the World Economic Forum, equity markets in London's hedge fund community, or collaborative technologies for DARPA program managers.

Maya Marisa Joelson holds a MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, a MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University, and a BA from Wesleyan University. 

Recent Publications

March 2, 2026 - The Meta Point - Tempting World War III in Iran  
The strait standoff fails the 5-s security & surgical strike stratagem for military success. US ships may be vulnerable – “you sunk my battleship!” is no longer a children's game.

November 26, 2025 - The Meta Point - NATO's Point 29 of Peace Plan? - Stop Putin's "Tit-for-Tat" Sabotage in the West
Western countries who arm Ukraine should expect sabotage at home. 

August 14, 2025 – The Meta Point – Beware of Strategic Accidents
In President Trump's historic one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, he should ask Putin whether he had any involvement in the "strategic accident" that took down the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

June 13, 2025 – The Meta Point – My Forbes Article on Navigating Trump's Tariffs and Trade Wars
In today's Global Chessboard, Trump is America's King, but the U.S. now has to contend with China's President Xi Jinping, who has become another King on the chessboard.

March 6, 2024 – The Meta Point – When Will Lightning Strike the Markets?
The world today seems more than ever like a big game of chess with big power players like Xi, Putin, Biden, and Powell having to sort out their next moves against formidable challenges and foes. Will Powell continue to thread the needle to prevent lightning from striking the markets?

June 27, 2023 – The Meta Point – A Light for the West: Putin and Xi Not So Formidable Foes?
Russia and China alliance shortcomings. Putin and Xi have not been as formidable foes as many feared, dragged down by a lot of self-inflicted errors.

March 15, 2023 – The Meta Point – Beware the Ides of March!
Will the fall of SVB be the death knell of the American Empire?

February 11, 2022 – The Meta Point – What if We Are on the Brink of World War III?
Why isn't the West doing anything about it?

December 31, 2020 – The Meta Point – On Dad, RBG, Me, Death and Estate Tricks to Be Aware Of…
A tribute to my dad who died a few days after his Harvard colleague RBG. I explain the impact my dad's tumultuous life as he fled the Nazis but rose up to go to Harvard and be an imposing but loving father. He raised me with ambition, but when I have come across barriers, like RBG, I have worked to knock them down.

October 23, 2020 – The Meta Point – Smart Investors Aren't Buying the Market - They're Being Selective and Strategic
Think you can't beat the market? Think again... See how many investors made a bet on Apple and other stocks and far outpaced the market.

August 19, 2020 – The Meta Point – Can You Rely on "Socially Responsible" ESG Funds to Invest In Companies that Promote Diversity?
Don't be fooled by flashy ESG labels to falsely believe you are investing in companies that promote diversity. Here's the inside story of what these funds and finance firms are really doing — and it is not supporting diversity.

April 30, 2020 – Forbes – ETFs are not as Cheap or Efficient As You May Think; Consider Buying Individual Stocks Instead
Forbes article which provides some key points from Maya Joelson's podcast interview with Nathaniel Baker, host of the Contrarian Investor Podcast.

April 29, 2020 – Contrarian Investor Podcast – Buy Individual Stocks and Bonds, Not ETFs
Listen to Maya Joelson's 30-minute interview with Nathaniel Baker on her investment views, including a short history of personal investing in the US and why many ETFs are riskier and less transparent than most investors realize. Individual stocks and bonds provide better legal protection and can create a diversified, more strategic portfolio.

April 21, 2020 – The Meta Point – Strategic Single Stock Investing - Now is the Time to Refine Your Portfolio
If you had invested $10K in 1990 in Apple vs. $10K in the US S&P index, you would have over $2 million extra dollars. Even if you didn't believe in single stock investing before COVID, this shows how it can be a superior investment strategy to ETFs and mutual funds.

March 20, 2020 – The Meta Point – Better Safe than SARSy: Understanding the Risks of Staying Invested
This paper lays out the downside risks to staying invested in the markets if you think the Coronavirus crisis could be akin to the 2008 Financial Crisis and 2001 dot-com crises, which led to recessions.

February 26, 2020 – The Meta Point – Is the Coronavirus a Black Swan Event that Will Trigger a Black Bat Market Crash?
This was one of the first warnings to investors that the Coronavirus could be a Black Swan triggering a global market crash. The paper advised clients to take profits from the 10+ year bull market — had you followed this advice, you could have saved yourself ~20%.

December 26, 2017 – The Wall Street Journal – Bonds vs. Bond Funds: A Distinction Which Wealth Advisors Should Explain
Joelson warned that bond funds have underlying risks, especially as interest rates rise. What some people might believe are their safest assets may be their riskiest. She also called out the systemic risk of $4 Trillion in bond funds — a risk that Michael Burry of The Big Short brought attention to later in 2019.

January 2004 – World Economic Forum – Why the Advancement of Women is Strategically (and not Just Politically) Correct
Joelson wrote the first paper for the World Economic Forum on advancing women, which underpinned the first panel on women in the WEF Official Programme attended by CEOs and world leaders. The business case for advancing women, as set forth in Joelson's paper, as well as the success of WEF's first panel on gender equality, prompted WEF to launch its official Gender Programme in 2005. The World Economic Forum has since been an important source of data and research to prompt dialogue and change worldwide on advancing women.

April 1997 – Human Computer Interface – Collaboration in Different Organizational Structures
DARPA, the agency which funded the Internet, was funding two separate programs to build new collaborative technologies. Joelson worked on envisioning how AI and machine learning could be used to enable collaboration in these domains. Years later, the concepts are applicable to the separate growth of Slack and Zoom.

Other Relevant Newsletters

Prior to advising individuals and small businesses, Maya was a macroeconomic and financial advisor in London to the CEO and top management at Rio Tinto, the world's second largest mining firm.  She also worked in equity research and investment banking and advised the world's most prestigious fund managers on their billion dollar funds and conducted many IPOs.  In 2004, Maya wrote a paper for the World Economic Forum in Davos articulating the business case for advancing women in the workplace which served as the background for a panel for CEOs.   Early in her career, she worked for an software development firm to advise DARPA on how to leverage artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to prepare for the future.

Maya Marisa Joelson holds a MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, a MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University, and a BA from Wesleyan University. 

Click here if you would like to speak with Maya or have a complimentary consultation.