Articles (160)

I was trained as a journalist to approach any type of speculative claim with a high degree of skepticism. But it took years of sifting through a wealth of academic research and market evidence for me to finally make a career change. In all honesty, it's just become too apparent ...Read More

Staying invested, whether through small-cap or blue-chip stocks, correlates to greater portfolio ...Read More

“Reversion to the mean,” Jack Bogle once said, “is the iron rule of financial markets.” And if you understand nothing else about how investing works, grasping this one simple concept will give you a better chance of succeeding at it than supposedly more ...Read More

As part of IFA's ongoing research series, we've put under our microscope Principal Financial ...Read More

Protecting valuable personal assets is a strategy that experts warn many investors might not be fully ...Read More

 In the first quarter of 2020, investors were reminded of the importance of understanding how markets really ...Read More

Embarking on a financial plan is like sailing around the world. The voyage won’t always go to plan, and there’ll be rough seas. But the odds of reaching your destination increase greatly if you are prepared, flexible, patient, and well-advised. A mistake many ...Read More

The CARES Act creates new flexibility for 401(k) and 403(b) savers. But savings and tax nuances ...Read More

With a proposed merger looming, how has Legg Mason's funds lineup performed as a standalone active ...Read More

Don't take lightly April's focus on investment education. At IFA, Mark Hebner says he sure ...Read More

Dave Goetsch, who worked as an executive producer of TV's "The Big Bang Theory," offers some investment insights. ...Read More

The latest SPIVA (S&P Indices Versus Active) scorecard is out tracking how active fund managers have done over ...Read More

It might not seem intuitive, but this graph shows valuable discipline is when markets ...Read More

The crux of such an ongoing argument has to deal with shareholder diversification and its impact on ...Read More

Small business owners and employees aren't the only ones able to take advantage of tax breaks included in the ...Read More

The independent research shop upgrades its ratings, landing DFA in the top-tier of fund ...Read More

The hedge funds industry is in trouble, and for good reason, notes major news outlets like the WSJ and ...Read More

Building on SPIVA research, analysts dig into how persistent active managers are in beating their benchmarks over ...Read More

By nature, markets are volatile. Here are a few savvy ways to make investing a more palatable road to follow over a ...Read More

As the old saying goes, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and ...Read More

Different sets of ETF research raise concerns about illiquidity issues during periods of heightened ...Read More

In a wide-ranging Q&A, IFA founder Mark Hebner talks about money management potholes that investors should ...Read More

A sound evidence-based investment process needs to consider how market volatility can be used to reduce your ...Read More

Spikes in market volatility don't signal it's time to trade stocks. The math just doesn't add ...Read More

Research by Dimensional Fund Advisors looks at key drivers of long-term returns in fixed-income ...Read More

The venerable fund company's alpha-producing abilities and returns are put under our research microscope. ...Read More

The rising number of workers mired in student loan debt is spurring 401(k) sponsors to offer new ...Read More

Imagine you’re at a village fête, and you decide to have a go at guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar. How confident would you be of guessing exactly right or, say within one or two of the actual number? Chances are, it’s a bit of a long ...Read More

It's up to you to claim any leftover funds. The good news: it's likely still legally yours to ...Read More

Most of us remember the days at school when we had our routine fire drill. The fire alarms around the school would ring, we would all calmly and collectedly stand up, form a line, and walk out of the school to a safe place. While I am sure many ...Read More

T. Rowe Price has clearly stated their value proposition to their investors. But what exactly is that value and, more importantly, who is receiving the bulk of that ...Read More

Here's a comprehensive listing for a new year with commentary on key changes and ...Read More

The track record of this family's active managers are put under IFA's research ...Read More

 In the final quarter of 2019, investors were reminded of the importance of understanding how markets really ...Read More

The largest U.S. pension system has fired most of its active equity managers, joining a growing legion of 'mom-and-pop' ...Read More

Pitches for UITs might seem enticing. But little bit of due diligence can reveal a more critical ...Read More

In the field of finance, standard deviation represents the risk associated with a security or the risk of a portfolio of ...Read More

To analyze client portfolios, we use a specific set of metrics to help determine how funds are working together.  ...Read More

Getting a loan against your securities might seem straightforward. But take a closer look at the fine ...Read More

Here's why a lone Vanguard S&P 500 fund can fall short for investors looking to build wealth over a ...Read More

To many investors, Atlanta-based Invesco Ltd. is an investment management conglomerate with a history of acquisitions and multi-asset platforms that spans the globe. With more than $1.18 trillion in assets under management, it's involved in everything from mutual ...Read More

The retirement picture in America isn't pretty. New legislation, though, seeks to reform the 401(k) and IRA savings ...Read More

Academics are a hallmark of the investment strategy that we recommend to our clients. While there are plenty of sales pitches professing some sort of new or “hot” idea on how to get rich quick, we rely on peer-reviewed academic research to guide the decisions that we ...Read More

Here's a review of our process to maximize tax efficiencies in client portfolios at quarter's ...Read More

In the past, we've chronicled cases of misdeeds by brokers working with investors not only in the U.S., but also around the world. A development that made headlines recently involved a particularly well-known name in global banking and financial services: UBS.  According to ...Read More

Contribution limits for 2020 for various retirement accounts are rising. Here's a breakdown of how much you can now save in a tax-friendly ...Read More

As many of our readers know, we don’t think too highly of the active mutual fund industry. Not because we have a personal vendetta against them, but because their pursuit of attempting to outperform the market using other investors’ money has only enriched themselves ...Read More

A select group of market factors are known to drive stock and bond returns. Some offer less advantages to fund investors, such as momentum, which can prove difficult to capture without running up trading and other transactional costs.  Research by professors Eugene Fama and ...Read More

The latest SPIVA (S&P Indices Versus Active) scorecard is out tracking active fund managers in the past 15 ...Read More

As part of IFA's ongoing series crunching data of active fund managers, we put under our microscope mutual funds from Eaton ...Read More

As part of our fiduciary mandate, the fund families we choose hold corporate managers to high ethical ...Read More

As part of IFA's series breaking down active fund managers' performance, we now put Goldman Sachs under our ...Read More

During any downtime in this holiday season, here are some quick ways to sharpen your finances heading into ...Read More

IFA takes a look at how mergers and acquisitions impact stock valuation metrics for long-term investors.                                 ...Read More

When it comes to investing, we can identify many risks investors assume, either knowingly or not. At Index Fund Advisors, we see it as our core mission to get investors to take the risks that are worth taking (e.g. market, size, value, term and default) and avoid the ones that ...Read More

A common question is why IFA' prefers funds from Dimensional Fund Advisors. The answer is fairly straightforward -- ...Read More

There’s a misconception in the markets: value stocks have lost their vigor. Here's a big picture view of what's going ...Read More

The value of our advice is only as good as the data provided. Here's a tip sheet to make the process more ...Read More

S&P research shows that higher-tiered share classes don't provide a significant advantage for active ...Read More