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At Index Fund Advisors, it is standard operating procedure for us to tailor how we manage client portfolios at year-end in anticipation of dividend and capital gains distributions from the mutual funds that we ...Read More
It may come as no surprise to anyone who follows us, but just in case you forgot, we don’t think too highly of active management. It is nothing personal, of course. The fact of the matter is that the ...Read More
The Wall Street Journal recently published a series of articles under the title “The Passivists.” Highlighting the merits of a passive investment approach, authors tackle topics such as the ...Read More
Over the last few years we have seen an increase in the number of lawsuits bringing brought against employers for conflicts revolving in and around the retirement plans they provide for their employees. One of ...Read More
Most of us woke up this morning with a certain amount of uncertainty hanging over our heads. Similar to what we witnessed during the “Brexit” vote just five month earlier, polls, statisticians, and ...Read More
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr We have all said it before. Whether it comes to our finances or any other situation that involves ...Read More
“Why?” It’s the question that our children often use and abuse to the point of our own mental and emotional capacity. While we end up resorting to the very popular choice of last resort ...Read More
In 1958, economist Leonard Read published an essay entitled “I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read.” The essay, narrated from the point of view of a pencil, describes the ...Read More
It has become a tradition that we reflect on the prior year by collecting our IFA statistics (or, what has grown to be known as IFA By the Numbers) on the abundance and wealth of information we provide in ...Read More
Fiduciary: one often in a position of authority who obligates himself or herself to act on behalf of another and assumes a duty to act in good faith and with care, candor, and loyalty in fulfilling the ...Read More
We recently came across a survey from the asset manager Blackrock that reported the vast majority of investors are fleeing to cash ahead of this year’s general election. Specifically, ...Read More
“Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler” – Albert Einstein The role of a Wealth Advisor is constantly evolving. Most of our parents remember the days where the ...Read More
The 3rd Quarter of 2016 was a great example of the disconnect between markets and economies that many often believe are closely tied together. While economic indicators are extremely important in terms of the ...Read More
Many investors have caught on to the idea of the different dimensions of expected return or “premiums” such as the market, size, relative price (value), profitability, and capital investment ...Read More
Next month, Americans will head to the polls to elect the next president of the United States. While the outcome is unknown, one thing is for certain: There will be a steady stream of opinions from pundits and ...Read More
How much can one afford in retirement? It is the holy grail of retirement planning and has been through multiples evolutions over the last few decades. Why? In short, we are trying to give a solution based on ...Read More
Index Fund Advisors embraces the responsibility of putting our clients’ best interest first and foremost. Being beholden to the fiduciary standard of care is not something we see as a barrier, but ...Read More
Research over the last 4 decades has revealed a robust and persistent value premium – value stocks have outperformed growth stocks over many time periods and markets worldwide. In its most simplest form, ...Read More
Lawsuits and retirement plans have become quite the pair in recent years. Plan participants have become aware of the excessive fees and conflict of interest that have plagued the retirement industry—and ...Read More
Jack Dreyfus, also known as “The Lion of Wall Street,” founded Dreyfus Funds in New York City in 1951. A 1964 Life Magazine article attributes Dreyfus as revolutionizing the advertising of mutual ...Read More
Bill Miller is widely considered one of the most successful investors of all time. At the helm of the Legg Mason Value Trust Fund (LMVTX) for over three decades, he earned the title of legendary by beating the ...Read More
A recent article was published on MarketWatch whose provocative title made our eyebrows rise with curiosity. The title read, “How This Stock Fund Routinely Beats the S&P 500.” Let’s just ...Read More
The active fund industry is a marketing machine; ready to pitch short term outperformance as an indication of manager skill. Investors subsequently make a large allocation to these “winners” and ...Read More
The Bank of New York Mellon, officially, has only been in existence since 2007 from a merger, but its roots span all the way back to the birth of our nation. The Bank of New York was founded 232 years ago by ...Read More
On January 1, 2013, the US Government introduced a new Net Investment Income Tax of 3.8%. This tax only affects certain households or individuals that meet certain thresholds of net investment income or ...Read More
I am very proud to share this film with you and ask that you help spread the word. I’d also like to thank you for your support, your interest and your encouragement as my dedicated team and I continue to ...Read More
Columbia Management is one of the largest investment management firms in the world. With close to 7 full decades of industry experience and expertise and over 100 individual investment strategies, Columbia has ...Read More
The second quarter of 2016 was mixed in terms of good and bad news as well as performance. While the Eurozone experienced a big shock in terms of the unanticipated “Brexit” vote, the United States ...Read More
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein Market timing is and has been one of the most disastrous investment ideas to plague our ...Read More
There are some investment advisory firms who believe in the notion that active management can outperform due to the behavioral biases inherent in all investors. For example, Minnesota based Blue Water Capital ...Read More
San Francisco based Dodge & Cox is one of the most well-known investment management firms in the world. More impressively, they have been able to build a very sizeable asset base on the back of just 6 ...Read More
Believe it or not, many plan sponsors of institutional investment plans do not have a reliable benchmark to judge their total performance over time. How can this be? What could be more fundamental ...Read More
One of the most misunderstood tenants of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) has to do with assumption that all decisions made by market participants are rational. In other words, the millions of people who ...Read More
On June 23, citizens of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. While there has been much speculation leading up to and since the vote, many of the longer-term implications of the referendum ...Read More
Public pensions have a very simple purpose: to help serve the many public employees and their retirement. What they have turned into is a shining example of wasting taxpayer money. The Washing Post recently ...Read More
In recent years, following a decade-long gorging on hedge and private equity funds by government pensions, the massive hidden fees and expenses related to these "alternative" investment funds have attracted ...Read More
A common question we receive from clients has to do with bond strategies. Should we buy bond funds or build individual bond ladders? There are a few things to keep in mind when thinking the role of fixed ...Read More
As proponents of globally diversified portfolios, we understand the principle of diversification when it comes to investing. Harry Markowitz was one of the first academics to identify the benefits of adding ...Read More
Vanguard is the largest fund management company in the world. Mostly known for being a pioneer in the development of index funds, they also carry quite a few actively managed funds in their lineup. ...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 ...Read More
With the annual reconstitution of the Russell indices approaching, it is a good opportunity to revisit how index reconstitution events affect trading costs and returns. Index funds are an innovative solution ...Read More
Invesco Ltd. is one of the most well-known investment firms in the country. Their operations span over 20 different countries around the world and are involved in investment management, wealth management, ...Read More
If you follow the stock market, you cannot get away from the word volatility. It is discussed in the media, over the Internet, the front page of the newspaper’s Business section. All you have ...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 value? ...Read More
There has been a sharp rise in the reverse mortgage market in last the decade within the United States. According to the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA), the annual number of reverse ...Read More
Wealth transfer strategies are an extremely important topic when it comes to financial planning. Establishing the proper legal conduits to ensure the maximum amount assets transferred to beneficiaries ...Read More
"Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently, "I cannot make bricks without clay!" — The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ...Read More
Once again, Oppenheimer Funds has produced an excellent commercial highlighting their investment of ideology of understanding the collective human behavior that drives markets and building investment solutions ...Read More
There is a common misconception about “alpha” in the small-cap market within the United States. Many professionals believe that once we step out of the mega-cap world of companies like Google, ...Read More
We analyzed Fortune's "Ten Most Admired Companies" (2001)1 as a whole portfolio and as individual companies, comparing them to 10 index portfolios for the 15-year period from January 2001 through December ...Read More
As we approach the three year anniversary of Professor Eugene Fama winning the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, we thought it worthwhile to call attention to this article by his colleague at the University of ...Read More
We recently came across a video advertisement for the Oppenheimer Fundamental Alternatives Fund (QVOPX), which is headed up by Michelle Borré and is the person you see in the video. Her pitch revolves ...Read More
The first quarter of this year was a textbook case on the importance of having discipline when approaching the investment process. January was a punishing month for markets around the world as fears of ...Read More
King Midas of Pessinus was a well-known character in Greek mythology that was known for turning whatever he touched into gold, known as the Midas Touch. Some companies have embraced the story of King ...Read More
Oppenheimer Funds is a subsidiary of Oppenheimer Holdings & Co., one of the largest financial institutions in the entire world. Having roots dated over a century ago, the Oppenheimer name has acted as a ...Read More
Being a part of the passive investment community can be very isolating at times. It is a constant uphill battle against an industry that is built largely on an illusion. Most of the headlines and stories by ...Read More
The wide world of investing is complex. For most of us, it’s a vague concept that is seemingly associated with uber-wealthy like Warren Buffett. We all understand the concept of having our money grow for ...Read More
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