Someone once called me a unicorn (their term, not mine), since they found it hard to find someone like me. This was because I don’t have sales licenses for product sales. I’m fee-only and a fiduciary as a result. Actually, only a small, but growing, percentage of financial advisers are fee-ONLY. You can vet me […]
Morningstar recently issued a new Stewardship Grade for Dimensional. The firm’s overall grade—which considers corporate culture, fund board quality, fund manager incentives, fees, and regulatory history—is an A. Dimensional morningstar stewardship from Better Financial Education In the interest of disclosure: I do use DFA sub-managed SA Funds with most clients (not a fund requirement, but a […]
The ability to beat the market returns is shrinking. This ability is measured by a statistical term called “Alpha.” Swedroe and Berkin’s book “The Incredible Shrinking Alpha” discusses how Alpha has shrunk, as well as the ability to repeat this feat, called persistency, is low too. What is Alpha? The ability for a manager to […]
Black Swan events are events that come as a surprise … like the surprise of seeing a black swan when most swans are white in color. How do you invest in Black Swan markets? Such events are “often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.” (Wikipedia). Most people then try to rationalize […]
I could write a lot about why I recommend Dimensional Funds for client access to the markets – what fuels their plans. You see the PLAN is what you want to eventually do with your money. INVESTING is what fuels your plan. People get these two backwards and prioritized wrong! Fundamentally, if you invest through the […]
Have you ever wondered what a good adviser should do for you? Here’s a great summary. And … remember … ask what they are the expert professional in and how they handle those areas where they are not as up to speed expertise wise. You should look for one specializing in what you need instead […]
What I set up for retired clients is not only portfolio management (all advisers do that – what is missing is how to monitor, measure, and decide what to do when “things happen”). Portfolio management for my retired clients would be represented in the above photo as the Long Term Portfolio (LTP). That represents potential […]
People worry when markets are near the top (“Is this a bubble?). People worry when markets are lower than they were (“Is this a crash?”). Here are some guidelines to keep you “on the road” even while the markets are twisting and turning – which they always will! 1) Revisit or develop your Investment Policy […]
Client portfolio construction is part art and part science. Often the concepts of diversification and asset allocation are intermixed … they are actually two different things. The science looks at what makes two, or more, investments different from each other. And then combines those with common characteristics into one bundle (an index mutual fund). The […]
The below article is a good short discussion on the factors to consider when interest rate expectations enters the news cycle (again, or each time it does). The effect of interest rates on bonds is an inverse one – meaning – when interest rates go up, bond prices go down, and vice versa. Interest rates may affect the […]
