February 2015

Obama vs. Savers ???

“The White House moves to take away choices for middle-class investors.” The Wall Street Journal, 2/26/2015 This is the crux of an editorial in The Wall Street Journal (“WSJ”) castigating President Obama for his Administration’s attempt to force investment advisors to look out for their clients’ best interests instead of gouging them with high-fee products…

America’s Top (Real) Financial Advisors

“We looked at assets under management, revenues generated for advisors’ firms, and quality of practices.” Barron’s 2/23/2015 As Dana Carvey’s Church Lady used to say, “Isn’t that special?” Barron’s magazine came out with their Top 1,200 Financial Advisors list this week. I would question the definition of their term “Top”. Does this refer to the…

Ten Wall Street Pick-up Lines to Avoid

“If your proposed marriage contract has 47 pages, I suggest you not enter.” This quote by Charles Munger hammers home the role of trust in an investment relationship. Michael Kitces of Nerds Eye View wrote a post entitled “What is the philosophy of your financial planning firm? It deals with what an advisor doesn’t believe…

What We Think… We Become

This quote from Buddha succinctly summarizes the all-important psychological component of investing. While the term “mental toughness” is a term more recognizable in professional sports, it is also a critical aspect of a successful investment process. In professional sports, teams get to keep their trophies. Unless you are a little league team from Chicago, championships…

What’cha talkin ’bout Willis??

“Each fund’s returns are adjusted for 12b-1 fees, which are used for marketing and distribution expenses. Funds typically factor these into returns to better reflect what investors would see after these annual fees have been deducted. But our aim is to measure the manager’s skill, uncomplicated by expenses. Fund loads or sales charges, aren’t included…

On Second Thought, You Should Invest Like Pete Carroll

Like everyone else last Sunday, I was screaming like an orangutan on amphetamines at the t.v., “How could you not unleash the beast from the one yard line??” Pete Carroll instantly transformed himself into the “stupid” Rob Lowe from those cheesy commercials! After some reflection, I have changed my mind. Investors can learn a great…

Any advisor who can be replaced by a computer, should be

“To all of those people and firms criticizing the Robo-Advisors…If you think you can do better prove it.” Ben Carlson nails it in his post The Robo-Advisor Challenge Many advisors fear these insurgents. Advisors charging 1.25% AUM fees (assets under management); packing clients into proprietary or incentive-laden funds; and providing no financial planning services should…