Institutional Wealth Managers

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On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll interview Larry Swedroe on how diversification is like a U.S. road trip. Larry begins by stating that in a world of uncertainty, diversification is the only prudent strategy. No one can know the future; therefore, it is wise to diversify across various sources of risks and returns. Larry continues by making the comparison of diversification to a U.S. road trip from New York to San Francisco. Imagine that in each leg of your trip you only travel half of the remaining distance. You are getting closer to, but not completely arriving at your destination. Each leg adds less distance.

Diversification works in the same way. The most important diversification is the addition of the right amount of fixed income to dampen the risk of the overall portfolio. This gets you halfway across the country. From here, each “leg” adds less value, but you’ve already gone almost the whole distance. Larry notes that typically 8-10 mutual funds are, at most, all you will need.

At Intelligent Investing, we strongly believe in diversification. We believe that it may not be best to own one thing to make a killing in it. However, by doing so, this may prevent you from not owning enough of any one thing to be able to get killed by it.

We’ll be interviewing Larry on several podcasts regarding markets, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has since authored seven more books.

Larry Swedroe Bio

Since joining the Buckingham Strategic Wealth in 1996, Chief Research Officer Larry Swedroe has spent his time and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing.

In his role as chief research officer and as a member of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and Board of Directors, Larry regularly reviews the findings published in dozens of peer-reviewed financial journals, evaluates the outcomes and uses the result to inform the firm’s formal investment strategy recommendations.

Larry’s dedication to helping others has made him a sought-after national speaker. He has made appearances on national television shows airing on NBC, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg Personal Finance. Larry is a prolific writer, contributing regularly to multiple outlets, including Advisor Perspectives and ETF.com.

Before joining Buckingham, Larry was vice chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage and senior vice president at Citicorp.

Larry holds an MBA in finance and investment from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College.

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On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll interview Larry Swedroe on hope for the retail investor. Because retail investors tend to struggle to outperform, we want to ask Larry what opportunities are available for them. Larry believes there are great opportunities for retail investors. Academics have converted Alpha into data that allows retail investors to invest “like Warren Buffet.” This is due to academics basing their investment philosophy on research, a.k.a. factor-based investing. Typically, there are extra or unique risks (independent factors) present with factor-based investing. Therefore, these investments have delivered above-average returns. Between 300-600 factors have been identified (as mentioned in Larry’s book). However, we tend to only think that there is a handful worth investing in.

If you are an Intelligent Investor who wants to explore Factor-based investing, go to our blog page. Also, you can check out Larry Swedroe’s book Your Complete Guide to Factor-Based Investing here.

We’ll be interviewing Larry on several podcasts regarding markets, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has since authored seven more books.

Larry Swedroe Bio

Since joining the Buckingham Strategic Wealth in 1996, Chief Research Officer Larry Swedroe has spent his time and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing.

In his role as chief research officer and as a member of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and Board of Directors, Larry regularly reviews the findings published in dozens of peer-reviewed financial journals, evaluates the outcomes and uses the result to inform the firm’s formal investment strategy recommendations.

Larry’s dedication to helping others has made him a sought-after national speaker. He has made appearances on national television shows airing on NBC, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg Personal Finance. Larry is a prolific writer, contributing regularly to multiple outlets, including Advisor Perspectives and ETF.com.

Before joining Buckingham, Larry was vice chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage and senior vice president at Citicorp.

Larry holds an MBA in finance and investment from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College.

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On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll interview Larry Swedroe on how greed and chasing alpha makes it difficult to outperform. We’ll discuss how there has been a change in the landscape due to the increase in money chasing. Larry points out the fact that there were almost no hedge funds in the 1950s. However, he talks of the “Golden Era” of hedge funds around the turn of the century. There was a growing increase in the number of mutual funds and the generating of big alpha. As money began pouring in, much of alpha began to lose value. This was due to the small amount of money, and factors not being well-known or exploited. Consequently, today much of alpha has been converted into beta and eliminated. This over-crowding resulted in more money, more competition, and fewer victims. As a result, these factors ultimately raised hurdles for active managers.

At Intelligent Investing, we believe in the importance of independence and not chasing after alpha. We understand that independent bookstores and independent coffee shops have a different feel from Barnes and Noble and Starbucks. Independent financial firms have a different feel from big-name investment firms. We are locally owned and operated boutique wealth management firm, and feel this keeps us close to those we serve. 

We’ll be interviewing Larry on several podcasts regarding markets, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has since authored seven more books.

Larry Swedroe Bio

Since joining the Buckingham Strategic Wealth in 1996, Chief Research Officer Larry Swedroe has spent his time and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing.

In his role as chief research officer and as a member of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and Board of Directors, Larry regularly reviews the findings published in dozens of peer-reviewed financial journals, evaluates the outcomes and uses the result to inform the firm’s formal investment strategy recommendations.

Larry’s dedication to helping others has made him a sought-after national speaker. He has made appearances on national television shows airing on NBC, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg Personal Finance. Larry is a prolific writer, contributing regularly to multiple outlets, including Advisor Perspectives and ETF.com.

Before joining Buckingham, Larry was vice chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage and senior vice president at Citicorp.

Larry holds an MBA in finance and investment from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College.

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On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll interview Larry Swedroe on the paradox of skills. This is the third issue that makes Alpha become elusive. Larry explains two thoughts that need to be considered. First, most people fail to understand the difference in competition. In a one-on-one competition, the successful competitor wins, or outperforms, by a significantly higher percentage than his opponent.  The collective wisdom of the market, however, is the tougher competition. Second, Larry expounded on the increase in education within financial institutions. Interestingly, this increase in skill level is needed to generate Alpha. Larry states that this is a big problem consequently for the active world.

At Intelligent Investing, we believe that no advisor can consistently deliver outperformance. As Nick Murray says in one of his books, “Adam and Eve were goal-focused investors…until the serpent told them they could be–with just a little guidance from him–smart enough to outperform. Remember, outperformance is the apple. Don’t bite into it. To learn more about the other reasons Larry believes the Quest for Alpha is so difficult, visit out blog section at investedwithyou.com/blogs

We’ll be interviewing Larry on several podcasts regarding markets, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has since authored seven more books.

Larry Swedroe Bio

Since joining the Buckingham Strategic Wealth in 1996, Chief Research Officer Larry Swedroe has spent his time and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing.

In his role as chief research officer and as a member of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and Board of Directors, Larry regularly reviews the findings published in dozens of peer-reviewed financial journals, evaluates the outcomes and uses the result to inform the firm’s formal investment strategy recommendations.

Larry’s dedication to helping others has made him a sought-after national speaker. He has made appearances on national television shows airing on NBC, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg Personal Finance. Larry is a prolific writer, contributing regularly to multiple outlets, including Advisor Perspectives and ETF.com.

Before joining Buckingham, Larry was vice chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage and senior vice president at Citicorp.

Larry holds an MBA in finance and investment from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College.

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On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll interview Larry Swedroe on how the shrinking pool of victims makes it difficult to outperform. In his book Why Alpha is Becoming More Difficult, this is the second issue. Referencing William Sharpe, Larry notes that if one investor outperforms the market, consequently somebody else has to underperform. Larry points out the high percentage of trading done by individual investors in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.  Today, more trading is done by institutional investors, high-frequency traders, etc. Two problems have arisen because of this switch. First, people are abandoning active management due to its bad history. Second, and consequently, those who have underperformed are abandoning active management. Larry states that there’s not enough alpha to go around, and he asks the question, “Who is left to exploit?” As the pool shrinks, it is becoming harder and harder to outperform.

At Intelligent Investing, we believe that no advisor can consistently deliver outperformance. As Nick Murray says in one of his books, “Adam and Eve were goal-focused investors…until the serpent told them they could be–with just a little guidance from him–smart enough to outperform. Remember, outperformance is the apple. Don’t bite into it. To learn more about the other reasons Larry believes the Quest for Alpha is so difficult, visit our blog section.

We’ll be interviewing Larry on several podcasts regarding markets, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has since authored seven more books.

Larry Swedroe Bio

Since joining the Buckingham Strategic Wealth in 1996, Chief Research Officer Larry Swedroe has spent his time and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing.

In his role as chief research officer and as a member of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and Board of Directors, Larry regularly reviews the findings published in dozens of peer-reviewed financial journals, evaluates the outcomes and uses the result to inform the firm’s formal investment strategy recommendations.

Larry’s dedication to helping others has made him a sought-after national speaker. He has made appearances on national television shows airing on NBC, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg Personal Finance. Larry is a prolific writer, contributing regularly to multiple outlets, including Advisor Perspectives and ETF.com.

Before joining Buckingham, Larry was vice chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage and senior vice president at Citicorp.

Larry holds an MBA in finance and investment from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College.

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On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll interview Larry Swedroe on how academics converting alpha into beta make outperformance difficult. Prior to 1992, only active managers had exposure to market beating stocks. In this episode, Larry details the history of alpha and outperformance and what changed for passive investors. He refers to a white paper titled, The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns written by Fama and French. This paper altered the landscape of investing because of it’s 3 factor model. Now passive investors have the ability to gain exposure to the same markets in a much more tax efficient manner. 

At Intelligent Investing we believe that Asset Allocation, or the long-term mix of stocks, bonds, and cash is the primary determinant of the variation of returns a client can expect. As a result, we focus on creating an appropriate blend that has a dual focus- maximizing returns and minimizing risk. To learn more about our asset allocation and our other wealth management practices, visit to investedwithyou.com/philosophy.

We’ll be interviewing Larry on several podcasts regarding markets, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has since authored seven more books.

Larry Swedroe Bio

Since joining the Buckingham Strategic Wealth in 1996, Chief Research Officer Larry Swedroe has spent his time and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing.

In his role as chief research officer and as a member of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and Board of Directors, Larry regularly reviews the findings published in dozens of peer-reviewed financial journals, evaluates the outcomes and uses the result to inform the firm’s formal investment strategy recommendations.

Larry’s dedication to helping others has made him a sought-after national speaker. He has made appearances on national television shows airing on NBC, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg Personal Finance. Larry is a prolific writer, contributing regularly to multiple outlets, including Advisor Perspectives and ETF.com.

Before joining Buckingham, Larry was vice chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage and senior vice president at Citicorp.

Larry holds an MBA in finance and investment from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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On today’s Intelligent Money Minute, we’ll interview Larry Swedroe on the difficulty of consistently outperforming the market. Over time, the markets are becoming more efficient, consequently making it harder for active managers to outperform. In this episode, Larry explains some reasons why there’s little to no evidence of persistence of outperformance. We have several upcoming podcasts that will feature Larry, so be sure to subscribe to our podcasts, if you haven’t already.

He breaks the numbers down using an example from Charles Ellis’ white paper. According to Larry, if we look at history, around 20 years ago only 20% of managers were outperforming before taxes. After taxes, it was about 10% and currently, it is approximately 2% of managers outperform before taking into consideration taxes. Unfortunately, no advisor can consistently deliver outperformance in the market. At Intelligent Investing, we believe the dominant determinant of long-term, real-life returns will be the behavior of the client and advisor. This is why we strongly believe in behavioral teamwork.

To learn more about our behavioral coaching, go to our philosophy page. You can also read “The Loser’s Game” by Charles Ellis here. We’ll be interviewing Larry on several podcasts regarding markets, passive investing, and diversification, so be sure to subscribe to our Intelligent Money Minute podcasts.

Larry was among the first authors to publish a book that explained the science of investing in layman’s terms, “The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You’ll Ever Need.” He has since authored seven more books.

Larry Swedroe Bio

Since joining the Buckingham Strategic Wealth in 1996, Chief Research Officer Larry Swedroe has spent his time and energy educating investors on the benefits of evidence-based investing.

In his role as chief research officer and as a member of the firm’s Investment Policy Committee and Board of Directors, Larry regularly reviews the findings published in dozens of peer-reviewed financial journals, evaluates the outcomes and uses the result to inform the firm’s formal investment strategy recommendations.

Larry’s dedication to helping others has made him a sought-after national speaker. He has made appearances on national television shows airing on NBC, CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg Personal Finance. Larry is a prolific writer, contributing regularly to multiple outlets, including Advisor Perspectives and ETF.com.

Before joining Buckingham, Larry was vice chairman of Prudential Home Mortgage and senior vice president at Citicorp.

Larry holds an MBA in finance and investment from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree in finance from Baruch College.