Key Points 72% of financial advisers’ value is attributed to relationships and personal connection. Technology is essential for building trust and human connection, especially in the absence of face-to-face meetings. Advisers must leverage social media, share relevant content, and invest in paid social outreach to connect with clients in a virtual world. Where do financial advisers add value for investors? … Read More

Key Points Private equity investment returns are often perceived as reliable and predictable. One persistent myth is that the private equity sector is highly resilient. Private equity’s correlation to public markets is a topic of ongoing debate. Private equity (PE) investment returns are neither reliable nor predictable. Many of my clients are prepared to accept these as facts. But one … Read More

Joachim Klement, CFA, is the author most recently of Geo-Economics: The Interplay between Geopolitics, Economics, and Investments from the CFA Institute Research Foundation. There are two often-repeated critiques of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing that I really can’t stand. They have the quality of truthiness about them and are what academics sometimes call “as if” arguments. For my younger … Read More

Key Points: COVID-19 has propelled women into better situations in corporate diversity mandates, gender lens funds, women in tech, and women investors. Corporate diversity mandates have been influenced by the pandemic, leading to an increase in social awareness and a focus on addressing underrepresented communities in leadership positions. The number of gender lens funds has significantly increased, and geographical diversity … Read More

Active Investing in the Age of Disruption. 2020. Evan L. Jones. John Wiley & Sons. Key Points Aggressive central bank intervention and accelerating innovation have made generating alpha from value-oriented, fundamentally driven investing more difficult Short-selling skills will be in strong demand in the 2020s The market’s dynamics have shifted, affecting the potential for investors to generate alpha The accelerating … Read More

After the 2020 market plunge and subsequent recovery, now is a good time to revisit the logic of dollar-cost averaging (DCA) in investing. Benjamin Graham first popularized DCA in his seminal 1949 book The Intelligent Investor. He writes: “Dollar-cost averaging [ . . . ] means simply that the practitioner invests in common stocks the same number of dollars each … Read More