Research

“Why Hire an Investment Consultant?”  There are many investment terms that are tossed about which can be confusing to a typical investor. I have been reminded recently that a seemingly simple term, “Investment Advisor,” can mean different things to different people. Professionals in our industry use labels such as Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, Financial Advisor, Financial Consultant, and Investment Manager to try to neatly describe what they do for a living. Often, a client misunderstands the label or believes that all investment professionals provide the same service.
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“The Death of Active Investment Management?”  Over the years, there has been a strong case made for passive investment management, and a proliferation of products such as index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).  The appeal of index funds is easy to understand.  Why pay higher fees for active management when, in theory, a small percentage of these products actually outperform an index?  Investors have just experienced the worst 10-year period in the history of the stock market…so how did active management fare versus the indexes during this brutal market?  The results might surprise you.  Click here to view article

"The Target 401(k) Plan: A Results-Based Model" Journal of Pension Benefits, Autumn 2006. In order to accentuate the positive attributes of our 401(k) system, yet improve on its shortcomings by incorporating elements of traditional pension plans, we present a results-oriented plan design referred to as the Target 401(k) Plan. A results-based approach will better assist our nation's workforce in achieving adequate retirement security. Click here to view article

"Report on Wisconsin Act 264, The Uniform Prudent Investors Act" On April 15, 2004, Governor Doyle signed into law a bill that sets general standards for fiduciaries and allows them greater flexibility when choosing investments. This bill, known as the Uniform Prudent Investor Act, mandates that individuals responsible for trust accounts will be judged on the basis of the performance of the total portfolio, allows them to delegate investment decisions, and requires them to consider the tax consequences of investment decisions.  Click here to view report

The following are a collection of some of our favorite quotes that we like to call "Words to Live (Invest) By":

• "The first rule of making money is not to lose money. And the second rule is to remember the first rule."-Warren Buffet

• "The key to investing is not to do anything genuinely brilliant and to avoid doing something really stupid."-Stein/Demuth
• "In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine."-Benjamin Graham
• "For all long-term investors, there is only one objective-maximum total real return after taxes."-John Templeton
• "Investment performance is determined more by investor action than investment returns."-Nick Murray
• Wall Street likes to sell stocks based on a statistic that says if you had missed the best 90 days in the market from 1963 to 1993; your investment performance would have dropped from 11.8% to 3.3%. However, if you had missed the worst 90 days in the market over the same period, your returns would have increased to 23.6%.
• "The past never repeats itself precisely; otherwise, historians would be rolling in riches."-James Gipson, Clipper Fund
• "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."-Albert Einstein
• "There's no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can't do any business from there."-Colonel Sanders