Evidence-Based Investing

Evidence-Based Investing and Adviser Gray Matters

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For years, advisers like you and service providers like me have been defending evidence-based investing against the opposite of it: Active vs. passive. Alpha vs. beta. Rational vs. emotional. Scientific vs. speculative. Market timing and stock picking vs. risk factors and diversification.

Evidence-Based Investing Gray Matter
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Evidence-Based Advances

Call it what you will, ours has long been a relatively black and white conversation about “us” vs. “them.” It’s a conversation we’ve gotten good at too, as we state the case for keeping market efficiencies high, unnecessary expenses low and human emotions in check. By keeping our message loud and clear through the years, we’ve been winning over an increasing numbers of investors, fellow advisers, fund providers and even the financial press.

So, congratulations, we’re winning! That’s good news. But I believe it’s also the fuel that’s igniting a new communications challenge. Our black-and-white messages may no longer suffice. These days, expect a finer shade of gray in your conversations, with more nuanced variations on the theme of active vs. passive investing. Continue reading “Evidence-Based Investing and Adviser Gray Matters” →

Evidence-Based Investing: A Universal Passion

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As thankful as I am to be writing and editing for evidence-based investment advisers, there are days that I have wished there were more of “me” to go around — more creative types whose passion for evidence-based investing comes as much from our experience as ordinary investors as it does from being marketing sidekicks to the evidence-based adviser community. That’s one reason why I’ve especially enjoyed getting to know Robin Powell during the last few years, as he has served in roles similar to my own from his home base in the U.K.

While I’ve focused on the writing, Robin seems more comfy spreading the word in front of a camera. If I had a nifty British accent, maybe I’d feel the same way! In any case, I’m pleased to update you on Robin’s most recent adventures, including how and why he recently launched www.evidenceinvestor.com, and his own story about how he came to share our universal passion for, as he describes it, “proper investing, as opposed to speculating.” If you like what you see, give it a subscribe, and consider encouraging others to do the same … let the evidence speak! 

 

The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor:
Q&A with Robin Powell

Robin Powell, Evidence-Based Investing
Robin Powell, Evidence-Based Investing

Wendy: Why did you launch The Evidence-Based Investor?

Robin: It’s a few months now since I left Sensible Investing TV and several people have asked me what I’m doing now and where they can find my blogs and videos. In fact I’ve been busy building a new operation called Regis Media, which is a specialist content marketing consultancy for fiduciary advisors. It’s going very well but I’m still a journalist at heart, and I miss doing what I enjoyed most about Sensible Investing, in other words writing blogs and producing videos. Hence, The Evidence-Based Investor.

Continue reading “Evidence-Based Investing: A Universal Passion” →

Word Trends: Should You Actively Manage Your Evidence-Based Messaging?

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retirement-cliche
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As an evidence-based adviser, you already know better than to actively chase investment trends or pick hot stocks. But what about language trends? How actively should you pick the words you use when managing your marketing and communications?

Just as stocks and bonds go hot and cold with little rhyme or reason, so can words and phrases. If you’ve been knocking around the business block for a while, you may remember now-stale expressions such as “Total Quality Management” and “continuous improvement.” Ugh, I never did like those, even when they were popular. More recently, I’ve been hearing an abundance of business-speak about leveraging things, creating value propositions and being impactful. These too shall pass, I hope. Continue reading “Word Trends: Should You Actively Manage Your Evidence-Based Messaging?” →

Taking Twitter by #EvidenceInvesting Storm

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tweet
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Earlier this year, I launched a crusade to advance “evidence-based investing” as a replacement for “passive investing.” So many of us are chafing against the limp, ill-fitting nature of the latter term, it seemed high time to rally around something better.

What better place to rally than on Twitter? Please join me in embracing an important new hashtag handcrafted for our community: #EvidenceInvesting. Continue reading “Taking Twitter by #EvidenceInvesting Storm” →

Evidence-Based Investing, Canadian Style

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Canadian investing
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While the daily walks on my desk treadmill don’t get me far geographically, I have had the chance to become a virtual adventurer this year, collaborating with a number of Canadian advisors who share my passion for advancing evidence-based investing (formerly known as “passive”). I’ve found it fascinating to learn more about the common values we share, as well as some of our differences. For example, aside from our Canadian friends’ proclivity to pronounce “about” like it’s hiking footwear, did you know:

TERMINOLOGY

“Fee-only” vs. “Fee-based” – NAPFA controversies aside, in the U.S., we refer to advisors as “fee-only” when their sole source of compensation is client fees, with no third-party incentives. “Fee-based” generally means an advisor is receiving fees as well as other possible payments. Watch your wording in Canada! There, “fee-based” refers to advisors we think of as fee-only here in the U.S., while a Canadian “fee-only” (or “fee-for-service”) planner offers hourly financial planning and little else. Continue reading “Evidence-Based Investing, Canadian Style” →

The Opposite of Passive Investing Is … ?

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Opposite of Passive Investing
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A few months ago, I took a mighty leap and publicly renounced passive investing in my blog – at least as a term for describing the same long-held evidence-based investment strategy to which I remain a loyal adherent. Since that spring post, it’s been gratifying to see momentum continuing to build in favor of evidence-based investing:

  1. The LinkedIn group “Passive Investment Professionals” renamed itself to “Evidence-Based Advisors” and recently topped 1,000 members.
  2. In the U.K. a colleague let me know that the firm where she is marketing manager (and that is also the behind-the-scenes sponsor for the excellent Sensible Investing forum) is revamping its materials to replace “passive” with “evidence-based.”
  3. As I’ve been asking advisors across the U.S. and Canada about their preferred terminology, the term “passive” has become almost universally passé. More often than not, they’re embracing “evidence-based investing” instead.

Carpe Diem, Evidence-Based Advisors

So there you have it. Faster than the masses have been snagging iPhone 6s at their local distributors, “evidence-based investing” has begun taking the world by storm, or at least by an appreciable drizzle.

Which brings us to an unprecedented opportunity.

Continue reading “The Opposite of Passive Investing Is … ?” →

Passive Investing Is Dead … Long Live Evidence-Based Investing

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Evidence-Based Investing
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It’s official. After more than a year of hinting around, I’m ready to say it: I NO LONGER RECOMMEND PASSIVE INVESTING. Allow me to clarify. I remain 110% convinced that it remains your duty and privilege as a fiduciary advisor to help investors understand and apply the same investment principles that have long guided them past Wall Street’s freak shows, onward to their main events. But like it or not, the term, “passive investing” is no longer the best term for describing your continued calling. Henceforth, I’m recommending “evidence-based investing” as the new term for the same cause.

I say “like it or not,” because I’m sorry that the terminology has changed. I’m sorry for at least a couple of reasons. Continue reading “Passive Investing Is Dead … Long Live Evidence-Based Investing” →

A Fifteen-Year Reflection on “Passive” Investing

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Wendy on Goldwing

Congratulations to me! Today, I celebrate five and 15 years of helping passively minded, fee-only Registered Investment Advisor firms with their varied communications. It’s been 15 years since I joined Buckingham Asset Management/BAM Advisor Services as Director of Communications in January 1998. After a wonderful run there, I and my motorcycle-riding husband spun away to the open roads of Oregon, bidding a fond farewell to BAM. On January 5, 2009, exactly five years ago today, I received my own articles of organization, and Wendy J. Cook Communications, LLC became an official, tax-paying entity.

However you count it, it’s been the best ride of my life (not counting some of the ones I’ve enjoyed on the back of our Honda Goldwing, at right). To celebrate, I thought I’d share some reflections on the evolution of passive investing through the years. Even what we call what we do is evolving as I type. But that’s what makes it so much fun, right? Continue reading “A Fifteen-Year Reflection on “Passive” Investing” →