• Using Active Share to Deliver Better Equity Portfolios

    Active Share is a relatively recent innovation in investment analysis and, unlike many innovations in the investment world, one that we believe enhances the investment process. We use Active Share to quantify how “active” active managers really are, what level of fees are appropriate to pay those managers, and ultimately, we believe, to recommend better portfolios for our clients.


  • Paper Cuts

    Data is everywhere. Ubiquity of data has transformed the modern investment consulting industry. The Internet and relatively inexpensive access to subscription databases mean that we swim in data, charts, and graphs. They are literally at our fingertips, conjured at whim and not requiring any sort of specialized knowledge or experience to create.



  • Five Common Mistakes 401(k) Plan Sponsors Make

    It is probably no surprise that a Google search of “investor mistakes” yields 30,500 results, while a search of “plan sponsor mistakes” yields only 53. The financial media typically focus on errors made by 401(k) plan consumers rather than those made by its architects—the plan sponsors. However, plan sponsors can encounter pitfalls similar to individual investors when it comes to designing


  • Realism in Forecasting

    Readers of our 2013 Capital Market Assumptions will note that our return expectations are in many cases lower than the expectations that our consultant peers publish. We are aware that our assumptions are different from the crowd, but we believe that our assumptions are more grounded and realistic than those published by the majority of our peers.