Search found 254 matches

by BetaTracker
Tue Mar 12, 2024 1:45 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: How to find a flat fee advisor?
Replies: 16
Views: 2673

Re: How to find a flat fee advisor?

Thanks, Mike for the info. I've talked at length with Jack Zarinsky at SafeBridge and have been really impressed!
He charges a very reasonable annual flat fee and has a totally Bogleheads approach to investing and financial planning. I've really appreciated his explanations and practical way of analyzing issues such as Roth conversions, Medicare and Social Security tax planning and RMD planning. I believe he works with accounts held at Schwab, too, besides others. And as you mentioned, he does comprehensive financial planning as well as complete portfolio management in his practice.
by BetaTracker
Fri Mar 08, 2024 7:13 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Vanguard Personal Advisor & Glide Paths
Replies: 3
Views: 654

Re: Vanguard Personal Advisor & Glide Paths

Sounds like your advisor suggested not to use a glide path? Thanks for the information!
by BetaTracker
Fri Mar 08, 2024 4:38 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Vanguard Personal Advisor & Glide Paths
Replies: 3
Views: 654

Vanguard Personal Advisor & Glide Paths

Does anyone know if Vanguard's Personal Advisor robo service -- the one with a human advisor (not completely automated) -- forces you to use a glide path? Or, can you opt not to use a glide path ... and stick with whatever asset allocation was originally set until circumstances change in your life?
by BetaTracker
Wed Feb 28, 2024 9:51 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: A confident Boglehead in his 60s pondering managing a portfolio in their 80s and beyond?
Replies: 42
Views: 5532

Re: A confident Boglehead in his 60s pondering managing a portfolio in their 80s and beyond?

Thanks, niagara_guy … I looked up the National Guardianship site and found a fiduciary in my area. I really appreciate it!
Also, Vanguard’s PAS says it uses eMoney to run different financial planning scenarios such as Roth conversions and RMD strategies. For those with $5 million or more, they’ve started offering estate planning. It looks like PAS is moving into more of a full-blown financial planning platform, although Vanguard cautions their advisors won’t give outright tax recommendations or legal advice. From what I’ve seen in shopping full-service advisory firms, this seems pretty standard policy — they all have told me we’d need to consult with our CPA and/or estate lawyer for specific details about setting up trusts and filing taxes.
by BetaTracker
Sun Feb 25, 2024 4:29 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: The Three-Fund Portfolio
Replies: 3895
Views: 2424362

Re: The Three-Fund Portfolio

Now, Barron's is arguing that: "A simple mix of high-quality stocks and bonds with low fees, like, say, the iShares Core S&P 500 exchange-traded fund and the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF, each costing 0.03% a year, is enough." In a column dated Feb. 23, 2024, Barron's Jack Hough added that some developed international equity exposure through a low-cost index fund could prove helpful. Some other great pointers he provides: -- "You don’t need commodities. That’s just stuff. Stocks are better than stuff because they represent companies that turn stuff into profits." -- "You might have heard that commodities are a hedge against inflation, but I have doubts. The gold price, for example, has shown a flimsy relations...
by BetaTracker
Sun Feb 18, 2024 9:45 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Significance of Standard Deviation measurement in a portfolio
Replies: 40
Views: 2595

Re: Significance of Standard Deviation measurement in a portfolio

For us, risk is relative. Early in the accumulation phase, we were willing to take on more portfolio risk (higher stdev) in order to aim for greater expected returns. Now, we're at the point where the discussion is more about ratcheting down our portfolio's stdev level. The most cost effective and efficient way for us to do this is not to redo our stock portfolio, but to increase our allocations to bonds. We're also taking a harder look these days at measures such as duration and credit quality and considering tilting more heavily to Treasuries.
by BetaTracker
Thu Feb 15, 2024 10:08 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Caz Investments via Tony Robbins
Replies: 45
Views: 5449

Re: Caz Investments via Tony Robbins

I really enjoyed a book by a former private-equity director and current Carey Business School professor Jeffrey Hooke. It’s called “The Myth of Private Equity.” He cites data about the composition of the PE market and looks into its claim of producing better returns than the stock market, which he finds is largely fabricated. The book also cites independent academic studies that show since at least 2006, private-equity funds have actually underperformed public indexes.
by BetaTracker
Tue Feb 13, 2024 3:34 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Can you do better than BND?
Replies: 278
Views: 35055

Re: Can you do better than BND?

How about: Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fund (VBIIX). It can be tracked on Portfolio Visualizer from Jan. 1995-Jan. 2024. A starting balance of $10,000 grew to $43,599 in that time. The TBM fund would've made you $35,662. The Int-Term Index Fund had a standard deviation of 5.35%, greater than the Total Bond Market's 4.47%. The Intermediate-Term Index Fund doesn't diversify across mortgage-backed securities, like Total Bond. So, it's just U.S. corporates, Treasuries and Agencies. When I first started watching it more than 20 years ago, it was pretty evenly split between corporates and government bonds, making it a little more risky. But a few years ago, something happened and government bonds became the biggest sector. According to ...
by BetaTracker
Mon Jan 29, 2024 8:16 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Managing your affairs when you live alone and have no family or true friends
Replies: 133
Views: 21637

Re: Managing your affairs when you live alone and have no family or true friends

We found a fiduciary in our area, but she was part of a small office that we’re not sure will be around when we need someone to take care of our estate. (We’re planning way in advance.) In the end, our estate lawyer recommended a local community bank’s trust department that has been around for years. He told us that large banks and trust companies charge a lot more and are very bureaucratic. He told us that a good community bank with an established trust department is probably going to be more stable than a one-person or smaller fiduciary business. The independent fiduciary was going to charge us 1% of assets managed, but there was a lot of language in her contract giving her the ability to hire third-party experts for almost everything. Ou...
by BetaTracker
Sun Jan 21, 2024 6:07 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Roth Conversion: Sell from Taxable Account to Pay Taxes?
Replies: 19
Views: 1815

Re: Roth Conversion: Sell from Taxable Account to Pay Taxes?

Thanks so much! I'm going to ask our advisor to model at maxing out at the 24% tax bracket. I'm also going to ask how this can be considered reliable if state taxes aren't included, as well as to show me the impact on Social Security and Medicare taxes. I'll tell him we'd like to keep roughly half in tIRA and half in Roth. (I'm thinking it might also be a good idea for a CPA to look this over.)
by BetaTracker
Sun Jan 21, 2024 4:31 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Roth Conversion: Sell from Taxable Account to Pay Taxes?
Replies: 19
Views: 1815

Re: Roth Conversion: Sell from Taxable Account to Pay Taxes?

Without any Roth conversion it looks like our federal tax brackets during RMD years are estimated to be: 24% in 2024, going up to between 25-28% between ages 71-81, then spiking to 33% at age 82 and dropping to 28% from ages 83 to 93. It then drops to 15-10% in subsequent years (except for age 97 when it goes up to 28% for a year). With an aggressive Roth conversion in my remaining five working years, it looks like: 32-33% fed tax bracket through age 72; age 73-81 it would drop to 25%; ages 82-93, drops to 15%; and 94-100 drops to 10%.
by BetaTracker
Sun Jan 21, 2024 1:20 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Roth Conversion: Sell from Taxable Account to Pay Taxes?
Replies: 19
Views: 1815

Re: Roth Conversion: Sell from Taxable Account to Pay Taxes?

Thanks, Tibbitts and Livesoft ... I'll double check, hopefully I'm incorrect on not including state taxes in his tax projections. (The software he is using is RightCapital.)
My wife has a traditional IRA and Roth; I have the same thing. We both share a taxable joint account, too. Nothing else. The advisor is suggesting we take everything from both traditional IRAs and converting that money into the Roths.
by BetaTracker
Sun Jan 21, 2024 12:40 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Roth Conversion: Sell from Taxable Account to Pay Taxes?
Replies: 19
Views: 1815

Roth Conversion: Sell from Taxable Account to Pay Taxes?

We sometimes utilize an advisor through work for free who is recommending that we convert all of our traditional IRA money into our Roth IRA accounts over the next five years. The problem is that this will raise our capital gains by around four times our current amount. (I'm age 65 and plan to work until age 70, and we file as joint married). It will push us up from the 22% federal tax bracket to 32% in 2024. (His planning software only takes into account federal taxes.) The only way we could pay for this is to sell from our funds in the taxable account, which would result in 15% more in capital gains taxes. According to his estimates, the breakeven point for doing this Roth conversion would be age 85. (I assume his software accounts for th...
by BetaTracker
Mon Jan 15, 2024 2:42 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: More Evidence Against Factor Investing
Replies: 473
Views: 33804

Re: More Evidence Against Factor Investing

Another issue is that returns for factor funds like DFA's small cap value and large value funds only go back to 1993, and more varied asset classes like int'l developed SC and emerging markets SC/value have much shorter times to examine ... and I believe DFA only started using profitability in 2012, among other factors.
by BetaTracker
Mon Jan 15, 2024 2:08 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Setting up a CD ladder for the first time.
Replies: 10
Views: 1034

Re: Setting up a CD ladder for the first time.

A friend last week found out that Fidelity has a tool that automatically lets you set up a bond or CD ladder ... and, it will automatically put the proceeds of an expiring bond/CD into the appropriate ladder! It's super easy ...
by BetaTracker
Mon Jan 15, 2024 1:04 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: More Evidence Against Factor Investing
Replies: 473
Views: 33804

More Evidence Against Factor Investing

New research by three professors seems to open a major hole in factor investing's reliability in explaining expected returns. The paper is here: https://d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net/production/uploaded-files/SSRN-id3930228-0e67aefa-4206-4b03-bd99-7bb9a73d2475.pdf It showed how the returns of several big factor drivers of investment returns could vary all over the place, and be highly dependent on what timeframe one measured. Isn't that what Bogle used to argue, too? Here is the paper's intro: "The Fama-French factors are ubiquitous in empirical finance. We find that factor returns differ substantially depending on when the data were downloaded, and only a small portion of these retroactive changes is explained by revisions to the unde...
by BetaTracker
Mon Nov 27, 2023 5:58 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What Retirement Planning/Budgeting Software Are You Using
Replies: 132
Views: 23924

Re: What Retirement Planning/Budgeting Software Are You Using

Thanks for this informative post! I've been relying on eMoney and RightCapital through the advisor offered by my employer. But you've got to access the advisor to make any real changes and tinker with it much. I tried the free version of NewRetirement, and it seems to have all of the major features of the advisor-only software. The one area I've found confusing is that portfolio returns and rates of returns for other areas can only be set at conservative, moderate or aggressive -- with "aggressive" being 5%. I just didn't find the Monte Carlo projections to be flexible enough, but that's probably due to using only the free version. I would like to try some of the other suites mentioned here ... thanks again! (My ultimate goal is t...
by BetaTracker
Tue Nov 21, 2023 6:05 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Foreign Investments in Treasury Bonds Drop
Replies: 6
Views: 701

Foreign Investments in Treasury Bonds Drop

The WSJ is reporting that foreign investment in U.S. Treasury bonds has dropped to 30% of the total market, down from 43% a decade ago. It raises red flags this situation could become problematic for U.S. investors as countries like China and Japan move away from the dollar. But others dispute any notion this is an indication of long-term domestic Treasury problems. More active management fear-mongering?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... r-AA1k5cJv
by BetaTracker
Sun Nov 12, 2023 9:38 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Fidelity introducing automatic ETF investing
Replies: 158
Views: 27359

Re: Fidelity introducing automatic ETF investing

I thought a key rule to trading ETFs is to never do it in like the first hour … isn’t that when whatever big news driving markets leads to lots of speculation? You want to let things settle and do it a little later in the day, or else you can be exposed to big swings and poor execution costs. Or, do I have this wrong — is Fidelity letting you set up orders starting 30 minutes after the start of trading, but waiting to execute?
by BetaTracker
Sat Nov 11, 2023 4:10 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Schwab's Unrealized Bond Losses Widen
Replies: 50
Views: 8279

Schwab's Unrealized Bond Losses Widen

In Schwab's corporate bond portfolio, losses in the third quarter widened to more than $19 billion, according to Barron's. The article specified that these were in its portfolio of U.S. agency mortgage securities, but the bond portion in which Schwab plans to hold until maturity. Company officials pointed to a recent sell-off in bond markets and more investors moving cash in their sweep account to higher yielding money markets and CDs. The article says Schwab appears to have adequate assets so it doesn't expect to be forced to sell bonds held by its bank before maturity. They referred to the $19-plus billion gap as "paper losses" only and not of concern to investors. One comment by a reader, though, questioned why Schwab's manager...
by BetaTracker
Fri Oct 27, 2023 1:00 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help! Am I where I need to be with Raymond James
Replies: 15
Views: 3581

Re: Help! Am I where I need to be with Raymond James

Vanguard can help you with the CDs question. I would also highly recommend them, and the best thing is that since they’re not paid on commission, there’s no pressure … you can take control over your own accounts once you learn enough and feel confident. It’s pretty seamless at Vanguard to end the advisory service and do it yourself if and when you’d like. From personal experience, I wouldn’t recommend Fidelity, however. They are much more expensive and like to build very complicated portfolios with higher costing actively managed funds. I would put Schwab a bit higher on the pecking order, but Schwab is still going to charge more than Vanguard if you want to work with one of their advisors. And I haven’t found the experience and reliability...
by BetaTracker
Sat Jul 15, 2023 4:33 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: How active are Dimensional Funds?
Replies: 32
Views: 4050

Re: How active are Dimensional Funds?

This article put things into context for me ... it quotes analysts from Morningstar, Russell and even Booth from DFA: "A pioneer in factor-based fund strategies, Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), is categorized by Morningstar as dipping into active management. That's primarily due to the fact that fund managers aren't required to adhere to a computer-generated list when trading securities, according to Sotiroff. Instead, they're allowed to consider daily pricing in buying and selling stocks and bonds with similar characteristics. "On the trading and execution side of things," Sotiroff said, "they're basically doing modest rebalances day in and day out." By contrast, he pointed out that DFA applies a rules-based and p...
by BetaTracker
Thu Jul 06, 2023 1:30 am
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Help! Firing Financial Advisor and Switching to 3 Fund Portfolio
Replies: 75
Views: 8327

Re: Help! Firing Financial Advisor and Switching to 3 Fund Portfolio

I used to be in the same position as you, tied to a high-priced advisor but in much higher priced funds than you. I had to unwind everything, and they weren’t too cooperative, especially about giving us the cost basis information for each fund. Three things I’d pass along: 1.) Use simplicity to its full advantage. You know what funds you’re going to use, so the specific brokerage doesn’t really matter. Once you educate yourself, it’s fairly easy to move accounts. It’s just a matter of filling out some paperwork … that is, if you stay in the same funds. (I’d also stick to ETFs … a few years ago both Schwab and Fidelity tried to discourage investors from using Vanguard mutual funds, so they really jacked up the trading fees for using them thr...
by BetaTracker
Sun Jun 25, 2023 11:50 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: What should my financially illiterate wife do if I die?
Replies: 121
Views: 13293

Re: What should my financially illiterate wife do if I die?

We hired a (fairly) low fee, index-focused financial advisor for just this purpose. Now, however, I’m finding out these firms for the most part have to sign up a lot of different clients to make it worth their while. So, even though our advisor says he only works with about 100 different families at a time, it’s still pretty cookie-cutter. I worry about how much his firm will really provide in terms of support if I die to my wife, who is smart but uninterested in investing. My impression is that they’ll be available in a somewhat timely manner to answer basic account questions and perhaps help facilitate things with the brokerage. Perhaps they’ll also be able to answer some estate questions for her, but again my impression is that they’ll s...
by BetaTracker
Fri May 26, 2023 10:28 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: How Much of the Smallcap Effect Could Mutual Fund Investors Have Got?
Replies: 164
Views: 9527

Re: How Much of the Smallcap Effect Could Mutual Fund Investors Have Got?

Holy cow, that first chart you used as a primary example of your argument looked really inaccurate. So, I put DFA US Microcap (DFSCX) into Portfolio Visualizer against Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VSTMX) … and it showed from Jan. 1993-April 2023: —- The DFA US Microcap produced a CAGR of 10.63% vs. VTSMX with 9.63% in that period. — If you’d put $10,000 into both in 1993, the Microcap fund would’ve returned $214,279.00 while the large-cap oriented VTSMX would’ve returned $162,467.00 Such a large difference makes sense because the microcap fund had an average standard deviation of 20.44 vs. 15.34 in that nearly 30-year period. Maybe you were using a price chart, not a total returns chart that included all dividends and other distr...
by BetaTracker
Tue Apr 25, 2023 1:24 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Community Pricing for Medigap in CA?
Replies: 13
Views: 1098

Re: Community Pricing for Medigap in CA?

Thanks, Nonnie -- yes, USAA is by far the cheapest in my county ... it's almost $20 a month less than anything else! Do you know if USAA is a good company for Medicare? I guess they could raise rates a lot in the future ...???
by BetaTracker
Mon Apr 24, 2023 8:07 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Community Pricing for Medigap in CA?
Replies: 13
Views: 1098

Re: Community Pricing for Medigap in CA?

Thanks, but not sure what you mean by the community plan from UnitedHealthcare “has age discounts that disappear over time, so it it a distinction without a difference?”
Is community pricing not as good as it might seem?
by BetaTracker
Mon Apr 24, 2023 7:25 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Community Pricing for Medigap in CA?
Replies: 13
Views: 1098

Re: Community Pricing for Medigap in CA?

Nonnie -- that list looks different from the info I got from the medicare.gov site:
https://www.medicare.gov/medigap-supple ... 23&lang=en
by BetaTracker
Mon Apr 24, 2023 6:42 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Community Pricing for Medigap in CA?
Replies: 13
Views: 1098

Community Pricing for Medigap in CA?

I'm turning 65 soon and preparing to sign up for Parts A, B, G and D ... in shopping for Part G plans, though, I found one insurer in my area offering a community-based pricing plan. It's about the same monthly premium for my area as a Blue Cross part G plan I was leaning to, which is listed as attained age pricing. I called Blue Cross and asked why I shouldn't just go with the same Part G plan for about the same cost (actually, a few bucks less/month) that is community-based pricing. Her answer was that community pricing doesn't apply in California -- some sort of rules that made community-based pricing toothless in the state. I've tried to find supporting information and can't find anything. Does anyone know: Is this a bunch of bunk? (I l...
by BetaTracker
Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:29 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Are there any benefits to personalized indexing strategies over pure passive indexing?
Replies: 12
Views: 1021

Re: Are there any benefits to personalized indexing strategies over pure passive indexing?

It sounds like a great idea for Schwab -- imagine the costs of selling all of the individual stock positions if you decide to switch brokerages or tweak strategies!
by BetaTracker
Thu Mar 09, 2023 7:16 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: MUST LISTEN "Bogleheads on Investing" podcast with financial historian Edward Chancellor
Replies: 165
Views: 22878

Re: MUST LISTEN "Bogleheads on Investing" podcast with financial historian Edward Chancellor

Junior wrote:
The expected return of TIPS and treasuries is roughly the same. TIPS will do better if there is more than expected inflation and treasuries will do better if there is less than expected inflation.
Just a question: shouldn't it be "unexpected inflation"
by BetaTracker
Wed Mar 08, 2023 3:55 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: One reason to use a separate password manager than icloud Keychain
Replies: 41
Views: 5239

Re: One reason to use a separate password manager than icloud Keychain

Is there a way to totally disable iCloud Keychain? I ask because I'm using NordPass now.
by BetaTracker
Wed Feb 08, 2023 6:48 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Has Interm-Term Bond (BIV) Changed?
Replies: 6
Views: 1037

Has Interm-Term Bond (BIV) Changed?

When I've checked the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Bond Index Fund (BIV in ETF form, VBIIX in the mutual fund investors share class), it has held around an equal (50-50) split between corporates and treasuries. Granted, I really don't check much. But I just looked at Morningstar's latest report on BIV, and as of the end of January, corporates were 36.34% and government 62.82%. Does anyone know whether anything major has changed about this fund? Or, could it be something related to float adjustments? (It tracks the Bloomberg U.S. 5-10 Year Government/Credit Float Adjusted Index.) Are these types of shifts between corporates and government bonds typical with this fund?
by BetaTracker
Mon Jan 16, 2023 12:06 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Chart of previous stock market returns 1928-2022
Replies: 48
Views: 6164

Re: Chart of previous stock market returns 1928-2022

This is pretty interesting ... shows the US Total Stock Market since 1926 with recessions marked in dark green:
https://www.ifa.com/articles/recessions ... _investors
by BetaTracker
Thu Dec 22, 2022 5:39 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Best money market fund on Merrill Edge for Bank of America Preferred Rewards
Replies: 129
Views: 32161

Re: Best money market fund on Merrill Edge for Bank of America Preferred Rewards

Thank you! I found SEC form N-1A, and it looks like the MM fund I'm interested in has a fee cap arrangement with BlackRock set at 0.20%.
by BetaTracker
Thu Dec 22, 2022 4:57 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Best money market fund on Merrill Edge for Bank of America Preferred Rewards
Replies: 129
Views: 32161

Re: Best money market fund on Merrill Edge for Bank of America Preferred Rewards

How do you find expense ratios for money market funds at Merrill Edge? I'm trying to put excess cash into one of the BlackRock Liquidity MM funds, and I've called three times and gotten three different answers ranging from 0.05% to 0.48%! That's a big range. I've also tried finding the information on Merrill's site, but can't find it anywhere. Is this possible?
by BetaTracker
Sat Apr 02, 2022 12:10 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: DFA Launches 4 International Equity ETFs
Replies: 13
Views: 2465

Re: DFA Launches 4 International Equity ETFs

Dimensional Equity 1 has 25% in pure growth and Equity 2 has 21% in growth (across small, mid and large caps), according to Morningstar. Both have about 40% in blend stocks (across small, mid and large caps). So both are roughly style tilted 40%/40%/20% (value/blend/growth). The biggest difference between the two seems to be cap tilts: Dimensional Int’l Core Eqty 1 has 5% in small caps and 20% in mid caps. Int’l Eqt 2 has 13% in small and 33% in mid caps.
by BetaTracker
Mon Jan 31, 2022 7:51 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Wealthfront: Value No Longer a Reliable Factor Tilt
Replies: 29
Views: 4433

Wealthfront: Value No Longer a Reliable Factor Tilt

In looking for a robo advisor to tell my wife to use if anything happens to me, I just ran into this announcement by Wealthfront. Basically, they're saying that for their smart beta strategy (with Direct Indexing), they're going to drop value as a factor tilt. Is this more about operational efficiencies (for them) in creating and managing portfolios with hundreds of different individual stocks? Or, do you see this as a decision that's really based in sound academic research? Here's what they posted: We’ll no longer use the “value” factor in our service, as research suggests it is no longer as effective as it once was. Value is measured using a company’s book equity to market value ratio, which doesn’t account for a company’s investment in i...
by BetaTracker
Wed Jan 12, 2022 7:04 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Ultra HNW on this forum?
Replies: 223
Views: 30271

Re: Ultra HNW on this forum?

A friend of mine who owns a small business told me about an advisor who has been talking to him about investing in hedge funds and alternatives. He's currently an investor at Vanguard, and he told the advisor that index funds were working well for him. The advisor has responded by saying that once you have $10-15 million or more, it's not about saving for retirement -- it becomes a matter of leveraging your portfolio to make bigger (I.e., more significant) profits to grow your wealth. At such levels of wealth, the advisor argues that it becomes increasingly important to make impactful investments. These can only be made, he claims, by directly investing in small businesses, private properties and other alternative investments. The advisor i...
by BetaTracker
Thu Dec 30, 2021 8:51 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: Changing advisors....question [and update].
Replies: 45
Views: 2909

Re: Changing advisors....question.

A point that might be worth considering: Wealthfront has (again) hired an investment banker to try to (again) find a new owner. At least one reported deal fell apart in 2021. Since Wealthfront has its own patchwork of custodial services (i.e., where your funds are held and how they’re handled in the back office), a change in ownership could mean your assets are held at a more expensive big brokerage house (the latest effort was with a large Canadian-based bank). Wealthfront has been through several different changes to its basic business plan over the years. As recently as a few years ago, the WSJ has reported it still wasn’t a profitable business. It might be worth paying 0.30% a year for a more stable and established set of custodial serv...
by BetaTracker
Wed Dec 01, 2021 11:28 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Medigap Plan F Woes
Replies: 30
Views: 3876

Re: Medigap Plan F Woes

I know this doesn’t help you, but whew … I am so glad we read this forum before signing up my wife two years ago for Plan G! The broker we used tried to sell us on Plan F, but I told her about the warnings I’d read from Bogleheads … in the end, she couldn’t argue with the logic of steering clear of a plan that was closing. She did indicate that switching plans later wasn’t all that difficult and the underwriting wouldn’t be too bad. I don’t know how it might work in your state, but it might be worth a shot to check. You’d think there would be some way they could grandfather you into Plan G, or make it less onerous than someone new just joining up.
by BetaTracker
Sat Nov 27, 2021 11:29 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Small Cap Value heads Rejoice !!!
Replies: 5577
Views: 619068

Re: Small Cap Value heads Rejoice !!!

T. Rowe Price Small Cap Value (PRSVX):
https://www.ifa.com/articles/trowe_pric ... nce/#PRSVX
Capital Appreciation (PRWCX):
https://www.ifa.com/articles/trowe_pric ... nce/#PRWCX
These numbers don’t come close to the ones using Portfolio Visualizer (Fama/French and using same dates).
by BetaTracker
Sat Nov 27, 2021 10:26 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Small Cap Value heads Rejoice !!!
Replies: 5577
Views: 619068

Re: Small Cap Value heads Rejoice !!!

Is Portfolio Visualizer’s factor regression analysis accurate? After comparing several U.S. stock funds generated from PV, using the same dates and a basic Fama/French 3 factor analysis, the regression charts I found elsewhere had much different results. Are there just different ways to calculate t-stat and annualized alpha in doing a factor regression analysis?
by BetaTracker
Sat Oct 09, 2021 10:07 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: New Avantis ETFs
Replies: 279
Views: 54254

Re: New Avantis ETFs

FYI: checked with a knowledgeable representative of Avantis and she said their ETFs accept both cash and in-kind transfers for redemption and creation transactions. Most are in-kind, she said.
by BetaTracker
Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:12 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is There an Optimal Factor Allocation?
Replies: 71
Views: 6914

Re: Is There an Optimal Factor Allocation?

In posing this question, I want to emphasize that I agree with others here who've argued against an "optimal" allocation to small caps. Since this paper is from a fund company with a vested interest in the results, I'm also not really trying to get caught up on what they might think is "optimal" for any individual investor. I do find it very interesting, however, that they're targeting 15% for small caps in this research report. It's something I wrestle with over the years -- is 15% enough or do you really need 25%?
by BetaTracker
Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:10 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: New Avantis ETFs
Replies: 279
Views: 54254

Re: New Avantis ETFs

I copied this question and posed it in the thread "Is There an Optimal Factor Allocation?"
by BetaTracker
Thu Sep 23, 2021 11:04 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: Is There an Optimal Factor Allocation?
Replies: 71
Views: 6914

Re: Is There an Optimal Factor Allocation?

In a fairly recent paper ("Pursuing Multiple Premiums: Combination vs. Integration," Feb. 2021), DFA looks at investing in factors separately vs. taking an integrated approach. It finds that a fully integrated portfolio (with value, size and profitability applied in all cases), has the best results. This is not surprising considering it supports DFA's investment philosophy. If I'm reading it right, though, it also lists about 15% as the optimal (maybe optimal isn't the right word) allocation for small caps. I found that in Exhibit 3. Am I reading this right?
I found the paper for free through SSRN:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm ... id=3793594
by BetaTracker
Thu Sep 23, 2021 10:55 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: New Avantis ETFs
Replies: 279
Views: 54254

Re: New Avantis ETFs

In a fairly recent paper ("Pursuing Multiple Premiums: Combination vs. Integration," Feb. 2021), DFA looks at investing in factors separately vs. taking an integrated approach. It finds that a fully integrated portfolio (with value, size and profitability applied in all cases), has the best results. This is not surprising considering it supports DFA's investment philosophy. If I'm reading it right, though, it also lists about 15% as the optimal (maybe optimal isn't the right word) allocation for small caps. I found that in Exhibit 3. Am I reading this right?
I found the paper for free through SSRN:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm ... id=3793594