Tag Archives: fiduciary investing

401K Mutual Funds Fail Fiduciary Prudence Test

Our recent analysis of the top ten mutual funds in 401(k) plans revealed that 7 of the 10 funds failed to pass our simple fiduciary prudence test. The funds were evaluated based on their five-year performance between 2011-2015. The findings … Continue reading

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Combining the Active Management Value Ratio 2.0™ and the Active Expense Ratio – A More Meaningful Evaluation of Fiduciary Prudence

“The two variables that do the best job in predicting [a mutual fund’s] performance are expense ratios and turnover.”- Burton Malkiel, “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” Registered investment advisers and their representatives are fiduciaries. The courts have consistently held … Continue reading

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ERISA, Fiduciary Duty and the Art of Skinnydipping

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. – Warren Buffett As followers of this blog know, I normally post once a month. However, I am making an exception due to the importance of the … Continue reading

Posted in 401k, 401k compliance, 401k investments, 404c, 404c compliance, compliance, evidence based investing, fiduciary compliance, fiduciary law, investments, pension plans, retirement plans, RIA, wealth management, wealth preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cross-Examining Financial Planning’s Active vs. Passive Study

Financial Planning magazine recently ran an article on their online site purportedly to demonstrate that actively managed mutual funds provide better performance than passively managed mutual funds, such as the popular index funds. Whenever I see such claims, the securities … Continue reading

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Protecting Your Practice with the Active Management Value Ratio 2.0™

RIAs often have mock audits performed. These audits generally focus on the various regulatory requirements for RIA, including the various documents and internal procedures of an RIA. More often than not, these mock audits do not include a forensic fiduciary … Continue reading

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Avoiding ERISA’s #1 Fiduciary Liability “Gotcha”

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. – Aldous Huxley Fiduciary law is a combination of trust and agency law. The basic rule of fiduciary law is that a fiduciary must always put their customer’s/client’s best interests … Continue reading

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Investment Industry Has Some ‘Splaining to Do

“[B]rokers’ recommendations must be consistent with their customers’ “best interest.(1) “[A] central aspect of a broker-dealer’s duty of fair dealing is the suitability obligation, which generally requires a broker-dealer to make recommendations that are consistent with the best interests of … Continue reading

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Robo-Advisers: Best Deck Chairs on the Titanic?

Much has been written recently about robo-advisers, including the perceived threat to traditional investment advisers. Robo-advisers do provide an opportunity for investors to receive asset management services, investors whose assets would not meet the high minimum requirements often charged by many … Continue reading

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“Best Interests” For Fiduciaries 101

Facts do not cease to exist simply because they are ignored. – Aldous Huxley With the release of the DOL’s proposed fiduciary regulations, there has been a considerable amount of discussion about what “best interests” really means and how to … Continue reading

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Oil and Water: Fiduciaries and Variable Annuities

The financial services industry continues to try to convince investment advisers and other financial fiduciaries to sell variable annuities. Smart RIAs and other financial fiduciaries ignore these pleas, as they realize that variable annuities are liability traps for fiduciaries, blatant … Continue reading

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