Insights

Fourth Quarter 2015|Jim Williams| With the completion of 20 years of operations, I hope you enjoy a glimpse back at what we were (I was) thinking about 20 years ago, and how things have changed (and what has stayed the same). Our investment management process began as a careful and laborious screening and filtering and analysis of actively managed mutual funds. The screening encompassed virtually the entire mutual funds universe. At the bottom of the mutual fund analysis process was the search for Alpha, or market-beating performance. This search was driven by the desire to meet the expectations of the broadest population of the investing public, many if not most of whom expect their investment manager to “beat the market”.

Fourth Quarter 2011|Jim Williams| Since our approach is one that does not change with short-term swings in the markets and does not depend on our predicting market turns, our story is essentially a one-time story which doesn’t lend itself to a new version each quarter. Still, it’s a good thing to revisit first principles from time to time just to keep the thought process grounded.

Fourth Quarter 2010|Jim Williams| You may recall that when Congress enacted the Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the act included a requirement that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study the need for regulation of financial planners. Well, the study was just released. Most industry observers believe that the study falls short.

First Quarter 2008|Jim Williams| The Board does have a responsibility of stewardship of the marks, since the Board, as a non-profit corporation, is the legal owner of the marks. The Board seems to regularly overlook the fact that the marks have value only because of the efforts of the 55,000 certificants.

First Quarter 2007|Jim Williams| March 30, 2007 - The date that witnessed a remarkable convergence in the ethics landscape for providers of financial planning services.

Third Quarter 2004|Jim Williams| I’m sure that most readers of this newsletter know who (what) the SEC is (the Securities and Exchange Commission). I doubt that many know what (who) the FPA is (the Financial Planning Association), much less, why a three-letter association has filed suit against a three-letter government agency.