Let me know if there's anything you'd like Charles or me to pursue.
Tuesday night: media reception with, it seems, some reflections by Jason Zweig and perhaps wine with Charles.
Wednesday: 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. sort of day, with storms. The whole shebang is that the Navy Pier. Requested attire is "business casual" with a recommendation that sport coats would be appropriate. (Insert "eye roll" about here. College professors don't own summer-weight sport coats because we're not in the classroom in summer. Sorry, Morningstar, schedule something during tweed season.) Meeting with Andrew Choi (Parnassus Core Equity) and Greg Stitt (Centre Global Infrastructure). Q&A / press conference sorts of things with Doug Kass, formerly of the head of "go-to-market" (??) with OpenAI, and Savita Subramanian, managing director at BoA.
Thursday. 7:00 a.m. - gettin' out of Dodge before the Rush Hour arrives day, cooler and pleasant. Breakfast with Brad Barrie of Dynamic Wealth Group, an MFO reader. Interviews with two major bond investors, Mary Ellen Stanek of Baird and Alice Rilling of AllSpring. Interviews with two Morningstar folks, Amy Arnott (author of their latest asset allocation research) and Adam Fleck of Sustainalytics (their ESG arm). Short chat with one of the founders of Boston Partners.
The shape of the conference is pretty clear. Smaller venue. Fewer managers. Fewer fund firms exhibiting (heck, not even Ariel, their long-term fave). $1200 admission for the hoi polloi. More and more panels that earn CFP continuing ed credit, more and more "how to build and manage your advisory business" ones. Not even sure that I'll see Hurricane Chuck there.
I'll keep you updated! And thanks to all the folks whose support makes it possible!
Comments
Talk to as many Mutual fund mangers as you can. They cant be happy with M* increasing focus on Advisors. I think it is only a matter of time before they pull the plug on what few tools they still support for individuals.
Couple that with the increasing consolidation in the advisory business and the entrance of PE, soon there will be few choices left. Judging from my interactions with the Schwab recommended Group, Advisors are getting rolled up into nationwide firms managing Billions in cookie cutter portfolios. We maybe left with Schwab and about 3 massive firms there, Fidelity and Vanguard.
Interestingly, the Centre Global Infrastructure reads a *lot* like my Schwab income portfolio, though it's doing better and without the 1.57 ER, so yay me.
It will stick to its own knitting - rating stuff (funds, stocks, bonds), making lots of money from its advise-platforms, managing assets in-house. Oh, and that ESG by Sustainalytics turned out to be another mistimed dud.
https://riabiz.com/a/2024/6/24/morningstars-sale-of-tamps-12-billion-book-of-business-to-assetmark-ends-two-year-run-that-fell-short-on-growth-whether-rias-stick-or-flee-will-determine-fate-of-deal
how can they justify triple the ER when solid quasi-active bond fund\etfs from vanguard do just as well on most/all long term metrics? (and have looked deeply into muni)
they have very low I-shares minimums for all bond funds, but is there any benefit for becoming a large (50k,100k,250k) fundholder?
for m* :
why do they think the new screeners are better? still missing some useful old feature, such as date of most recent analyst report.
given their long®ular history with technical problems, suggest they go very carefully into adding onerous login complexity.
Since you will be meeting with M* folks in person, please tell them how valuable this individual investor finds the OLD portfolio manger. I have been using it for years and find it much better than the new version in "Investor".
The latter does not allow importing a spreadsheet and only has ten data columns and no summary on the Watch lists.
1000% !
maybe not remind 'em its still there ?!?
!!!
Although 30 bps is not the lowest expense ratio, it is quite reasonable.
Morningstar indicates 0.30% falls within the least expensive fee quintile
in the US National Intermediate-Term Muni Bond category.
The category median expense ratio is 0.49%.
Several Baird muni funds have performed well even after considering the associated "extra costs."
BMNIX vs. VWIUX vs. MUB
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=4qwLtot4btyXIM0kQgAIqW
BMNIX vs. VWIUX vs. BSNIX vs. MUB
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=1HFhIxDHpoJLGoiYFM2fd7
BMNIX vs. VWIUX vs. BMQIX vs. MUB
https://www.portfoliovisualizer.com/backtest-portfolio?s=y&sl=5iJEIzG7j2YRfu2eB8XERf
b. the bps expense should also be seen relative to asset class [returns], not just the vanguard multiple.
c. i dont want multiple munis due to the extra state tax return effort. that means a big chunk into one.
going with baird means an extra~$1k/yr am paying in fees.
i know the baird client culture is exceptional, but that doesnt translate into some of the underlying holdings for me. and the attractive fidelity ones (e.g., select) seem not available (or need $1M+) so am leaning towards vanguard where i am ~80% consolidated. (unless i get any new info on baird or fidelity)
If it wasn't for the portfolio feature I doubt I would ever look at their site again.
I do still wonder about an ETF based on the weekly stock touts from David and Susan.
The cinnabar color scheme on evolving investors is one of the stranger things I have seen online.
Dog's breakfast coming up.
No boats and no distinguished food. Nice chat with Charles. Got to meet Jason Zweig in person (we've talked a lot but never met). Met some cool Morningstar folks ... and a couple ... uhh, nice people. Spent a lot of time in a room the size of an airship hangar, with acoustics to match. On whole, it was the oddest of the MIC's that I've attended.
Back just recently. I'll share some highlights Friday and try to flesh out a bit more in our July issue.
Take great care! David