This interview from the Journal of Indexes is more technical in nature than we would normally share with you, but these are two of the most influential figures in the academic world and their insights continue to be relevant. The following is just one of the great quotes from this recent interview: 

“It’s the noise that people don’t appreciate. They want to draw much stronger conclusions. If it weren’t for noise, 98 percent of investors would see what’s going on and buy passive strategies. ”

Click Here for the full interview (PDF)

Overview:  What is the generally accepted order by which an investor should make tax-efficient withdrawals for retirement? With a focus on asset location, this article introduces several points for investors to consider when building a prudent strategy for making withdrawals from retirement accounts.

Click Here to read more (PDF)

Are you interested in keeping your eyes on the indices?

Click here to view return information for the various asset class benchmarks (PDF)

In case you missed the recent NY Times column by Ben Stein, click the link below to get his take on what is needed to fix the economy. He asks, “Where Are the Grown-ups When You Need Them?”

Click Here

Is it efficient to spread assets across many platforms, advisors, and invesments? One of our recent articles addresses why this strategy may not increase an investor’s odds of success.

Click Here to read – The Wrong Kind of Diversification PDF

We are intentionally a small firm, but we plan to add two new exceptional people to our team in 2007. We are well leveraged and plan to continue to outsource non-core tasks to trusted service providers, focusing our attention on serving our clients.
If you have an interest in learning more about us, we invite you to read the recent nomination of Matt Hall. The piece was created by our prior firm for a local business award.

Click Here to Read the nomination (PDF)

At Hill Investment Group, we meet a lot of well-educated people with successful careers and a library of financial journals. Yet, all of their research and life experience are often for naught when it comes to investing in the stock market. Rick explains this counter-intuitive dilemma and what we can do about it. Click here to read more (PDF)

 

The year 2006 was a good one for equity investors around the world as stock prices rose in 46 of the 50 countries whose equity market returns are reported by MSCI. Among these, only Israel, Jordan, Thailand, and Turkey saw their local stock market indexes slump for the year. Total return for US stocks was 15.32% according to MSCI, placing it next-to-last among 23 developed markets (in dollar terms) and 42nd out of 50 countries in all. There were 36 markets with a total return greater than 20% (in dollar terms), and 19 had a total return greater than 40%. Nine of the top ten were emerging markets.

Overview: Following are 9 principles we’ve adopted to help us serve as a trusted advisor.

Click here to read more (PDF)

Dimensional is rarely in the news, but they are becoming harder for the national media to avoid, as passive portfolios continue to beat the competition. Click here to read the Forbes top story “The Index Insurgents”.