Given how fleeting a financial super-star’s fame tends to be, there’s something comforting about Warren Buffett’s staying power as the “Oracle of Omaha.” (Omaha is Buffett’s hometown and headquarters for his global holding company Berkshire Hathaway.) The straightforward wisdom he’s been sharing for more than 50 years in his annual shareholder letters helps explain the perennial appeal.

I’ve long admired his position on how to invest sensibly over the long haul. After all, he’s the guy who first said (in 1988), “our favorite holding period is forever.” But his insights on human character are always among my favorites, such as these new gems from his recently released 2016 letter.

• “1,000 monkeys would be just as likely to produce a seemingly all-wise prophet. But there would remain a difference: The lucky monkey would not find people standing in line to invest with him.”
• “Ever-present naysayers may prosper by marketing their gloomy forecasts. But heaven help them if they act on the nonsense they peddle.”
• “As Charlie [Munger] says, it’s great to have a manager with a 160 IQ – unless he thinks it’s 180.”
• “[B]ad behavior is contagious: CEOs who overtly look for ways to report high numbers tend to foster a culture in which subordinates strive to be ‘helpful’ as well.”
• “This year the magic potion may be hedge funds, next year something else. The likely result from this parade of promises is predicted in an adage: ‘When a person with money meets a person with experience, the one with experience ends up with the money and the one with money leaves with experience.'”

PS: If you haven’t caught the HBO Special, “Becoming Warren Buffett,” I recommend that too. You have to love an 86-year-old billionaire who still drives by the McDonald’s take-out window on his way to work each morning to “splurge” on an Egg McMuffin®. (Here’s the promo for it​. To watch it in full, you’ll need to be an HBO subscriber.)

At Hill Investment Group, we’re big on bringing simplicity to our clients’ financial lives, transitioning their investment world from messy to meaningful.

One way we turn our talk into action is by closely coordinating our efforts with our clients’ other specialized providers. This time of year, that’s often their CPA, as tax season goes into full swing. We pitch in by gathering all the tax documents released for all of the accounts we manage for each client – all those Form 1099s, for example – and sending them in a handy bundle to our clients’ CPA or similar tax professional.

This allows our clients to focus on what is important to them, instead of having to scramble around, hunting down the latest tax documents on their own.

Simply put, we love being a team player by pitching in on behalf of our clients.

2016 Nobel laureate Bob Dylan once sang, “he not busy being born is busy dying.” Before him, Charles Darwin expressed similar sentiments. Thankfully, Hill Investment Group remains busy “being born,” and doing so harmoniously — not in spite of but because of our emphasis on putting clients’ interests ahead of our own. The strategy recently ranked us among the highest levels of client service and attention in Charles Schwab’s annual national benchmarking study (as measured by advisor-to-client ratios). 

The way we figure it, if we stay busy like that, the growth part will follow, with our clients, strategic partners, and friends leading the charge on our behalf.  Why? They know us better than anyone. They’ve experienced working with us, getting to know what we can do and what our core values mean … not just in words but in actions. Better to hear it from them than from us. 

Most importantly, the more introductions others make for us to their friends, family and loved ones, the more time we can spend on activities aimed at making our current clients’ lives better. Retaining our small and intimate feel even as we grow? That may seem counterintuitive, but that’s how personal referrals have helped our first decade play out nicely. 

The launch of Odds On has made it even easier to introduce HIG to those you care about. If you have a family member, friend, or friend-of-a-friend who may benefit from getting to know us, we believe you will be doing them and us a huge favor by bringing us together. To send someone a complimentary copy of Odds On (book, Kindle or audio), just let us know. We’ll send it out promptly, so you can then busy yourself with other things!