Recently, the entire Hill Investment Group team had the opportunity to support Rex Sinquefield, Co-Founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors and native St. Louisan, at the Inaugural Queen’s Gala in support of the World Chess Hall of Fame, which Rex brought to St. Louis in 2010. In addition to educating the world about the strategy, mental challenge, and fun of chess, Rex’s support of the Hall of Fame has helped hundreds of inner-city youth stay off the streets and stretch their mind by applying it to chess. The Queen’s Gala also sought to recognize women in chess, including Rex’s own teacher, Jennifer Shahade, two-time US Women’s Champion, author, commentator and editor on www.USChess.org. For more than 30 years, investors have benefitted from Rex’s investment work, and Rex continues to try to make the world a better place through his non-profit support.

Speaking of philanthropy, stay tuned for an upcoming story by Rick Hill about how and why people support non-profits and how Hill Investment Group can help clients create a charitable plan that reflects each family’s unique vision and values.

Whether you’re a long term client of Hill Investment Group or a new member of our family, you already know that, along with clarity and transparency, one of our key tenets is simplicity. This 2-minute article by Jim Parker, VP of Dimensional Funds, sets forth three core principles (which we adhere to) that lead to long-term investment success. Leonardo DaVinci’s words apply to investing too: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Just this week Gene Fama of the University of Chicago won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his research that fundamentally comes down to,“No one can consistently and predictably beat the market.”  Historically, investors have believed that they hired advisors to beat the market. If this can’t be done, then why would anyone pay to work with an investment advisor? It’s a great question and one that I’ve heard many times throughout my career.  In fact, I asked the same question myself before I became an advisor in 1997.

Put simply: A great investment advisor acts as “an emotional circuit breaker.” The real value of having an investment advisor that knows your goals, hopes, and dreams is that she or he can be your behavioral coach.  This is the person helping you “take the long view”.  The person that won’t let short term market gyrations disrupt a well thought out, long-term investment plan.

To learn more about “Advisor Alpha,” consider reading this April, 2013, research piece by Donald Bennyhoff and Francis Kinniry of Vanguard, one of the largest mutual fund companies in the world. Hill Investment Group holds Vanguard in high esteem for offering low-cost, tax-efficient, passive options. While Vanguard offers solid mutual funds, we are fortunate to be able to bring our clients what we feel are even better solutions (or choices).  The funds that our clients, and we ourselves, own are offered exclusively through advisors. For your information, each advisor at Hill Investment Group has an investment advisor serving their family too because we value the discipline or the advisor alpha.