We love celebrating milestones and 2015 marks the 10th anniversary of Hill Investment Group! When our firm was founded June 6th of 2005 it was based on friendship, vision and passion. Rick Hill and I met every Wednesday night and Saturday morning for a year. We would discuss building the perfect firm, one we called “the island of idealism.” We are grateful you have joined us in taking the long view and are as committed to serving you as ever.

You’ll be seeing a lot of the photo above, as it is the most recent of our growing team. Thanks to photographer Ashley Gieseking for her fine work.

Just four weeks ago, Jason Zweig of The Wall Street Journal warned investors to lower their long-term expectations of stock returns going forward. He gave one bit of advice for improving your odds of success—diversify internationally. If you’re a client of Hill Investment Group you can put a check mark next to this guidance. Unlike most investors, you’ve had significant international exposure since becoming a client. Here’s an excerpt:

After more than six years of a bull market, investors should stare a cold, hard truth straight in the face: Future returns on stocks are likely to be far slimmer than the fat gains of the past few years.

Leading investment analysts think you will be lucky to squeeze out an average return of 2% annually, after inflation and fees, from a typical portfolio of stocks and bonds over the coming decade or so.

Investment expenses will loom much larger in a world of smaller expected returns. So will avoiding big mistakes.