Friends and clients of our firm know that we’ve been singing the same evidence-based refrain for many years, so it is a pleasure to see when the major financial media joins in our song. In the Sunday, August 22nd issue of The Wall Street Journal, Jason Zweig concludes that the old-fashioned, active fund manager is dead. Anyone with that job description is best served looking for new employment.

Jason bases his piece on a recent submission by Charles Ellis to the Financial Analysts Journal, The Rise and Fall of Performance Investing (subscription required). Here’s an excerpt from the summary of Ellis’ article:

As acceptance of indexing grows, clients and managers have an opportunity to stop focusing on price discovery (which has made our markets so efficient) and refocus on values discovery, whereby investment professionals can help investors achieve good performance by structuring an appropriate, long-term investment program and staying with it.

So where will the active managers land next? Today, there are only a few hundred thousand financial advisors for tens of millions of investors. Ellis asks, “Who better to fill the insatiable demand for financial advisers than former portfolio managers who know firsthand how hard it is to beat the market?”

Click here to read Jason Zweig’s WSJ piece (subscription required).

We are big believers in carrying our philosophies through all aspects of our work, including the workspace itself. It’s important to us that when clients walk into our office, they feel the trust, attention and transparency that is at the core of our relationships—not to mention the impact it has on each of us as a day-to-day work environment.

Amie Corley of Amie Corley Interiors recently guided us through a redesign of our office space. We are more than pleased with the results and flattered to be highlighted in St. Louis Magazine’s “First View” section this month.

When we founded Hill Investment Group in 2005, our aspiration to do something unique was at the core of every decision we made. Yet, even then, we never dreamt of building the team that we have today. We recently brought the entire extended family together in St. Louis for a ninth anniversary celebration (pictured above). We found ourselves feeling overwhelmed with pride in what we’ve accomplished and excited to see what comes next…for our family and yours.