We often encourage our clients to share more than just facts and figures about their own estates with heirs. More importantly, you might consider preparing something like an Ethical Will. Check out this piece from The New York Times to explore in more detail.

Thoughts from writing consultant, Clint Willis:

I started writing about investing in 1981, as a 24-year-old reporter for Money magazine—the only mainstream publication focused on personal finance in those days. Since then I’ve written or edited millions of words of financial and other writing for books, magazines, websites, newsletters…name it.

These days, I’m an owner of The Writing Company, in Portland, Maine; we create editorial content for advisors, financial service firms and media companies. My colleague, Sean Donahue, and I are working with Matt Hall on a book about his career as an evidence-based investor. I think the book is going to change lives. It’s already changed the way I invest.

Click here to read the entire story…

What do we think of active managers?

Old Answer
Those lousy, no good, overpaid, underperforming, so and so’s…

New Answer
By definition, not all active managers can beat the market before costs, and after costs, only a minority can…We absolutely need people to do research, looking for mispriced securities. The arithmetic still holds, but there is indeed a social service in finding market inefficiencies. From Nobel Laureate William Sharpe