Response to New York Times Article Comparing DFA and Vanguard Stock Mutual Funds
A recent New York Times article profiled Dimensional Fund Advisors and its role as shareholder activists. DFA was ranked No. 1 in shareholder activism by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in June 2011. The article compared...
Deciding Between Individual Bonds and Bond Funds
We use both individual bonds and bond funds for our clients. It can be confusing why one strategy for buying bonds is preferable to another, but in reality the reasoning is fairly straightforward: It comes down to costs, diversification and...
2012: The Year it Didn’t Happen
Author: Weston Wellington, DFA Judging by the headlines in the financial press, investors spent much of the past year anxiously awaiting one calamity after another that failed to occur. The plunge off the so-called fiscal cliff was averted. The euro...
Managing Municipal Market Credit Risk
Our process for managing credit risk in individual municipal bonds goes well beyond the credit ratings that they are assigned by credit rating agencies. While we believe these ratings have value, and they are one piece of information we consider,...
The Risks of Yield-Seeking Strategies
In the past few years, some investors have asked us whether they should replace a portion of their high-quality bonds or bond mutual fund holdings with strategies ranging from high-dividend stocks to oil and gas master limited partnerships because “rates...
High-Yield Corporate Bonds as an Asset Class
Vanguard recently announced that it would be closing its high-yield corporate fund “effective immediately” and that the fund had received “approximately $2 billion” of flows over the past six months. While growth of Vanguard’s assets under management is almost always...
Lessons From the Eurozone Debt Crisis
The Eurozone debt crisis is now in its third year, and we want to share our perspective on recent developments. It now appears more likely than ever that Greece may exit the Euro currency, and you may be wondering how...
Risk and Expected Return Are Related
A mistake that is often made is to say that risk and reward are related when it comes to investing. But if risk and return were always related, there’d be no risk. It’s risk and expected return that are actually...
A Response to the “60 Minutes” Segment on Municipal Finances
The following addresses the “60 Minutes” segment from Sunday, December 19 on the state of municipal finances. The “60 Minutes” segment did not expose any new problems in the municipal market. Rather, it highlighted some growing concerns surrounding state fiscal...
Why “Name Your Price” Insurance Can Cost You Dearly
Many people zero in on price when buying insurance. However, that strategy is only safe if you never file a claim. Tom Hopkins of The Delp Company discusses why it’s important to consider more than just the price tag of...
