Remember when he was on the cover of many financial magazines and publications? Now, you can find him on the side of a milk carton at best.

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
TIAA, long the beloved asset manager of teachers, has kept a low profile. Buying Nuveen should change that.
I come from a family of teachers, so I was pretty familiar with TIAA-CREF before becoming a financial journalist. The $900 billion asset manager is best known for the nearly $600 billion it runs in pension and other retirement plans for academic institutions. I’ve heard more than one person say with relief that “all my money is with TIAA,” as if that were all that one needed to know.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/#q=Head+of+the+Class+Barron's

FYI: J.D. Power once again set out to answer that question with its annual “U.S. Full Service Investor Satisfaction Study.” Financial firms were ranked based on a January 2017 survey of 6,500 investors who work with financial advisers for at least some of their investments. The firms were measured on a 1,000-point scale based on how they fared in categories including financial advisers, investment performance, account information, product offerings, commissions and fees, websites and problem resolution.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/jd-power-2017-us-full-service-investor-satisfaction-study

Hi Again LewisBraham,
Indeed I did use "greedy, lazy bastards" to capture attention. Apparently it worked!
It does overstate my true feelings about many of life's duties. I proudly served in the military, and did so without any feelings of regret or sacrifice. Money matters did not enter the equation whatsoever. I believe that feeling is very common.
When I used greedy, lazy bastards, I was restricting my thoughts and words to the investment industry. It was not a universal assessment. Even within the investment business, that is not an all inclusive, accurate judgement. I have benefitted from financial professionals who sacrificed potential personal financial gain to better serve their clients. That was not always the case. Thankfully, a full spectrum of behaviors and motivational priorities exist.
Women sacrifice for their kids all the time. We all set different priorities, and these priorities are not necessarily constant over time. Good for us.
Thanks for your prompt reply. I don't totally agree with the "greed is good" speech delivered in your referenced movie clip. Extreme positions are often dangerous things.
Best Wishes

"New shareholders may open Fund accounts and purchase directly from the Fund (i.e. not through a financial intermediary)."
Kind of a limited re-opening. Very limited.

MJG writes about 1792, as if Wall Street served the same function today as it did then. Some part of it does, and if Wall Street kept to that knitting, you wouldn't be seeing some of the posts here. But let's not confuse that with the last four decades of financial "innovation".
We can start with Drexel Burnham Lambert.
http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/financial-planning/junk-bond1.htm
Even the insurance industry prohibits insuring a life in which you're not related. This is called the insurable interest doctrine. But not Wall Street.
"When the British Parliament passed the Life Assurance Act in 1774, it acknowledged that the opportunity to insure a stranger would create a 'mischievous kind of gaming' that allowed one person to profit from the death of another." Just for those who like financial history going back to the 1700s.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2008/04/can_i_buy_life_insurance_on_a_stranger.html
But Wall Street in its infinite wisdom decided that trading credit default swaps that guaranteed bond payments was just fine, even if you have no interest in the income stream. CDSs as they became to be traded in the past couple of decades have no apparent use, at least in MJG's 1792 sense.
http://www.robinskaplan.com/resources/articles/credit-default-swaps-from-protection-to-speculation
See also, FT (2010): Call for ban on CDS speculation.
Rolling Stone pretty well wraped it up in one of its intro paragraphs on Bain Capital in 2012:
"Romney wants us to believe that critics of private equity are against capitalism. They’re not. They’re against a predatory system created and perpetuated by Wall Street solely to pump its own profits."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-private-equity-firms-like-bain-really-are-the-worst-of-capitalism-20120523

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1494928/000139834417004560/fp0025080_497.htm
497 1 fp0025080_497.htm
RiverPark Funds Trust
RiverPark Short Term High Yield Fund
Institutional Class (RPHIX)
Retail Class (RPHYX)
Supplement dated April 5, 2017 to the Summary Prospectus, Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information (the “Disclosure Documents”) dated January 27, 2017.
This supplement provides new and additional information beyond that contained in the Disclosure Documents and should be read in conjunction with the Disclosure Documents.
IMPORTANT NOTICE ON PURCHASE OF FUND SHARES
Effective as of the close of business on April 5, 2017 (the “Re-Opening Date”), the RiverPark Short Term High Yield Fund (the “Fund”) will be publicly available for sale on a limited basis as set forth below.
The following groups will be permitted to purchase Fund shares after the Re-Opening Date:
1. Shareholders of record of the Fund as of the Re-Opening Date (although if a shareholder closes all accounts in the Fund, additional investment in the Fund from that shareholder may not be accepted) may continue to purchase additional shares in their existing Fund accounts either directly from the Fund or through a financial intermediary and may continue to reinvest dividends or capital gains distributions from shares owned in the Fund,
2. New shareholders may open Fund accounts and purchase directly from the Fund (i.e. not through a financial intermediary), and
3.Members of the Fund’s Board of Trustees, persons affiliated with RiverPark Advisors, LLC or Cohanzick Management, LLC and their immediate families will be able to purchase shares of the Fund and establish new accounts.
The Fund may from time to time, in its sole discretion, limit the types of investors permitted to open new accounts, limit new purchases or otherwise modify the above policy at any time on a case-by-case basis.
PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR FUTURE REFERENCE.

@LewisBraham, what is the "unnecessary speculation and financial engineering" you are speaking of? Investing in stocks is speculation. What is the unnecessary part? I suppose the financial engineering is what you point to as the unnecessary? Don't disagree it exists, just wondering your point. With regulations in place (for now) doesn't wall street become beneficial to all?
I'd have to agree with MJG on this one. Wall Street is a needed function that does benefit all of us here at MFO in that it is our main investment vehicle. . MJG's pay comparison between wall street and baseball players is a good one too. But like all capitalism, without regulation it will amount to corruption benefiting just a few. Maybe it leans that way a bit now.

Funny, just two days ago I wrote the following email to my daughter (at her request):
"Here's my summary of financial planning. Or, you could read a 300 page book and get the same information with more details.
1) Have an emergency account. Ideally, it should have three months cost of living in it. At a minimum, have a couple of thousand dollars so you can fix a broken car, etc. without panic.
2) Plan a budget. Specifically, you should know your weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual spending requirements in advance for the most part. Make sure you have the money set into "buckets" for those expenses. Examples: rent, insurance, food, loan payments, vacations, etc. Also, there should be a bucket for allowances for each of you. Just because you have money left over doesn't mean that it is "allowance". Actually plan in advance how much "fun money" seems reasonable. Left-over money should go into savings for #3 or #4.
3) Save for retirement.
4) Save for a house or condo.
The easiest way to save for retirement is through a work 401k plan if they offer one. For most folks starting in their 20s, plan to save about 12% of your gross income. The company match if there is one is added on to this. If there is no company match, plan to save 15%. If you don't have access to a 401k, or if you want to save more, just open an IRA for each of you. Invest it 80% or more in the stock market (see details below). This will probably get you retired around age 60. If you save more, you can retire sooner.
The stock market is the best place for long term investing. The reason is stocks go up and down in the short run, but in the long run the market has always gone up. One easy way to invest is to just put 100% of your money into the Vanguard VTI exchange traded fund (ETF). Just add more money every month or every quarter or every year or whatever. If you want to "smooth out the bumps" some, you can get a little more complicated. Invest some of it in a fund that invests internationally instead of just the US. Some years that will be better, some years worse, but you'll get similar results with a smoother ride. An example ETF for this is VXUS. Another option is to invest some money in the bond market (usually slightly lower returns in the long run but definitely smooths the bumps). Finally, to probably increase your results in the long run, invest in small companies (fund VBR) more than large ones.
Keep in mind that the dips the stock market goes through don't really hurt you in the long run and actually help a little. If you are investing a certain amount every month (say $1000) to buy stocks, when the stock price goes down you get to buy more of them. Then when it goes back up, you gain faster than if it just went up the same amount every month.
The way to use the multiple funds is to:
- set target percentages
- each time you add money to the investments add to the ones that are trailing your targets
Example targets you could use:
40% VTI (total US stock market)
20% VXUS (international stocks)
20% VBR (small company stocks)
20% BND (total US bond market)
Saving for a house/condo is different. It should be in some pretty secure investment, like a credit union savings account or CDs, but not the stock market. You'll probably want to actually spend the money in just a few years, so you don't want to have a down stock market right when you need the money. Most folks living in a high cost-of-living area like Seattle probably spend about 30% of their gross income on housing. So for you, if you make a combined $130,000, 30% is 39,000. If you currently pay rent of $22,000 per year, save the other 17,000.
OK, where/how to open an account. I use Vanguard and Schwab for my retirement accounts and like both of them. You can open the accounts online and they both have good phone support, and Schwab has a Seattle office if you want to talk with a human being. The steps are:
- open the account (an IRA or a Roth IRA or a regular investment account)
- make an initial deposit (usually by an ACH transfer from your credit union savings or checking); this goes to a basic money market fund (kind of like a checking account)
- move the money into your chosen ETF investments
IRA and Roth IRA accounts are called "tax advantaged". The government wants people to save for retirement so they try to make it enticing. An IRA (like a 401k) lets you not pay income tax on the money you save. Instead, you pay income taxes when you take the money out 40 years from now. This is called "tax deferred".
A Roth IRA or a Roth 401k is different. You do pay income tax now on the money that you save. But when you take the money out later you do not pay any taxes then.
If the income tax rate now and 40 years from now is the same, it makes no mathematical difference which approach you use. If you expect your tax rate to be higher in the future, use the Roth approach. If you expect your tax rate to be lower in the future, use a regular IRA. Or you can do some of each to hedge your bets. Use a Roth 401k at work and a regular IRA, or a regular 401k at work and a Roth IRA.
I've got some good books if you want more details, but this is the basics."

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1444822/000119312517110128/d350531d497.htm
497 1 d350531d497.htm AQR FUNDS PROSPECTUS SUPPLEMENT
AQR FUNDS
Supplement dated April 4, 2017 (“Supplement”)
to the Class I Shares and Class N Shares Prospectus dated May 1, 2016, as amended (“Prospectus”), of the AQR Diversified Arbitrage Fund, AQR Long-Short Equity Fund, AQR Equity Market Neutral Fund, AQR Multi-Strategy Alternative Fund, AQR Style Premia Alternative Fund and AQR Style Premia Alternative LV Fund (the “Funds”)
This Supplement updates certain information contained in the Prospectus. Please review this important information carefully. You may obtain copies of the Funds’ Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information free of charge, upon request, by calling (866) 290-2688, or by writing to AQR Funds, P.O. Box 2248, Denver, CO 80201-2248.
Effective at the close of business on June 30, 2017, the AQR Long-Short Equity Fund and AQR Equity Market Neutral Fund will be closed to new investors, subject to certain exceptions as set out below under the heading “Closed Fund Policies.”
Additionally, effective April 5, 2017, the section entitled “Closed Fund Policies” beginning on page 165 of the Prospectus is hereby deleted and replaced in its entirety with the following:
Closed Fund Policies
Effective at the close of business of the below dates (each, a “Closing Date”), the following Funds (each, as of its Closing Date, a “Closed Fund”) were or will be closed to new investors, subject to certain exceptions.
Closed Fund Closing Date
AQR Diversified Arbitrage Fund June 29, 2012
AQR Multi-Strategy Alternative Fund September 30, 2013
AQR Style Premia Alternative Fund March 31, 2016
AQR Style Premia Alternative LV Fund March 31, 2016
AQR Long-Short Equity Fund June 30, 2017
AQR Equity Market Neutral Fund June 30, 2017
Existing shareholders of a Closed Fund as of the applicable Closing Date are permitted to make additional investments in that Closed Fund and reinvest dividends and capital gains after the Closing Date in any account that held shares of the Closed Fund as of the Closing Date.
Notwithstanding the closing of a Closed Fund, you may open a new account in the Closed Fund (including through an exchange from another series of the Trust (each, a “Series”)) and thereafter reinvest dividends and capital gains in the Closed Fund if you meet the Closed Fund’s eligibility requirements and are:
● A current shareholder of the applicable Closed Fund as of the Closing Date—either (a) in your own name or jointly with another or as trustee for another, or (b) as beneficial owner of shares held in another name—opening a (i) new individual account or IRA account in your own name, (ii) trust account, (iii) joint account with another party or (iv) account on behalf of an immediate family member;
1
● A qualified defined contribution retirement plan that offers the applicable Closed Fund as an investment option of the plan (or another plan sponsored by the same employer), as of the Closing Date purchasing shares on behalf of new and existing participants;
● A financial advisor, wrap-fee program or model portfolio who as of the Closing Date has included the applicable Closed Fund as part of a discretionary fee-based program or model portfolio purchasing shares on behalf of a new or existing client;
● An investor opening a new account at a financial institution and/or financial intermediary firm or a client of an investment consultant that (i) has clients currently invested in the applicable Closed Fund or clients for whom the Adviser provides advisory services implementing a similar principal investment strategy and (ii) the new account to be opened has been pre-approved by the Adviser to purchase shares of the applicable Closed Fund. Investors should contact the firm through which they invest to determine whether new accounts are permitted;
● Clients of a financial institution, financial intermediary or consultant that submitted a letter of intent to invest in the Closed Fund that was accepted by the Adviser on or prior to the Closing Date;
● A shareholder of a Fund (including a Closed Fund) or another account or fund managed by the Adviser transferring, either by exchange or redemption and subsequent purchase, into a Closed Fund with a similar principal investment strategy where the Adviser concludes, in its judgment, that the transfer will not adversely affect the applicable Closed Fund;
● A participant in a tax-exempt retirement plan of the Adviser and its affiliates and rollover accounts from those plans, as well as employees of the Adviser and its affiliates, trustees and officers of the Trust and members of their immediate families; or
● A current shareholder of the AQR Diversified Arbitrage Fund transferring, either by exchange or redemption and subsequent purchase, into AQR Multi-Strategy Alternative Fund where the Adviser concludes, in its judgment, that the transfer will not adversely affect AQR Multi-Strategy Alternative Fund.
● A current shareholder of the AQR Long-Short Equity Fund transferring, either by exchange or redemption and subsequent purchase, into the AQR Equity Market Neutral Fund where the Adviser concludes, in its judgment, that the transfer will not adversely affect the AQR Equity Market Neutral Fund.
● A current shareholder of the AQR Equity Market Neutral Fund transferring, either by exchange or redemption and subsequent purchase, into the AQR Long-Short Equity Fund where the Adviser concludes, in its judgment, that the transfer will not adversely affect the AQR Long-Short Equity Fund.
The ability to permit, limit or decline investments in accordance with the eligibility requirements set out above relating to accounts held by financial institutions and/or financial intermediaries may vary depending upon systems capabilities, applicable contractual and legal restrictions and cooperation of those institutions and/or intermediaries.
Investors may be required to demonstrate eligibility to purchase shares of a Closed Fund before an investment is accepted.
Each Closed Fund reserves the right to (i) allow investments in Closed Funds that do not fit within the eligibility requirements above pursuant to guidelines approved by the Funds’ Board of Trustees, (ii) reject any investment, including those pursuant to eligibility requirements detailed above, and (iii) close and re-open the Closed Fund to new or existing shareholders at any time.
PLEASE RETAIN THIS SUPPLEMENT FOR YOUR FUTURE REFERENCE...
2

In its ads, is Schwab effectively selling away from SWPPX and SWTSX? Why offer them if Schwab 1000 SNXFX offers "decades of advantages"? Is Schwab doing its investors a disservice? (Well, we know they're not fiduciaries.)
It's all marketing. Vanguard does the same thing. A decade ago, when Vanguard's large cap stock index was new, I suggested to my mother that she take advantage of Vanguard's (then) free financial plan review. The CFP suggested a respectable mix of Vanguard index funds - no surprise there.
But I questioned one selection - Vanguard 500 over their Large Cap Stock fund. Vanguard had made a big deal out of how it worked with MSCI to design indexes for making tracking funds more efficient. For example, adding buffer zones to reduce turnover. If you believed Vanguard (and I do believe they do a lot of work on how to best manage index funds), then this should have been the better fund, and the one to recommend. (In reality, you need a microscope to see the performance differences, and which one does better depends upon the time period selected.)
But everyone knows the S&P 500. So Vanguard 500 was recommended based on brand recognition (sellability), not on it being the best Vanguard had to offer. I'm sure Schwab has made a calculation based on how much it gets for one fund vs. another, how much it has to pay S&P for licensing fees, how much better or worse one fund will sell than another, and tilted its advertising accordingly.
BTW, if there's anything out there on how Schwab manages its index funds as contrasted with Vanguard, MSCI, Fidelity, etc., I'm interested. (For example, how much portfolio lending is done, what percentage of that income goes back into the fund, timing flexibility on trades with index reconstitutions, etc.) I haven't seen anything from Schwab, but then again, I haven't really gone looking for Schwab's methodology.
I suspect this is a bigger factor than which index Schwab is tracking ineach of its large cap blend index funds. Which brings us full circle to the title of this thread.

Hi, guys.
I think the asset allocation question is interesting. Once, a long, long time ago, I concluded that the only fund a long-term investor needed was a U.S. microcap value fund; highest possible returns, volatility be danged. (Remember Fremont US Microcap FUSMX, a favorite?)
I'm not 100% sure of that anymore. Over the past decade (at least through late last year), bonds has outperformed stocks. Over the 40 years period from 1969-2009, bonds outperformed. From the period from inception of the benchmark to the last presidential election (1994-2016), EM bonds had pretty much matched the S&P 500 and utterly buried EM stocks. You might say, "that's unfair, you've picked periods where the stock market has three of its worst crises in a century and two 'lost decades.' The bond market meanwhile had a 35 year bull market."
Mostly, I'd nod. On the other hand, you also had a period of the most amazing drivers of economic growth we've ever seen, from the rise of the internet and mass computerization to the fall of trade barriers and financial deregulation worldwide.
So, how much confidence do you have in describing the state of the markets in 2050?
I'm clueless and might well be ... ummm, "watching from the sidelines" by then.
So if I had to make a suggestion, it would be "spread your bets, stay agile, keep your costs down."
---
In that way, BBALX is rather more aggressive than most. That is, they've structured-in exposure (for example, to natural resources and emerging markets) that others might dodge. It dropped 30% in '09. Is that bad? Mostly if you think of it as designed to be "conservative" rather than "risk-conscious." Fidelity Global Balanced and Vanguard STAR, for example, both dropped noticeably more. The global balanced funds from PIMCO, T. Rowe Price (RPGAX) and Templeton weren't around, so we can't use them as benchmarks.
Do I love BBALX? Nope. I respect it as a well-designed tool. it's cheap, disciplined and less subject to manager risk than a purely active fund. Is it the right tool for your project? Don't know. But I have faith that you'll figure it out.
For what that's worth,
David

I could do without iPhones, Netflix, Chevy pickups and wide screen TVs. Grocery stores yeah I need those, but local groceries could easily exist without Wall Street. Capitalism could still exist without Wall Street. And even local banks and credit unions could lend without Wall Street. Precious little capital formation is done on the stock market today. New issuance of shares via IPOs and secondary offerings is only a minuscule fraction of the annual volume on today's stock exchanges. Wall Street is largely an entity that exists as a self-contained unit for itself today in which speculation rules. It is one highly paid trader and institutional manager trading to another or shaving a few points off the spread off some retail investing rube. It is paper trading hands without precious capital formation. And even when companies do issue new securities, of late that issuance hasn't been to grow their businesses, invest in R&D and create new wonderful products and jobs. A lot of times it's been to issue debt to buy back stock and juice earnings. Yes, Wall Street does still have a valid purpose, but that purpose has been dwarfed by a lot of unnecessary speculation and financial engineering.

Lincoln Financial/Insurance just about bought the farm along with its policyholders during the market melt. I recall that the Newton Savings and Loan that was purchased allowed this company to apply for TARP money 1 or 2 days before that window closed. The Delaware sale was part of a "pay the government monies back" program.
Hoping the economy doesn't travel any of the paths again. Lots of folks I know we very much concerned about a sinking financial ship of state.
https://www.google.com/#q=lincoln+financial+bailout&*
http://www.badfaithinsurance.org/reference/General/0715a.htm

Just unreal to my mind. I wish I knew enough about doing a deep dive on business financial sheets to see if the valuation makes sense on paper. Cool looking vehicles but ....

@Ben WP - Numerous attaboy's to you. I highly applaud your efforts. I also am in full agreement that handing them the tool without owners instructions could prove fruitless.
I started my grandson with a stake in OAKBX the day he was born roughly 6 years ago. I add to it on his birthday, at Christmas and whenever I jus think about it. At that time I tried explaining to his parents why, why that fund, etc., etc., and basically got the deer in the headlights look. It wasn't that they weren't grateful I don't think, it was probably more along the lines of them being overwhelmed by being new parents and all. I'll have another go at it soon.
They also have a relative on the other side who works for and is pushing all manner of PrimeAmerica stuff at them. They get guilted and consoled in all manner of financial matters that they don't understand and feel pressured to help the uncle out because he's MIL's brother. You know how that goes. Thankfully they've managed to glean a few things from my mumblings and haven't gone too deep with this guy.
But back to your situation. It sounds like your kids might be on top of this financial stuff since they have investments of their own. Why not just have the discussion with them with respect toward what you would like to do and see where it goes. I know I make it all sound so easy but maybe you all can agree on a plan and investment choices. Don't make it complicated, the simpler the better. Heck, even Mr. Buffett says 90% SPY + 10% bond fund and go about your life.
On the other hand they might have way too many other things that weigh on their minds on a daily basis and you might get the same reaction as I did. In that case put your hands to pencil and paper, write down your plan including why you're doing what you're doing and just get started. There will come opportunities in the future to add to your writings and hopefully they'll begin to show an interest.
Good luck.

FYI: It seems passive investing is even starting to hit the likes of the Bloomberg Terminal , which according to the Financial Times and research by Burton-Taylor International saw the number of its Bloomberg terminals drop by 3,145 in 2016, only the second time in history such a drop has been recorded. Morgan Stanley predicts that Bloomberg Terminal revenue could decline by billions over the next few years.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.valuewalk.com/2017/03/passive-investing-bloomberg-terminal/

FYI: It has always been part of financial markets, from their origins in 17th-century coffee houses to the Great Crash of 2008.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/gambling-is-a-feature-of-capitalism-not-a-bug

More on Stimulus/Credit tightening as well as hikes in interest rates:

What is so disturbing is that each extra dollar of new debt now generates just $0.17 of extra GDP in the US, down from around $0.75 in the 1960s. Much of the corporate debt built up in this cycle has been to buy back stock or pay dividends.

telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/03/26/sharpest-plunge-credit-since-financial-crisis-could-spell-disaster/

FYI: The U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority announced a new rule on Thursday that allows brokers to pause disbursements from client accounts if they suspect a client is suffering from dementia or being influenced by caregivers or scam artists.
The rule, which will go into effect in February 2018, will also require brokerages to collect the name and phone number of a "trusted contact person," which the brokerage will call if a withdrawal raises such concerns.
Regards,
Ted
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-finra-regulation-elderly-idUSKBN1712YT