Simple, but Not Easy

Warren Buffet readily admits “I make many mistakes” when referencing his own investment portfolio. This begs the question, where does that leave the rest of us? We know that today's market uncertainty can surface the best and worst of our investing behaviors. For financial advisors, what are some of the behavioral pitfalls to avoid for clients? And what opportunities can you seize? We're joined by...

What are the positive client messages we can share leading into 2023? With inflation and a recession on everyone’s minds, what actions make sense to support clients? The topics we’re discussing today align with the recent release of Morningstar Investment Management’s 2023 outlook titled “the positives of investing in this environment”. In today’s episode, I’m delighted to have Marta Norton and Ph...

Direct indexing is becoming a key addition to financial advisors’ toolkits. It provides the ability to tailor an index, like removing a stock or even industry, which can bring the fun back to investing and help with after-tax outcomes. In 2022, Morningstar launched a direct indexing offering for financial advisors and joined the ‘fun’. So, what’s all the fuss about? What are the salient points you...

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Stagflation is now on the radar for financial advisors and the investors they serve. At the same time, our latest research shows that investor sentiment is plummeting. With this in mind, we are delighted to have two of our most senior researchers who will help us unpack the news headlines, where we are joined by Philip Straehl, Morningstar’s Global Head of Research for Investment Management, and T...

Investors can become confused in today’s challenging climate, and understandably so. It can be difficult for advisors and investors of all types and sizes. In this new season of Simple but Not Easy, we welcome Jonathan Linstra as your new host, along with two of Morningstar’s investment chiefs, Dan Kemp and Marta Norton, who offer straight talk to help navigate this difficult environment. They als...

Stay tuned for our 100th episode up next! We are reinvigorating the podcast going forward, seeking to equip financial advisors with ideas to remove friction and help clients achieve goals. But before we do, we'd also like to thank everyone who contributed to the first 100 episodes, delivering value for our listeners through both calm and stormy waters. To that end, in this episode we showcase the...

"The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect". Investing is therefore a matter of good behavior. So what behaviors give advisors and their investors an edge? What behaviors are destructive? In this episode, which recycles evergreen behavioral messages and cites specific studies, Sarah Newcomb, director of financial psychology at Morningstar, Inc., and Ryan Murphy, glob...

Getting personal might elicit nervousness, but why does it seem so antithetical to investing? We explore personalization and customization in financial practices: if you’re an investor, how well does your financial advisor know you? And advisors, how much time have you taken to get to know your clients? The conversation, which features Matthew Radgowski and Marta Norton as well as Head of Decision...

Good decisions are often built on good forecasts. But forecasting is hard, in part because it requires us to be aware of both what we know and what we don’t—or even can’t—know. Morningstar Investment Management Global Chief Investment Officer Dan Kemp and Global Head of Decision Sciences Ryan Murphy discuss what good forecasting looks like. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm...

We present our thoughts on the recent Berkshire Hathaway conclave. Mr. Buffett and Mr. Munger discussed their firm’s ups and downs and weighed in on such topics as their latest investment activity, inflation, cryptocurrency, and what makes their company unique. And we feature the views of Head of U.S. Equity Strategies Michael Corty and Senior Portfolio Manager John Owens, who bring years of exper...

We’ve got the same thing on our mind as the rest of the market—uncertainty. What’s going to happen? Why? When? And what should we do about it? Well, in this episode, taken from a recently recorded webinar, we do our best to address those concerns. We also hope to allay some of the associated fears. To do so, we’ll hear from Tyler Dann, our Head of Research in the Americas; Ricky Williamson, a Port...

Terry Hawkins, sales manager at Morningstar Investment Management and Paul Kaplan, research director for Morningstar Canada, discuss dollar-cost averaging, or the practice of investing slowly over time instead of in one lump sum. Research by Kaplan and others show that dollar-cost averaging might be expected to underperform a lump-sum approach. But what if it's what gets an investor into the marke...

In this episode, John Owens and Ryan Murphy talk about why price-weighted indexes like the Dow Jones Industrial Average can be distracting to investors. John, who's a senior equity portfolio manager at Morningstar Investment Management, explains why investors should disregard single-day Dow point drops, and also any short-term performance. Ryan, who's head of decision science at Morningstar Invest...

In this rebroadcast of an episode from 2021, Paul Arnold and Dan Kemp discuss how advisors can better understand why ESG is important to a client—whether it’s the expression of one’s values or something else. We also look at how advisors might think about matching each client with a portfolio that addresses their unique ESG preferences and needs. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https...

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear,” author H.P. Lovecraft once wrote. “And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Fear of the unknown is no stranger to the investment world these days. We’re living in scary times. And the investors who aren’t feeling jumpy right now tend to fall into one of two categories: those who have a plan—and those who haven’t a clu...

In this rebroadcast of an episode from 2020, we explore why advisors might change the focus of annual meetings to progress updates with Ryan Murphy, head of decision sciences at Morningstar Investment Management. And Daniel Needham, president, shares his thoughts on how to keep investors focused on the long term. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information...

Short-term worries versus long-term goals—which are guiding your investment decisions? If you’ve done your homework and you’ve given careful consideration to achieving the financial results you want, that question is easier to answer—even if it remains nerve-wracking to stay the course. Here in early 2022, we’re awash in short-term concerns once again. Between inflation, rising interest rates, and...

"[W]e can’t avoid the reality that we’re experiencing and probably will continue to experience stress, uncertainty, and change. But the question is, how do we cope?" — Sarah Newcomb Given recent market volatility, we thought it might be helpful to revisit this episode from July 13, 2020, which features two experts on investor behavior and decision-making. Sarah Newcomb, director of behavioral scie...

Rising Interest Rates. New COVID-19 variants. Inflationary pressures. Those and other factors are on the minds of investors as we head into 2022. Will the new year be one of prosperity, or is it time to fortify your defenses? The truth is that it’s nearly impossible to know. And that’s why we at Morningstar follow a mantra of, ”Don’t predict—prepare.” In this episode, we ring in 2022 with our take...

Environmental, social, and governance. More commonly called ESG, it used to be seen in many parts of the investment world as a niche specialty that was mostly about virtue—something that was nice to do. But now there’s been no question that it’s something we need to do, particularly coming out of Glasgow’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26. Nearly 500 financial-services firm...

Inflation. It's showing up in headlines and in conversations between everyone from political pundits to investment professionals and clients. It’s no different for us here at Morningstar, and most of what we’re hearing boils down to two key questions: what are our views on inflation, moving forward, and what are we doing to prepare for the potential threat of a continuing rise? In this episode, th...

China is a key talking point in the investment community today, as a regulatory crackdown has spooked markets. Chinese regulators have targeted specific sectors such as technology, education and real estate as part of a crackdown aimed at aligning the Chinese private sectors with its long-term policy agenda. In today’s episode, we will take a closer look at recent events in China and discuss both...

Changes in the corporate tax rate can have large, one-time effects on a company’s financial statements. Michael Budzinski, Senior Investment Analyst and Portfolio Manager, shares recent Morningstar Investment Management LLC research around corporate tax rate changes.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for adv...

ESG investing, which focusses on an investment’s environmental, social, and governance impact or risk, has grown immensely in recent years, attracting significant inflows. But what happens to ESG investing during a market downturn? Are ESG considerations left by the wayside as investors focus on financial market risks? Ryan Murphy, Head of Decision Sciences for Morningstar Investment Management, d...