John De Goey

Planning and Advice

Opinion: Financial advisors require a Hippocratic Oath

Industry interests preclude compensation changes, so advisors must take a stand and commit to doing what’s right

By John De Goey |April 18, 2024

3 min read

Regulation

Letter: Financial advisors have no recourse when they disagree with their firms

Nothing is being done to stop firms from censoring advisors, writes John De Goey

By John De Goey |March 13, 2024

2 min read

Your Business

Picking apart the idea of a stock-picker’s market

Evidence doesn’t support active management, so why do some advisors?

By John De Goey |October 2, 2023

3 min read

Your Business

Addressing advisors’ misguided beliefs

Opinion: Here are three ideas to promote evidence-based practices

By John De Goey |September 19, 2023

3 min read

Planning and Advice

Meet the Denialists

I’d like you to meet a fictional couple named Jim and Betty Denialist, two advisors with Reasonable Financial Services. Jim and Betty insist they are responsible advisors who help their clients make smart choices with their money and until recently, had always encouraged their clients to invest 100% of their money in mutual funds.

By John De Goey |October 24, 2011

1 min read

Planning and Advice

The professional way to get paid

Let’s face it, the ongoing discussion about the relative merits of differing compensation models is one of the defining issues of our generation for our industry. The four basic options include: by salary, by the hour, by assets and by commission. There’s obviously room to mix and match and to use hybrid models, as well. Any conversation about this topic requires the requisite disclaimer of ‘it’s a free country’ and ‘you can use any compensation model you want’, of course.

By John De Goey |September 15, 2011

3 min read

Planning and Advice

Tilting the three factor model

Many advisors who use Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) often struggle in explaining how DFA products differ from various other products investors might choose. One might say DFA’s approach is essentially passive but does not use conventional cap-weighted indexes like Barclay’s or Vanguard.

By John De Goey |August 19, 2011

4 min read

Planning and Advice

Selective disclosure

Although the evidence is far from conclusive or unanimous, there are many experts who believe markets are highly efficient and certainly efficient enough that it does not make sense to try to exploit whatever mispricings might still exist. For them, fundamental and technical analysis, market timing and similar methods seem nearly useless. Although it is […]

By John De Goey |January 19, 2010

4 min read

Industry

Motives behind product advice

In the ongoing debate between the good and bad of competing product lines, there are often some interesting reasons given for the product recommendations. Take the use of actively managed and passively managed products, for instance. The variations on active management are nearly endless. Meanwhile, there are three distinct paradigms for passive management: the Fama/ […]

By John De Goey |October 30, 2009

3 min read