2016 Nobel laureate Bob Dylan once sang, “he not busy being born is busy dying.” Before him, Charles Darwin expressed similar sentiments. Thankfully, Hill Investment Group remains busy “being born,” and doing so harmoniously — not in spite of but because of our emphasis on putting clients’ interests ahead of our own. The strategy recently ranked us among the highest levels of client service and attention in Charles Schwab’s annual national benchmarking study (as measured by advisor-to-client ratios). 

The way we figure it, if we stay busy like that, the growth part will follow, with our clients, strategic partners, and friends leading the charge on our behalf.  Why? They know us better than anyone. They’ve experienced working with us, getting to know what we can do and what our core values mean … not just in words but in actions. Better to hear it from them than from us. 

Most importantly, the more introductions others make for us to their friends, family and loved ones, the more time we can spend on activities aimed at making our current clients’ lives better. Retaining our small and intimate feel even as we grow? That may seem counterintuitive, but that’s how personal referrals have helped our first decade play out nicely. 

The launch of Odds On has made it even easier to introduce HIG to those you care about. If you have a family member, friend, or friend-of-a-friend who may benefit from getting to know us, we believe you will be doing them and us a huge favor by bringing us together. To send someone a complimentary copy of Odds On (book, Kindle or audio), just let us know. We’ll send it out promptly, so you can then busy yourself with other things! 

If you’re watching closely, you may notice we’ve been on an international roll lately, collaborating with like-minded evidence-based investment professionals in Benelux and appearing as recommended reading in INSEAD’s library.

Along that theme, we were thrilled to welcome Evidence-Based Investor journalist Robin Powell to our St. Louis offices during his recent U.S. tour. A true gentleman no matter where you find him, Robin is based in the U.K. but is fast becoming an international champion of positive change in the investing industry.

In a future post, we look forward to sharing an interview between Robin and Matt Hall, taped from our offices. In the meantime, you can get a taste of Robin’s style by checking out this podcast, “What’s with the name? The Evidence-Based Investor.”

On October 20, Matt learned that you’re never too old to go back to high school – when he was invited to mentor, learn from and be inspired by the Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School (MICDS) Student Investment Group.

The students were quick learners too. As covered in news of the event, 17-year-old Jacob Platin observed: “The greatest thing I learned was that the best way of investing, and going about problems in general, is to use academic and evidence-based methods that put rationality before ‘gut feelings’ and irrationally.”

Well said, Jacob! When the time comes, we’ll look forward to helping you get your own career started as an evidence-based advisor.