Even though Thanksgiving is over (except for a few leftovers) I hope to keep being thankful for life’s many ongoing twists and turns. That’s why I keep a golf ball in my overcoat throughout the year. It may look like just an ordinary object, but it’s special to me, because it reminds me of how grateful I am to be part of Hill Investment Group.

Similar to the experiences Matt Hall shared in Odds On, I too started my financial career in a sales-oriented culture. We’ll call my first gig “Big Broker,” where we were taught how to sell financial wares via cold-calls and door-to-door canvassing. The bulk of our so-called education was on how to overcome any objections, instead of on what it takes to be a worthy advisor.

In other words, just about everything I learned at Big Broker was exactly the opposite of the Hill Investment Group culture, where we strive to center everything we do around our clients’ highest financial interests.

So, what’s that golf ball got to do with it? Back in my Big Broker days, we were shown how to use it to save our knuckles during our sales outings. If you’ve ever knocked on a lot of doors in all kinds of weather, you learn quickly how much that can hurt. On the good days, I’d end up knocking a couple hundred times, delivering my canned speech dozens of times, and generating one or two good leads. On some of my worse days, I was bitten by dogs, pooped on by birds and stung by bees.

Maybe I deserved it for pestering people in their homes, whether or not they wanted an uninvited guest.

As you might imagine, whenever I stopped to think about it (which started happening with increasing frequency!), I thought, “There’s got to be a better way to help people invest their hard-earned assets.”

Thankfully, I discovered that better way when I came across HIG in 2012. Reading through the materials they shared with me, I was immediately hooked … to the point where I was late for a dinner outing because I had to finish reading about this amazing “new” perspective. It was new to me, anyway. Then I was up early the following Saturday to read some more. I call this my “Light Bulb Moment,” which we shared in this 2015 video:

John Reagan: His Light Bulb Moment from Hill Investment Group.

Unfortunately, the Michael Lewis piece I reference in this video is out of print and no longer available. But there are plenty of other great resources published since then to take its place. Let us know if you could use some assistance in generating your own light bulb moment. I’d be happy to help, and grateful to share what else I’ve learned after I got to tuck my cold-call golf ball away for good.

At Hill Investment Group, we love to ask questions – to get to know you upon initial meeting and discover more about you as we go. But what questions should investors be asking? Here are “The 19 Questions to Ask Your Financial Advisor” (or a prospective advisor) according to Jason Zweig of The Wall Street Journal. At the highest level, these 19 questions seek to establish the rhetorical question: Are you paying your advisor to serve YOUR best interests or their own?

“The obligation of those who give investment advice to serve clients, not themselves, is called fiduciary duty. That obligation is far from universal and, in some ways, is in retreat,” says Zweig (emphasis ours).

The challenge, however, is merely asking an advisor if they are a fiduciary may not suffice. Zweig’s queries will help you differentiate fake fiduciary “talk” from a real fiduciary “walk.”

Zweig also provides the answers he feels are most appropriate, while leaving #12 (“What is your investment philosophy?”) curiously blank. We agree wholeheartedly with nearly all of his suggested responses, although there are a couple we would qualify. And of course we have quite a lot to say about that curiously blank one. Here, we’ll simply add the words of Dimensional Fund Advisors’ co-founder Rex Sinquefield, as he describes evidence-based investing: “This investment approach is easy to communicate, is verifiable, and is eminently defensible.”

This and many other great insights are found in Dimensional’s recently published “35 Quotations on a Better Way to Invest.” Want a copy of it, or would you like to know where else we differ on Zweig’s other questions (and why)? Just ask!

Oh, by the way, YES, we are a fiduciary firm – in name and practice.

St. Louis or Houston? Places To Go, People To See

We sure had fun last July, sharing some history from Houston and St. Louis. Who knew at the time that Hurricane Harvey was on its way? Today, we’d like to reinforce that we remain as proud as ever of our respective hometowns, where there are still plenty of places to go and things to do when you come visit. Of course, we hope your first stop will be at our local Hill Investment Group office, so we can join you for a personalized tour.

Foodies (Where to even begin?!)

• Houston – Etoile Cuisine et Bar, Café Annie, Tiny Boxwoods, Kiran’s, Pondi Cheri, Local Foods, Southwell’s Burgers, beef BBQ at Roegels, El Tiempo (Matt’s favorite), fajitas at Lupe Tortilla, and many, many, many more.
• St. Louis – Tony’s, Bar Les Freres, Paul Manno’s, Winslow’s Home, Claverach Farms, Truffles, Stone Soup Cottage … let’s not forget BBQ – Sugarfire, Pappys, and Vernon’s.

Outdoor Theater

• St. Louis – The St. Louis Municipal Opera (The Muny) – America’s oldest and largest outdoor theatre. The Muny turns 100 years old in 2018, while its president and CEO Dennis Reagan (our very own John Reagan’s dad!) celebrates his 50^th year as a member of the Muny team.
• Houston – The Miller Outdoor Theatre – open year-round due to Houston’s usually mild climate, our treasured venue experienced only minimal damage from Hurricane Harvey.

Parks and Recreation

• Houston – Besides the Miller Outdoor Theatre, Hermann Park is home to the Houston Zoo, several museums, a golf course and plenty of space for hiking, biking or just chilling out.
• St. Louis – Host to the 1904 World’s Fair (with several original structures still intact), Forest Park is the original “Meet me in St. Louis” venue and among the country’s largest urban parks, hosting the Muny, the Saint Louis Zoo, the Saint Louis Art Museum, and so much more.

The Green Scene

• St. Louis – St. Louis is home to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Established in 1859 as one of the nation’s oldest botanical gardens, it offers stunning public displays, as well as a world-class research library of rare botanical books and specimens.
• Houston – While at Hermann Park, you can take in the formal McGovern Centennial Gardens and an exotic Japanese Garden before skipping over to Memorial Park for a run, a round of golf and a burger at Beck’s Prime.

For the Young or Young at Heart

• Houston – What kid (or inner child) doesn’t get a large charge out of space rockets? Space Center Houston should be just the ticket for the entire family to have a blast in our fair city.
• St. Louis – The name may seem plain, but St. Louis’ City Museum was just voted #1 among Trip.Com’s 2017 Family Tribe Top Attractions. All recycled, all interactive, all imaginative – there’s nowhere else quite like it. (PS: Houston Zoo was voted #5; not too shabby either.)

Batter Up! (St. Louis and Houston)

So, we’ve already mentioned that my HIG colleagues may sometimes sit on opposite sides of the field when the Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals face off. But we thought it would be nice to wrap today’s installment by pointing out that our two favorite teams share common ground as well. Most notably, Astros’ current GM Jeff Luhnow came to the team by way of the Cardinals’ administration. And lucky for us, Luhnow is a friend and a fan of Matt Hall’s Odds On, regardless of where he calls home … not unlike all of us here at HIG!