Matt Hall was quoted in a January 5th article by business reporter Jim Gallagher of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Jim discusses floating rate funds and how they perform in different market environments. As Matt notes in the article, floating rate funds aren’t a wise investment because they “fare much worse than investment-grade bond funds in bad times, but they don’t have the upside gains of the stock market in good times.”

We read in a recent InvestmentNews article that Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) is now the 8th largest mutual fund company. As they continue to grow, we’re encouraged to see that more investors are finally catching on to the idea that markets work and investing can be simple rather than complex.

Unlike most mutual fund companies, DFA has not used expensive public advertising campaigns to reach new investors. Their shareholders benefit from low-cost access to the markets that is limited through advisors only—sheltering DFA funds from the effect of rapid inflows and outflows that typical retail funds experience.

In mid-November, a few members of our team attended the largest conference of independent investment advisors and wealth managers in the country—Charles Schwab’s 2013 IMPACT conference in Washington, DC. Attending conferences like Impact is just one of the ways we stay sharp. As you know, DC is a beautiful city and an idyllic backdrop for speakers like Michael Lewis, Daniel Pink, Steve Kroft, and others who inspired us along the way. We also returned with our own renewed perspectives on our country, our peers, and our practice.