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Institutional Investing for Individual Investors- a blog by Douglas Cronk Print

cronk-2c5be68.jpgThe greatest advantage of ETF’s is, for the first time, to permit small investors to invest on the same conditions as large institutions. But ETF’s are only one way that individual investors can invest like institutions. Institutional Investing for Individual Investors is a blog which  Vancouver based pension fund manager Douglas Cronk  has set up to help individual investors to better manage their investments by using ETFS, but also by generally mimicking the approaches of institutional investors.

Doulas Cronk is a Vancouver based pension fund manager who has set up the type of blog we like. It is written by an investment professional who wants to pass on to retail investors some of the expertise he has accumulated. Here is free advice from someone who is NOT trying to sell you financial advice or products.

Here are some examples of what you will find:

An Individual can approximate the Institutional process for personal retirement planning, by using some of the on-line retirement income calculators. (See June 12, 2010 Blog post). All banks have one on their web site. Most calculators incorporate CPP, OAS, a company pension, RRSPs and other savings. The Individual can change assumptions, rates of return and do ‘what if’ analysis. What if more or less is saved? What if retirement is earlier or later? In the end, Individuals face the same questions that a pension plan might -– how much money must be saved and what rate of return must be earned to pay a target retirement income amount to a certain age?

  • He will introduce you to his tongue-in-cheek indicator, The Investment Seminar Index , to help you better appreciate that past-performance is no guide to future results in all markets.
  • He explains why, in the absence of objective advisor advice, individuals are better to keep their core holdings in ETF’s and only consider active management for the balance, similar to our own concept of pocket money .
  • Doug expressers   a rarely expressed in-print concern about the CFP organization (see the FPSC site for more on the CFP designation) that warrants consideration by investors when looking for disinterested financial advice:

    One of the best references’s for comprehensive financial planning is the Institute of Advanced Financial Planners. At the same link there is a ‘Value of Planning’ study available for download. Of particular interest to Investors will be the IAFP / R.F.P. planning guide.  (Note: the Registered Financial Planner (RFP) is distinct from the Certified Financial Planner (CFP). Disclosure: I gave up my CFP designation and disassociated myself from an organization that, I felt, promoted product-based advising and whose members benefited from commissions-based compensation).

  • He explains why 20 stocks is not sufficient diversification.

We recommend the site, and hope Doug will continue it for many years. Sign up to his RSS feed and follow it as new items are added.

Last Updated ( Friday, 26 October 2012 )
 
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