Approach

There’s a stark difference between what I call “retail” financial planning and “academic” financial planning.

Retail financial planning is heavily advertised and is what we’re bombarded with on a daily basis, i.e.: “top ten stocks to buy now”, annuities, etc.  In the words of Nobel Prize winning economist Bill Sharpe, this has resulted in “[a]n absolutely abhorrent amount of money being transferred from ordinary individuals trying to save…to the financial industry…for which they are getting nothing.”*

Twenty years ago, I started reading the advice that comes from academia. It’s no surprise that those who study finance for a living give better and markedly different advice than those selling products for a living. 

I started Atlantic to provide financial solutions grounded in academic research. I create a clear financial path by drawing on my experience as a financial planner, researcher, and financial planning software developer. The latter has helped me gain a deep technical understanding of how a financial plan should be optimally integrated. I’ve been accepted as a Real Fiduciary™, by the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard and maintain those high standards throughout the planning process.

* _{MIT series "In Pursuit of the Perfect Portfolio", Youtube video, 33:44, May 26, 2016}

There are generally two investment approaches:

01 | Active Investing

Entails hiring an investment firm or mutual fund to find undervalued securities that have been missed by other investors. This endeavor is costly and seldom works.

02 | Passive Investing

Accepts that financial markets efficiently incorporate all available information into security prices. This is often referred to as the efficient market hypothesis.