Kurt Dupuis:
Welcome to The Whole Truth, where two wholesalers help financial professionals build great practices and thrive in a rapidly changing industry. We'll bring you the stories and voices from those on the front lines of this change, and we'll have some fun along the way.
Steve Seid:
We're building a community of financial professionals who are growing, forward thinking, and want to get better. Thanks for listening and contributing to the discussion.
Disclosure:
The views expressed herein are those of the participants and not those of Touchstone Investments. We are joined by Neil Bathon from FUSE Research, a research firm utilized by Touchstone Securities, Inc.
Steve Seid:
Welcome to The Whole Truth from the Bay Area, California. I am Steve Seid.
Kurt Dupuis:
I am Kurt Dupuis. We love a good survey. And so, our guy today, Neil. We had a great chat with Neil from FUSE Research, who does - that’s what he does for a living. He surveys and puts together trends for the asset management world.
Steve Seid:
Yeah. Neil Bathon's his name. As Kurt alluded to, he is the managing partner at FUSE Research. He's been doing that for 15 years. But as you'll hear from the interview, he had research-based businesses prior to that, that he sold off. So, he's been studying our industry for a really, really long time. We thought it would be good to have him on the show, because it's good for you all, our audience, to hear about some of the trends that are going on in the industry. That's kind of what we focused on for this particular interview is what are the trends that are actually happening, which ones are real, which ones are maybe not so real. So, what were some of your key takeaways from this one, Kurt?
Kurt Dupuis:
My biggest takeaway was probably that our industry's changed at an excruciatingly slow pace.
Steve Seid:
Slow, yeah.
Kurt Dupuis:
So despite the fact that you hear about new products, new ways to skin cats, over the long term, those things actually kind of phase out and are not as impactful as once believed.
Steve Seid:
These things that maybe you hear amplified over and over and over again that you think are these big trends that are making big waves in the industry, a lot of times actually under the surface aren't really doing that. The couple that he mentioned was ESG1, direct indexing2, the illiquid alternatives3. There's a few other ones that he actually mentioned, but rung pretty true from where I'm sitting.
Kurt Dupuis:
Yeah. We talked smart beta4 a little, the ideas of yesteryear have just not really materialized to the extent that we thought.
Steve Seid:
Yeah. I think the other thing that I took away, and it's a theme we keep coming back to, so I feel like we may be repetitive here, but differentiation. Both on the advisor side and who you guys all serve. We've talked about the importance of niche marketing. But how asset managers aren't really doing a great job of differentiating themselves right now. What's resulted is an industry that appears somewhat commoditized but actually really isn't that commoditized. It just seems like asset managers really aren't doing a great job here.
Kurt Dupuis:
Yeah, they do a poor job of marketing and communicating their value add and their differentiation. That's the same thing with financial professionals. We know those teams that are growing leaps and bounds. What's the adage that we always use though? Niches get riches. It's those teams that kind of know who they are, they know who they serve, they grow at faster paces than those that are commoditized and will take every Tom, Dick and Harry from the street. That seems to be universally true both in the asset management world, but also in the financial services, wealth management world as well.
The other takeaway that I had from this was just like product adoption is a lot slower than you might assume, if you read headlines, home office strategy adoption is also slower. Just because home offices say things are a way or they want it to be a way, doesn't mean that financial professionals are going to adopt that and actually pick up the ball and carry that forward.
Steve Seid:
Yeah, exactly right. This was a great discussion. He's a really, I think, interesting guy and fun guy to chat with. We really hope you enjoy. Without further ado, here's our conversation with Neil Bathon, from FUSE.
We are absolutely delighted to welcome Neil, from FUSE. Neil, thank you for joining us today.
Neil Bathon:
My pleasure. Thank you.
Steve Seid:
Maybe a good starting point is providing an overview of FUSE. What do you guys do? Where did the company come from?
Neil Bathon:
On the surface of it, we're kind of a relatively straightforward market research firm. We just happen to have carved out a niche serving asset management firms, and in particular, their sales and marketing and product management function. So, it's a traditional research but really tightly focused on a very narrow part of the business.
Steve Seid:
Got it. Maybe talk a little bit about the types of research you do.
Neil Bathon:
We do a lot of survey work with advisors. Basically, we're an independent source for asset management firms to hear what advisors are thinking, doing, how they're evolving. That's one of the inputs. We talk quite a bit to the gatekeepers and due diligence heads at distribution platforms, because that's obviously shaping quite a bit about how the marketplace evolves. And then, we do a lot of benchmarking work, so we can help asset management firms compare how they stack up with productivity and effectiveness, sales levels, successful product launches. So a lot of comparisons just so they can see how they stack up.
Steve Seid:
How'd you get into this?
Neil Bathon:
Like so many, I was destined to be a portfolio manager for Kemper Financial Services. I was enamored with Peter Lynch back in the day.
Steve Seid:
Yeah, good one.
Neil Bathon:
But Kemper's no longer with us, it's actually part of DWS. But I guess firms never really go away. I was in the equity research ranks, and then they asked if I would start a competitive research function. That just grew into a little team. And then I left there in '87 to start my own firm. That's how these things got growing.
Steve Seid:
Is FUSE your firm?
Neil Bathon:
There was a predecessor called FRC. That was my firm. I sold it poorly multiple times, repeating the same mistakes. It wound up being owned by Citibank, and I said, "Thank you, guys. I already know that's not probably a place for me to be for very long." And that's what they decided. Then I started-
Kurt Dupuis:
They agreed.
Neil Bathon:
They did, very quickly. And then I started this version of it in 2008.
Kurt Dupuis:
Long story short, I did international wholesaling before coming to Touchstone six years ago. And as you know, Touchstone is very much in the value add practice management space. And I was like, okay, so I'm hearing this internally, but it was FUSE Research where for the first time I saw an external kind of corroborating testimony that the number one thing financial professionals wanted from wholesalers was value add. This was like, oh, I guess this is not all smoke and mirrors. So that was my first introduction of FUSE and it was really kind of solidifying how I wanted to approach this whole role. What are the value added services that advisors tell you today have the greatest impact for them?
Neil Bathon:
They love specialists of all varieties. So if they can get someone, I mean you have a great program where you help them clean up their books. But anything that helps their practice be better, smarter, faster, better retention or bringing on new leads or prospects. So they definitely want market insights, where's the economy going, where are rates going. They definitely want that capital market insight. And a lot of times, asset managers don't always kind of match up well here. But they want technical support around charitable giving…
Steve Seid:
Mm. Hmm.
Neil Bathon:
…or maybe it's estate planning or generational transfers. And sometimes, asset managers don't match up with that because it's not a product that links it back to it, but they can really deepen relationships by stepping out a little bit and offering more insider guidance in these other areas as well.
Steve Seid:
Yeah, that certainly rings true with us. One of the reasons I would say that we were able to and continue to be able to differentiate ourselves is we help in ways that don't necessarily bring you back to a product at all. And so it's kind of interesting that you make that comment that there's still kind of a reluctance from our side of the industry to go and help with something if it doesn't directly go back to a product. That's really kind of interesting to me.
Neil Bathon:
Especially when everything we're doing these days is about creating personalized engagement. And personalized engagement can only get you so far if you're always tying it back to a product. So it has to be bigger than that.
Steve Seid:
Yeah, that's interesting.
Kurt Dupuis:
Fully agree.
Steve Seid:
So let's move a little bit into what you're seeing in terms of trends in advisor teams versus the solo practitioner. We're constantly being told and we're experiencing it that teams are the way of the future, team, team teams. What do you see in there? And then are there any learnings from the people that are still kind of staying solo?
Neil Bathon:
Whether it's a virtual forming up of a team just to kind of round out for specialty disciplined areas or it's more likely it's actually forming up officially as a team, if you work back from the client experience that you want to deliver, it's hard for a solo practitioner to be able to do that by themself. And if they can surround themselves with team members who bring in these extra disciplines or focus areas, it changes the growth trajectory for their practices dramatically.
And there is a wide range here. There are many solo practitioners that are still successful. But the survey results that we do would suggest that they tend to be a little bit older broker with an established book that maybe isn't as comfortable where they are and aren't necessarily looking to grow.
Steve Seid:
Right.
Neil Bathon:
They've got great relationships, they have a $500 million book, but the teams are seemingly much more ambitious and aggressive in terms of what they want to build for their practice.
There's a group of teams, maybe it's half, that just pick products a little bit differently. And so sometimes they have a more centralized group. So it's a different way for an asset manager to approach a team, maybe a centralized buyer as opposed to each individual advisor kind of deciding on their own. So even some of those changes have begun to come out of the data that we see.
Kurt Dupuis:
It's also surprising to me how quickly some people are okay offloading the investment management responsibilities whether that's a TAMP5 or some centralized COI6 function or a firm home office model.
Neil Bathon:
There's definitely been market environments since 2007 that I could see advisors saying, "I don't want to stake my value on investments only. And some of these wild rides have maybe shaken the confidence my clients have in me. But if I position myself as having more to bring to the relationship than just being great at picking stocks or funds.” then I think they have a safer foundation to their practice. I can see how that's impacted their decision making on that front. And certainly some of the bigger platforms are guiding their advisors pretty actively to use the home office.
Steve Seid:
You noticed that? Yeah, definitely.
Neil Bathon:
That does come through, yes.
Steve Seid:
I kind of nudge them to reject that if at all possible, but maybe that's just my bias. I'm curious your thoughts on maybe the asset management side in general. You often hear that in the investment firms, the asset management firms, they're more of a commodity nowadays where everyone has a good product. Do you see firms really differentiating themselves? Do you agree that it's kind of commoditized?
Neil Bathon:
Sure. I think asset management firms have allowed themselves to be seen as closer to being commodities because of their lack of follow through on and drawing out the differentiations that they naturally have. So they all position themselves as client centric and bottom up or top down or whatever the buzzwords are, and they use the same five or six, and they just give so little opportunity for an advisor to see where the space is between them. The firms who do it well do it really well, and it certainly pays off. But it's one of the things that's always surprised me is that the lack of effort around truly drawing out your strengths and differences to amplify those and then take advantage of them in a marketplace.
Steve Seid:
Is that a marketing missed opportunity? In other words, what I think you're saying is these differences are real, they exist, and why not just amplify them?
Neil Bathon:
It's definitely a marketing thing, although I think marketing is naturally wired to want to do this, and I think there's a lot of senior execs who didn't grow up, they maybe grew up on a different side of the business that doesn't have as much appreciation for brand and differentiation as maybe they could.
Steve Seid:
Got it.
Neil Bathon:
That was pretty well said.
Steve Seid:
Yeah.
Neil Bathon:
I won't get fired by anyone for that.
Steve Seid:
That was good. I thought you were going to come with something a lot more... You're on your best behavior today, Neil, I got to tell you.
Kurt Dupuis:
And I don’t like it. So let's shift gears a little bit and talk about some specific product types. Touchstone has registered a number of active ETFs. Baseball is often a helpful analogy here, but can you talk about where we are with that trend and adoption of active ETF space?
Neil Bathon:
I'd say if we're looking for innings, third or fourth inning. I think it's known what's going to happen, but I think there’s just a lot of firms have to work through it. I just can't imagine many firms bringing out new product going forward without using an ETF. And there's a couple areas, small cap where you have capital, I mean capacity issues, or if you're targeting 401k, those two areas are a problem. But other than that, it should be an ETF. And once American Funds broke through and went with its fully transparent versions, it kind of took away the jitters that a lot of firms were feeling that slowed them down. The other twist is whether or not this Vanguard patent where they have a share class extension on their mutual funds, that is the ETF share class.
Steve Seid:
Hmmm….
Neil Bathon:
And if that gets approved, then the flood gates get opened, I think.
Kurt Dupuis:
Alternatives, “alts”, are another big thing that's talked about in the business. Again, choose whatever an analogy is appropriate for you. But where are you seeing interest there and what sort of adoption on the portfolio level or the financial professional level, are you seeing in the alternative space?
Neil Bathon:
It's interesting. If we go back to 2008, then we had a slew of liquid alt7 products come out, and it was the perfect environment. If you were going to place liquid alts in terms of some of the protection to US portfolios, after 2008 was the time. And I think we got up to almost a 5% market share. 5% liquid alt isn't going to change the outcome of a portfolio.
Steve Seid:
Right.
Neil Bathon:
So there was a lot of education that was needed to be delivered and I think some advisors wanted to dabble in it, but it just didn't catch on. And then some of the products frankly, just didn't deliver. So that really faded.
And now this new wave is the next level up alternative, really the true illiquid products. And I know distributors have a level of anxiousness that's keeping them focused on the big brands, if you will, the Apollos and KKRs, Carlyles. But whether it's T. Rowe Price or Franklin with the acquisitions or firms like yours where you're partnering to bring firms to market, alts are coming on strong, true alts. And it's for a higher networth client obviously, but they're getting real allocations, not 2 or 3%.
Kurt Dupuis:
I'm just going to keep rapid fire kind of products type questions at you. But portfolio customization, direct indexing, we're hearing a lot of chatter about that. Any hot takes there?
Neil Bathon:
Yeah, it's mostly chatter. There's 450 billion in these products and or service overlay and what Parametric has 300 of it.
Kurt Dupuis:
Yeah.
Neil Bathon:
So I don't question that it's going to grow, but it's almost exclusively the domain of high net worth clients who have complicated tax transition things to work out. And now the plumbing that Schwabs and others have put in place to bring it down market is there, but what's the demand? What's the value that a personalized portfolio brings to the typical investor? I just don't know what the catalyst is, and I don't know that advisors see the demand either. So I think it's a long way away before a client with $200,000 investible assets starts personalizing their individual strategies.
Kurt Dupuis:
Right. I think my anecdotal observation is you hear home office folks talks about it a lot more than advisors at this point. I don't know if we've seen the widespread adoption, but we talk about home offices, they drive a lot of activity at the end of the day. So maybe it'll grow at a rate that surprises us all. But I have not seen, at the financial professional level, a ton of adoption.
Neil Bathon:
Oh, I agree. And I don't want to jump ahead, but if home offices were as effective as they think they are, sometimes an ESG would be the biggest product category of all time instead of this fledgling fading kind of subcategory.
Steve Seid:
Well, I want to dig into that in a second. But it's worth commenting on a couple of things that we just said. We talked about alternatives, which’re now picking up share, but first we mentioned illiquid alts that really didn't, direct indexing, ESG, I mean all of these things. It seems like that what I'm hearing is these trends that aren't actually trends. Is this normal that this happens or has this always been the case?
Neil Bathon:
Were you guys around for the big 130-30 trends? Do you remember those products?
Steve Seid:
No, I wasn't.
Neil Bathon:
Oh my God. Everybody came out with 130 prints, so they had leverage on one side and they went short and the other most long only shops don't know how to short, so they didn't do that side of it. But they charged 250 base points for it.
Steve Seid:
Oh my god.
Neil Bathon:
All of them are gone. They were principle protected products that blew up. We've always had stuff that's either not delivered or just never caught on. But the biggest challenge I have in my business is battling the night’s headlines because a lot of our clients will read them and then now they should do that. And I'd say there's maybe a 25% success rate for things like these things we're talking about making their way in and sticking.
Kurt Dupuis:
Yeah. When I was first coming to this business in 2010, things like smart beta or factor investing8, do you hear people talking about that now? It's like that market has gotten to be what it is and it's not nothing, but it has not taken over all of investing like a lot of people purported.
Neil Bathon:
Smart beta is exactly on mark here, in terms of it was going to dominate the investing world and it kind of hit its ceiling maybe three, four years ago. And I haven't had a question about smart beta from a client in years. So it's off the radar screen.
Steve Seid:
Well, it hasn't really worked. That's not to say it won't. And the other thing about it, just philosophically is, if everyone knows about it, is it still going to be an anomaly? That just doesn't make a lot of sense. So really interesting. Can we touch on the ESG thing?
Neil Bathon:
Yes.
Steve Seid:
I was, just personally, when the ESG was starting to come down the pike, there were some things that I think were kind of exciting about it and were kind of interesting about it. Now, it just doesn't even seem like it means anything. It's all kind of just marketing and I don't know, that's kind of how I see it. It sounds like you see it similarly, but just comment on ESG in general.
Neil Bathon:
Yeah, there's just such a lack of clarity around what ESG stands for, and then I think we began to realize it's so personal.
Steve Seid:
Yes.
Neil Bathon:
So you can't define it because the individual investor is going to do that, which opens up the direct indexing and some personalization. But asset management firms got on this trend and they were going to bring out product right and left, and then they started realizing that we need to have an alpha9 situation here and we can't prove it. So that undercut things a bit. And then regulatory bodies got involved and it winds up being, for most asset managers, something they acknowledge that they should be alert to and that they should consider as part of security selection. I just don't think there's going to be very many sustainable fund. I think impact is where this will all wind up. And if you can have a investment strategy that can deliver impact, then you're onto something.
Kurt Dupuis:
That's clearer to define too, because you can say, "This is what we are impacting."
Neil Bathon:
Yes.
Kurt Dupuis:
"This is the problem, this is our solution." There's just more of a direct line. ESG, I feel like you could go to one conference and have three different people argue for hours about what that means and defining the terms.
Neil Bathon:
We know across all these different product and service areas, ultimately, you can go to the advisor because they see it firsthand, "Are my clients asking for it? Do I think it's going to give them value or is it going to make my practice better?" And if it doesn't click on those fronts, then it's not going to have any kind of meaningful momentum built up around it.
Kurt Dupuis:
How are investment management firms using data to better engage with their clients?
Neil Bathon:
Pretty much regardless of size of firm that we work with, it could be 2 billion to 200 billion. They want to be able to show the advisors that they have some personal connectivity to them that reflects itself in how they interact and engage. We're not going to send you content we know that you don't want and we're not going to push products on you that you've indicated that you aren't going to use. Those are just superficial levels. But they really want to begin to target the content and engagement so that they're saying the right thing at the right time with the right offering. And the data is really getting good. If I was an advisor and I had an asset management firm still coming to me with just generic pieces and not reflecting that they have any sense of understanding about my practice, I probably would begin to move away from them.
Steve Seid:
When asset managers are working with you, what are they asking for? What's the ask when they engage with a company like FUSE?
Neil Bathon:
It's almost always something very specific and tactical.
Steve Seid:
Yeah.
Neil Bathon:
We want to fix something. And I've come to realize almost all of it, this doesn't help FUSE too much, but I've come to realize that our clients know what to do and it's not really hard to get the answer. Execution and implementation is where it falls down. So whether it's product launches or switching to ETFs or dechannelizing or changing compensation for wholesalers. These things are really small tactical things. They just don't do a very good job, job of implementation if there's any change involved.
Steve Seid:
What frustrates you the most about working with asset managers? If there's one point of frustration about our side of the industry, what would it be?
Neil Bathon:
The lack of appreciation for what it takes to change.
Steve Seid:
Yeah.
Neil Bathon:
It's a science and it's the biggest thing that holds firms back from actually getting to better places is they just don't know how to do it.
Steve Seid:
Yeah.
Kurt Dupuis:
Toughest thing to learn is how to unlearn.
Neil Bathon:
Yes, exactly.
Kurt Dupuis:
Sound familiar?
Neil Bathon:
Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is how we've done it. It's working. The new thing is unknown. Yeah, it's all those things.
Steve Seid:
Margins are still good.
Neil Bathon:
I've said this over the years, can you imagine if our industry had 9% margins instead of 30% margin? We'd have to be so much better, faster…
Kurt Dupuis:
Yes.
Neil Bathon:
…cleaner, smoother. So these margins help allow things to stick longer than probably they should sometimes.
Steve Seid:
Yeah, absolutely. You brought up the topic of wholesaler compensation and structures. I don't know how much you've studied that. It sounds like you have to a degree. What are the trends there? Are people doing more things like hybrid stuff or are you seeing firms actually move away from wholesalers? You hear those rumors occasionally? What are the trends you see on that front?
Neil Bathon:
I don't see anyone moving away from wholesalers. I see them saying when wholesalers are properly targeted, their sales alpha produces the return we need for them. So if anything, they're tightening them up saying, "Given the engagement, we want you to have with your tier one advisors, you can handle four or 500 of them, and that's where we want you to spend almost all your time." And they keep refining that list. But I think wholesaling has proven to be valuable to the point where those tier one advisors just don't produce for you at the same level they do if they're marketing only.
Steve Seid:
Clearly, we agree with that. But I think it's fairly obvious, honestly.
Neil Bathon:
Yeah, there's always someone new that comes in from outside the industry who wants to shake it up, and then two years later realizes-
Kurt Dupuis:
They can't attract any talent.
Neil Bathon:
... For a reason. Yeah. Yes.
Kurt Dupuis:
What about structure in that space? People move to more bonus base versus commission, anything, the structuring of compensation for wholesalers?
Neil Bathon:
Yeah, that's a big one. We get questions every week about should we switch to base and bonus? And I just keep reminding firms that they hear about it, but bonus is really metric driven, so it doesn't look that different than commission driven. So if you said, "You still have to hit your sales goal and I want you to spend 85% of your time with tier one advisors," it's not that different than saying, "I'll give you 12 basis points on all sales from tier one advisors and you hit your sales goal." So it feels different, and I know management would love to have a kind of firm overlay component come into it, but that's not how salespeople are wired, and it just doesn't serve any purpose other than keeping CEOs happy.
Kurt Dupuis:
That strikes me as the kiss of death. What about the hybrid space? Touchstone has been growing out our hybrid force. Is that consistent with industry's trends or do you see something else?
Neil Bathon:
It is. There are advisors who are perfectly content, even big book advisors who are big production for you, that just don't need four or five wholesaler visits a year. They operate in a different model. And if you can match those up with hybrids, it works perfectly well.
One of the big trends though, is it's hard to unwind, like we were saying or unlearn, but a lot of firms are starting to think about dechannelizing where they had a separate wire house or an independent RA channel. And I think the movement between those channels has been so great that they're realizing the distinctions have blended away a little bit, and why not call on someone based on whether they fit our profile of who we want to reach as opposed to where they happen to hang their hat type thing. I think some of these channels were important 10 years ago. I think they've lost much of their distinction today.
Steve Seid:
I think some of the things we've talked about in this conversation is maybe an industry that goes down the path of change, but doesn't really change all that much. If you had to put on your futuristic cap and you look 10 years from now, do you think the pace of change in this industry is going to accelerate or do you think this is kind of going to be status quo where maybe we've got something that works and this is an industry that's not going to change all that much?
Neil Bathon:
I think the change is going to be real and steady. I think, mostly as it relates to technology, improving processes and operations and saving cost, once we can make the value proposition clear to investors and to advisors if it exists, then personalization will definitely begin to change. And I don't question mutual funds and ETFs. If that's true, mutual funds and ETFs probably have less organic growth possibilities, where SMAs probably move to the forefront, in a personalized world certainly. But I think change is real and I think it's slower than I always think it's going to be. But I think it's steady and the industry will look appreciably different 10 years from now.
Steve Seid:
If you had one piece of advice for first, asset managers, so your clients, but also secondarily our audience, financial professionals, what would it be for each one of those?
Neil Bathon:
I think it's a mixture of the same two basic things for each. It's work back from the experience you want your clients to have and stand for something that's differentiated. Advisors who carve out a niche, whether it's some specialized type of investor base, they win relative to the ones who just have a general. And the same for asset managers. Everyone has something they can draw out that helps them be differentiated and find that and work back from the client to get them to experience. I think that's my advice.
Kurt Dupuis:
Can I go back to my story at the very beginning, as my final question? Has anything changed for what financial professionals are looking for from wholesalers?
Neil Bathon:
20 years ago, give me three bullet points and help me get this product pitch down so that I can call someone and get it into the portfolio. Advisors have changed so much in terms of they have become more holistic financial planners and they need their wholesaler to evolve with them. And they can't be just pushing product if they need help in other facets of their practice. So keeping up with the evolution of advisors is something that can really help asset management firms kind of stay competitive.
Steve Seid:
For everyone listening, what's the best way to engage with FUSE and your research?
Neil Bathon:
We have a website that no one's actually ever gone to, so that would be a first. But occasionally, you might see a survey that comes through with FUSE on it that's asking something specific about how you like being the products and services, the support you get from asset managers. And if you see one and you have 10 minutes, we'd be appreciative.
Steve Seid:
Huge, huge thanks to our friend Neil, from FUSE. We will be right back with our Costanza Corner. This is The Whole Truth, stick with us.
And welcome back to our Costanza Corner where we like to leave on a high note. Kurt, what do you have for us today?
Kurt Dupuis:
So one of the things that I think if I died today, my kids would probably put on my tombstone is a saying that “We can do hard things”. That's just kind of a thing I want to instill in my kids. It's a thing I want for myself, not to be scared of doing hard things. Well, I found a story of a young lady that did something very hard. She just broke the record for the fastest solo row across the Atlantic.
Steve Seid:
Wow. Okay. So I've got to wrap my head around this premise. So where is she rowing from?
Kurt Dupuis:
She left England and went down to Antigua.
Steve Seid:
Okay, so that's-
Kurt Dupuis:
East to west.
Steve Seid:
Okay.
Kurt Dupuis:
It took her 59 days, 16 hours and 36 minutes
Steve Seid:
In a rowboat. That's crazy.
Kurt Dupuis:
No, dinghy. It's a highly engineered solo rowing machine, but yes. And the girl was 23 years old.
Steve Seid:
Wow.
Kurt Dupuis:
So here's your friendly reminder, we can all do hard things.
Steve Seid:
Yeah.
Kurt Dupuis:
Although I will not be rowing across the Atlantic anytime soon.
Steve Seid:
Yeah. You know what happens when you break these records? It's like that old story of how you couldn't break the four-minute mile, and then as soon as everyone did it once-
Kurt Dupuis:
15 people did it in the next three months.
Steve Seid:
That's what you're saying. You're saying they put this on my tombstone that I do hard things, but I'm not rowing across the ocean.
Kurt Dupuis:
Well, I try to do other hard things, not this hard thing.
Steve Seid:
That's right. Fair enough. Love it.
Kurt Dupuis:
But this is your PSA to go out and do hard things because they're worth it.
Steve Seid:
Absolutely. Thanks everyone for listening, we'll see you next time.
Kurt Dupuis:
You can find The Whole Truth and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app. We'd love it if you took the time to rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. It helps others find the show. And for more episodes of The Whole Truth, go to www.touchstoneinvestments.com/thewholetruth. That's touchstoneinvestments.com/thewholetruth, all one word.
1ESG is an acronym for Environmental, Social and Governance.
2Direct indexing is buying the individual stocks that make up an index, in the same weights as the index.
3Illiquid alternative is an alternative investment that is invested in assets apart from cash, stocks or bonds that cannot be bought or sold frequently.
4Smart Beta is an investment strategy that combines elements of passive index investing with those of actively managed investing that seeks to outperform a benchmark index while retaining lower risk and lower volatility typically cited as key elements of index investing.
5TAMP is an acronym for Turnkey Asset Management Program.
6COI is an acronym for Center of Influence.
7Liquid alt is an alternative investment that is invested in assets apart from cash, stocks or bonds that can be bought or sold frequently.
8Factor investing is choosing securities based on multiple factors including macroeconomic as well as fundamental and statistical used to analyze and explain asset prices.
9Alpha is the portion of a fund’s total return that is unique to that fund and is independent of movements in the benchmark.
Disclosure:
Please note that this content was created as of the specific date indicated and reflects views as of that date. It will be kept solely for historical purposes and opinions may change without notice in reacting to shifting economic market, business and other conditions. Touchstone funds are distributed by Touchstone Securities Incorporated, a registered broker dealer and member FINRA and SIPC.
Disclosure:
This commentary is for informational purposes only and should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principle and fluctuation of value. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the fund carefully before investing. The prospectus and the summary prospectus contain this and other information about the fund. To obtain a prospectus or a summary prospectus, contact your financial professional or download and or request one at Touchstoneinvestments.com/resources. Or call Touchstone at (800) 638-8194. Please read the prospectus and or summary prospectus carefully before investing.
