Blogs/Newsletters

Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCD) allow individuals 70 ½ or older to donate funds to a charity of their choosing directly from their IRA. This strategy can be used in place of, or to reduce, a client’s Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) for any given tax year. This direct “distribution” to a charity would result in less

At Passive Capital Management (PCM), we like to remind our clients and prospects to focus on things they can control. We can’t control the financial markets; we can’t control political policies and we can’t control the future… but we can plan for it. While we won’t bore you with a 35-page financial planning document, financial

Staying the course – A few thoughts on Asset Allocation This weekend my daughter and I headed out for an evening soccer game down in the DC metro area, it was Saturday night around 6pm. I found myself on Interstate 495 (Washington Beltway) approaching a slowdown and immediately looked to either side of me to

The investment advisor representatives at Passive Capital Management, LLC do not like to make things unnecessarily complex. When evaluating various fixed income alternatives, we believe that high-quality, short-duration, liquid bonds are the best tools to use for a variety of reasons. We believe that bonds should be used to preserve capital and dampen the overall

The investment advisor representatives at Passive Capital Management, LLC will serve as a fiduciary on your behalf and we will always provide advice that we believe to be in your best interest.

This newsletter will introduce you to the SPIVA U.S. Scorecard, Morningstar’s Active/Passive Barometer, and The S&P Persistence Scorecard.  These three (3) studies provide strong evidence that the probability of active managers consistently earning excess returns is extremely low.  We use these empirically robust third-party research reports as our basis to measure the success of active

The diversification of a portfolio is a controllable factor of investing that allows us to capture returns from various correlated and uncorrelated global asset classes. While we cannot know in advance which global asset classes will zig and zag during a given period, you must have exposure to each to capture the various returns offered

This is one of the first questions we ask investors when we begin discussing the benefits of a passive investment strategy with them.

Many investors are paying phenomenally high fees and taxes for what is really beta, or market, exposure. Alpha remains elusive in the zero-sum (before fees and taxes) game of investing. It also remains very difficult to separate the skillful investor from the lucky investor.

It remains very difficult to separate the skillful manager from the lucky manager and manager selection is a risk for which you may not be compensated.

There are important benefits to having your financial assets consolidated with one advisor, especially if that advisor does not accept commissions for simply generating activity in your account.

The primary sources of portfolio erosion include: excessive costs, market timing, tax inefficiency, and inflation.

The lag in marking-to-market the value of illiquid investments can overstate underlying values and understate the risk profile of the investment.

While some investors are inherently opposed to having any exposure to the fixed income asset class, we believe a strong case can be made that it belongs in all portfolios.

While many investors spend their time evaluating historical and prospective returns, we believe it is even more important to analyze and understand risk. We believe that the capital markets will reward investors over time if they take certain types of risk.

Rebalancing is done not necessarily to improve returns but to manage portfolio volatility and maintain a consistent level of risk throughout all phases of the market cycle. A disciplined rebalancing process will prevent emotions (fear and greed) from altering your previously established asset allocation.

Diversified real estate funds have historically been effective tools to help lower the overall risk of an equity portfolio. Over the past 30 years the DJ Wilshire REIT Index has had a similar risk/return profile as that of the S&P 500 Index with relatively low correlations to other asset classes.

Many investors spend a lot of time and money trying to predict the future movements of stocks and mutual funds or they hire people to make predictions on their behalf. Not only is this a costly strategy, it does not increase the odds of enjoying a positive investment experience.

While every bull and bear market has some unique characteristics, market cycles are an inherent aspect of investing and cycles must be endured if investors want to harness the returns that global capitalism provides over time. We will come upon additional bear markets in the future and we must plan accordingly by controlling those things

Many investors have felt the temptation to exit the stock market over the past 12 months and hold cash or cash equivalents. Switching to cash may appear to be a safe strategy but, in reality, you are actually trading one risk for other risks. I believe that risk is best managed by a prudent asset

Given what has recently occurred throughout our financial system and economy, there will undoubtedly be significant changes to many aspects of the financial services industry, including regulation, compensation, disclosure and risk assessment. What won’t change is human nature. This wasn’t the first “bursting of a bubble” and it certainly won’t be the last. Nonetheless, it

How do you know if you are paying too much in investment management fees? How do you know if your portfolio is tax-efficient and appropriately diversified? How do you know how well your portfolio is performing? You ask the right questions. Here are ten simple questions to ask the person providing you with investment management

One of the core tenets of passive investing is broad diversification and, in my opinion, this is best achieved by using asset class funds (ACFs) rather than index funds. Asset class funds aim to own every stock within a specific segment of the market such as large companies or emerging market companies. They are not

The name of our firm often causes a moment of confusion for those learning about us for the first time. We frequently hear the question “why Passive Capital Management? Wouldn’t I want active management of my precious financial resources?”

Recent days, weeks, months and even the past several years have left many equity investors feeling more than a little seasick.

Believe it or not, most investors do not earn market returns due to excessive fees, poor diversification, trying to time the market, excessive taxes or a combination of all of these. A recent study by Dalbar, Inc., a Boston-based research firm, showed that for the 20 year period between 1989 and 2008 the S&P 500

Building a tradition of family philanthropy can be fulfilling and enjoyable. Discussing and setting philanthropic priorities is one of the many ways that parents and grandparents can pass on values to children and grandchildren. The team at Passive Capital Management, LLC is pleased to introduce PCM Charitable, a service for our clients to extend our

Investor interest in dividend-paying stocks has increased substantially in recent years, in part because of the implicit stability of the companies in question, but primarily as a potential source of steady income as historically low bond yields have made income from investment-grade bonds difficult to come by. Focusing only on dividend-paying stocks limits an investor’s

One of the most important aspects of the passive investment philosophy is maintaining an appropriate asset allocation throughout all phases of the market cycle. How your assets are allocated across various investments is determined by how much risk you need to take in order to target a certain return and accomplish your goals. There are

We value our relationships and know that informed clients will be happy clients. As a result, we encourage every client to ask questions until they understand all that they care to know.

Think you or your financial professional can beat the market? What you’re really up against is the actions of millions of investors every day who have access to the very same information you have. Are you or your financial professional smarter than millions of investors? Instead of trying to outsmart the market, PCM’s strategy allows

The mass media of late has given full coverage to the benefits of using low-fee passive investment vehicles – ones that do not try to pick individual positions, but rather represent broad asset classes. The next logical step, building a passive portfolio, is a much more difficult proposition. Which asset classes to choose? Which vehicles

Looking at market returns is similar to looking at a Seurat painting. Up close (annually) it may seem chaotic and confusing, but when you take a step back (long-term), a clearer picture presents itself.