Author: Peter Lazaroff

Diversification is said to be the only free lunch in investing—but that’s not entirely true, because the extra fees associated with more exotic asset classes frequently offset the benefits of otherwise attractive diversifiers. Read more…

Financial advisors are quick to encourage individuals transitioning into new jobs or who are near retirement to roll their 401(k) account into an IRA. But is a rollover always your best option? While it’s a popular move, that doesn’t mean it automatically makes sense for everyone. Read more…

All too often, people make money decisions without the end in mind. In fact, the neural patterns resulting from thinking about our future self greatly resemble the neural patterns from thinking about a stranger. Read more…

Imagine The Wall Street Journal ran a contest for its subscribers in which each subscriber viewed 100 photos of various men and women. To participate in the contest, each subscriber must pick the six most attractive people. The subscriber that choses the photos voted for most often will win $1 Read more…

A version of this article originally appeared on WSJ.com. Most people don’t know how to properly evaluate their financial advisor and overly rely on performance as the sole measurement of success. This is problematic because people tend to evaluate their portfolio over very short time horizons in Read more…

Investing is a zero sum game in which individual investors frequently end up on the losing side, but that doesn’t have to be the case. I believe individual investors have significant advantages if they would only simplify the game. I’ll explain through the context of Colonel Blotto, which is a Read more…

I recently had the opportunity to return to my alma mater, DePauw University, to speak with the Management Fellows program about a career in wealth management. Next month marks my 10-year anniversary in wealth management. Read more…

People check their portfolios way too frequently, which increases their chances of seeing a loss. Losses aren’t necessarily a problem – in fact, they are a crucial part of a well-functioning market – but the emotions that losses invoke cause us to make mistakes. Read more…

When I first meet a potential client, I’m always disheartened to see the poor retirement plans offered by employers. Read more…

According to the IRS, U.S. taxpayers received $264.5 billion in total refunds in 2016. That makes the average refund total about $2,993. Read more…