Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment - David F. Swensen

The bestselling author of Pioneering Portfolio Management, the template for institutional fund management, returns with a book that shows investors how to protect their assets in the longterm. \nThe bestselling author of Pioneering Portfolio Management, the definitive template for institutional fund management, returns with a book that shows individual investors how to manage their financial assets. \nIn Unconventional Success, investment legend David F. Swensen offers incontrovertible evidence that the for-profit mutual-fund industry consistently fails the average investor. From excessive management fees to the frequent churning of portfolios, the relentless pursuit of profits by mutual-fund management companies harms individual clients. Perhaps most destructive of all are the hidden schemes that limit investor choice and reduce returns, including pay-to-play product-placement fees, stale-price trading scams, soft-dollar kickbacks, and 12b-1 distribution charges. \n \nEven if investors manage to emerge unscathed from an encounter with the profit-seeking mutual-fund industry, individuals face the likelihood of self-inflicted pain. The common practice of selling losers and buying winners (and doing both too often) damages portfolio returns and increases tax liabilities, delivering a one-two punch to investor aspirations. \n \nIn short: Nearly insurmountable hurdles confront ordinary investors. \n \nSwensen's solution? A contrarian investment alternative that promotes well-diversified, equity-oriented, market-mimicking portfolios that reward investors who exhibit the courage to stay the course. Swensen suggests implementing his nonconformist proposal with investor-friendly, not-for-profit investment companies such as Vanguard and TIAA-CREF. By avoiding actively managed funds and employing client-oriented mutual-fund managers, investors create the preconditions for investment success. \n \nBottom line? Unconventional Success provides the guidance and financial know-how for improving the personal investor's financial future.\n