Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment

Description

In UNCONVENTIONAL SUCCESS, investment legend David Swensen reveals why the for-profit mutual fund industry consistently fails the average investor, from its excessive management and incentive fees to the frequent 'churning' of portfolios that forces investors to pay higher taxes. Perhaps most destructive of all are flagrant schemes designed to thwart regulators and further erode portfolios, limiting investor choice and reducing returns. Swensen's solution? A 'contrarian' investment alternative that creates more diversified, equity-oriented, 'market-mimicking' portfolios that minimize loss and reward the investor with the courage to stay the course. Swensen backs up his unconventional proposal with well-documented evidence supporting not-for-profit investment management companies such as Vanguard and advice on steering clear of poorly constructed funds. Bottom line? Swensen provides the guidance and financial know-how for improving the personal investor's bottom line.

David F Swensen is Yale University's CIO and manages the university's USD7 billion dollar endowment as well as several hundreds of millions of dollars in other investment funds. He also serves as a trustee and director on various investment boards and teaches at Yale.

"Mutual fund managers and marketers are not going to like David Swensen's thoughtful and intelligently opinionated analysis of their 'colossal failure' resulting from the fund industry's 'systemic exploitation of investors.' Coming from the mind and heart of one of America's most successful and integrity-laden money managers, this is a book that will change the way you think about mutual funds. It's high time for you to follow the elegantly simple advice he presents in this wonderful book." -- John C. Bogle, founder and former CEO, The Vanguard Group "Swensen is the best. Always a pioneer, his new book presents an approach to investing that is both brilliant and practical." -- Barton Biggs, former Chief Global Strategist, Morgan Stanley "A legendary institutional investor reveals the conflicts of interest that induce most financial services companies to provide inadequate products for the individual investor. Swensen's wise solution: Low cost, tax efficient, market-mimicking funds available either through Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) or from not-for-profit mutual fund companies. Unconventional Success does for the individual investor what Swensen's Pioneering Portfolio Management did for the institutional investor." -- Burton G. Malkiel, author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street "David Swensen is one of today's best endowment managers, if not the best. Unconventional Success is a perfect summary of what is wrong with a very important industry. This book should lead the reader to better investment decisions." -- Michael F. Price, Managing Partner, MFP Investors "Unfortunately, at the bottom of our industry -- money management -- there is a rather thick layer of muck, and Swensen's Unconventional Success rakes through this muck in spectacular fashion and great detail. It is the truth, the whole truth, and the very ugly truth. If you want to avoid the snares that lurk in money management, and save yourself lots of money, you must read it." -- Jeremy Grantham, Chairman of GMO