THE INVESTMENT THINK TANK: THEORY, STRATEGY, AND PRACTICE FOR ADVISERS

The best investment practitioners, the ones who get results, rely not just on their instincts and experience but on the insights of the trailblazers in their field—the people who interpret, challenge, and even devise the strategies and tools that shape investment management. But when you're in the trenches—serving clients and running a business—the voices at the front can have trouble getting through, and you may sometimes wonder if your methods are as current as your clients deserve.
Strategies continue to be explored, and tactics can change almost as quickly as the markets. What's the story behind Peter Bernstein's challenge to a fixed-asset-allocation mix? Did the financial-planning community take a wrong ideological turn in espousing it? What can behavioral finance tell you about serving your clients? What choices can you make to ensure tax efficiency in your clients' portfolios? Downside risk measures have come a long way since Markowitz brought them so much attention. But when's the last time you checked into your reward-to-semivariability ratios? How current is your understanding of the core-and-satellite approach to portfolio design? And how much do you know about putting one in place for your client?
To get some answers to these and other questions, financial advisers Harold Evensky and Deena B. Katz invited some of the best minds in investment management to share their best thinking. The result is a gathering of eagles that will challenge your beliefs, reinforce your convictions, pique your curiosity, and maybe even improve some of those tried-and-true practices you put in place too long ago.
So sit in on this remarkable think tank. Treat yourself to a compelling array of ideas—from the doggedly practical to the delightfully abstract—that will inform and stimulate your own thinking and reawaken the reasons you came to investment management in the first place.

Harold Evensky is chairman of Evensky & Katz, a financial-advisory firm in Coral Gables, Florida. Deena B. Katz is president. Their innovation and skill have earned them the loyalty of clients; their daring and dedication have won them the respect of their peers. Evensky is the author of Wealth Management: The Financial Advisor's Guide to Investing and Managing Client Assets; Katz is the author of Deena Katz on Practice Management and Deena Katz's Tools and Templates for Your Practice. Together they've also coedited Retirement Income Redesigned. Both are featured speakers at national and international investment-management and financial-planning conferences, and both are published widely and quoted extensively in financial journals and in newspapers.

"Like many advisers, your stack of investment journals probably keeps growing and growing. Overwhelmed, you just don't have the time to find the best articles. Harold Evensky and Deena B. Katz have done the work for you." (Research magazine, August 2005)
"The offerings here are universally engaging, to the point, and appropriately documented; many are accompanied by useful charts and checklists that support the text. For a broad cross-section of fresh and innovative thinking in the financial planning field, this is a most stimulating and thought-provoking collection." (Estate Planning, August 2005)
"All serious practitioners should take the time to read The Investment Think Tank. Harold Evensky and Deena Katz have done it again with a book covering topics important to our industry and critical to our clients' financial success."
—Charlie Haines, MBA, CFP
President and CEO, Charles D. Haines, LLC
"It's rare when pragmatism joins forces with pure science, but I expected no less from this team. Harold Evensky and Deena Katz—masters of theory and practice in financial planning—rounded up a winner's circle of investment pros. There's something here for even the most seasoned in the business. And if you're new at the game, pay close attention."
—Jessica M. Bibliowicz
President and CEO, National Financial Partners
"Individual investors today find themselves facing a growing need for sophisticated advice to help secure their family's financial well-being. Harold Evensky and Deena Katz have long been thought leaders in this important area, and their book makes an important contribution by shedding new light on many of its facets."
—Martin L. Leibowitz
Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
Coauthor, Inside the Yield Book
"Given the pressures, demands, and challenges of everyday business, financial advisers can gravitate to formulaic solutions to financial planning. The panoply of issues addressed by a host of financial professionals in The Investment Think Tank should encourage advisers to consider the pitfalls in seeking panaceas, to better understand the vast variety of issues involved with constructing a financial plan, and to appreciate the fiduciary importance of understanding an individual investor's needs, objectives, and psychological concerns in the design process. I salute Harold Evensky and Deena Katz for their continuing efforts to improve the quality of the financial planning professional's performance."
—Thomas A. James
Chairman and CEO, Raymond James Financial, Inc.
"A great read, packed with valuable information from some of the best minds in the business."
—J. Thomas Bradley, Jr.
President, TD Waterhouse Institutional Services

About the Contributors.
Part One. The Portfolio.
1. The Tax-Efficient Portfolio (Jean L. P. Brunel).
2. Death to the Policy Portfolio (William W. Jahnke).
3. A Holistic Approach to Asset Allocation (William W. Jennings and William Reichenstein).
4. Professional Portfolio Design (Harold Evensky).
Part Two. Strategy.
5. Managing Concentrated Stock Positions (Tim Kochis).
6. Managing the Taxable Equity Portfolio (David M. Stein).
7. Tax-Efficient Investing (Thomas J. Boczar and Robert Gordon).
8. A Different Approach to Asset Location (Gobind Daryanani).
Part Three. Investments.
9. Reinventing the Investment Fund (Gary L. Gastineau and Craig J. Lazzara).
10. The Cost and Consequences of Insurance Wrappers (Ben G. Baldwin).
11. Alternative Investments (Mark Hurley).
Part Four. Practice and Theory.
12. Human Capital and Asset Allocation: Is That Client a Bond or a Stock?(Moshe A. Milevsky)
13. Downside Risk Measures: A Brief History (David N. Nawrocki).
14. Fundamental Fund Analysis (Don Phillips).
15. Controlling Longevity Risk in a Retirement Portfolio (Roger G. Ibbotson, Michael C. Henkel, and Peng Chen).
16. Monetary Policy and Investment Returns (John B. Brynjolfsson).
17. Defining Investment Advice (Stephen C. Winks).
Part Five. Clients.
18. Financial Gerontology and Employee Benefits (Neal E. Cutler).
19. Assessing Risk Tolerance: A Micro-Behavioral Finance Case Study (Geoff Davey).
20. The Why of Wealth Management (Ross Levin).
21. Lessons in Behavioral Finance (Meir Statman).
22. Missing Persons: Black Investors and the Stock Market (John W. Rogers Jr.).
Index.