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Short Takes: FundQuest’s Misleading Active Management Returns, Clueless Retail Investors, and more

Larry Swedroe exposes the misleading techniques used by FundQuest to make it seem that active mutual funds perform well. Larry gives a couple of simple examples that make it clear how biased the numbers become.

Bloomberg reports that three-quarters of Americans think that financial advisors have a fiduciary duty. This means they think that financial advisors have to put their clients’ interests ahead of their own. Of course, this isn’t true and the industry would fight hard against any such requirement.

170,000 Canadians were targeted by CRA for bogus charitable donations. I find it amazing that people think a scheme where you deduct more than you contribute could be legitimate.

Big Cajun Man wonders why more people don’t take advantage of vendor point-based reward systems. I suspect the answer is a combination of “couldn’t be bothered” and “I just figured there would be some catch.”

Million Dollar Journey reviews a new Canadian low-cost brokerage, Virtual Brokers.

Money Smarts shows how to determine the value of a home renovation.

Financial Highway discusses some of the pros and cons of online banks that might not have occurred to you.

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Comments

  1. Big Cajun ManSeptember 17, 2010 at 7:01 AM

    Catch? There is no stinking catch, only points! Thanks for the mention have a tremendous weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arjun @ InvestingThesisSeptember 18, 2010 at 11:24 PM

    Great list of blog posts, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ray @ Financial HighwaySeptember 19, 2010 at 12:11 AM

    I have to agree with Preet. Most "advisors" are just mutual funds sales reps and the term does not mean a lot right now.

    Thanks for the mention!

    ReplyDelete

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