Rebalance Celebrates Pro-Consumer Advocates Striving To Make Retirement Investing Safer for All Americans

Rebalance, a leading pro-consumer investment firm that is at the forefront of providing Americans with a profoundly better set of retirement investment options, today shared its end-of-year thanks to the many influential individuals and organizations who strive to make retirement investing safer for all Americans.

The first “thank you” goes out to U.S. Department (“DOL”) of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and Assistant Secretary Phyllis Borzi for their bold leadership in establishing a fiduciary standard for retirement investing, the most pro-consumer set of investment protections in over 40 years.

This extraordinarily important reform will protect millions of hard working Americans from the conflicts of interest that annually siphon away billions of dollars of hard-earned retirement savings due to inflated commissions, higher fees and poor returns. With the rule in place, everyday Americans will be much better equipped to meet the difficult challenges of investing for a secure retirement. Moreover, Rebalance believes firmly that the rule will result in positive changes in the entire investment advisory market, raising the standard of loyalty and care for the benefit of all retirement savers.

Rebalance was honored to participate in the public debate about the fiduciary rule, including Managing Partner Scott Puritz testifying before the U.S. Senate and the firm receiving a “shout out” from Secretary Perez during his April keynote speech announcing the rule.

A second “thank you” goes out to the one and only John Bogle, the founder and retired CEO of Vanguard, and the father of the indexing revolution. At 87 years old, Jack, as he is known, is running strong as the most tireless champion for low-cost index investing and the rights of everyday American investors. Scott Puritz was honored to participate with Mr. Bogle in the groundbreaking, pro-consumer initiative “Campaign for Investors”.

Princeton Professor Burton Malkiel, a member of the Rebalance Investment Committee, continued his career track record of educating American consumers on new and innovative ways to adapt to market conditions and help them achieve proven and consistent returns. Throughout their decades long, groundbreaking careers, both Mr. Bogle and Professor Malkiel have dedicated their life’s work to empowering American consumers to take control of their retirement investing.

Another notable investment guru and member of the Rebalance Investment Committee, Dr. Charles D. Ellis, continued to build upon his thesis of index investing, authoring his 17th book, “The Index Revolution.” This effort, and his commitment to educating the public, resulted in Mr. Ellis being named one of Money Magazine’s 2016 Champions of the Year.

Government officials and investment experts were not the only ones to make American consumers’ financial well-being a prominent topic in 2016. Tony Robbins, a well-known motivational speaker and philanthropist, successfully converted his mission of personal empowerment into the personal finance world. Similarly, John Oliver, equal parts comedian and political commentator, dedicated a segment of his acclaimed HBO late night show to explaining the pitfalls of traditional retirement investing, and why many should be wary of their financial advisor. These efforts from Mr. Robbins and Mr. Oliver raised awareness about the corrosive impact of high fees and conflicts of interests on everyday Americans striving to save for retirement.

Bravo to Rebalance’s brethren throughout the “Robo Revolution”, such as industry pioneers Wealthfront, Personal Capital and Betterment. These innovative entrepreneurs harness technology and new business models to provide American savers with alternatives to antiquated high-fee investing services. And kudos as well to industry giants Vanguard, Fidelity, and Schwab for embracing portfolio indexing and putting consumers’ interests front and center.

Finally, Rebalance would like to thank hard working, everyday Americans who are saving and investing for a secure and dignified retirement. While the world is ever-changing, Rebalance remains firmly committed to helping our clients retire with more.

 

About Rebalance
Rebalance is one of America’s leading investment firms that is at the forefront of providing consumers with a fundamentally different and better set of retirement investment options: lower costs, “endowment-quality” globally-diversified retirement investment portfolios, and systematic rebalancing. This investment approach is combined with a team of sophisticated and highly credentialed finance professionals who provide advice that is unbiased and focuses on the client’s long-term retirement investment goals.

The Firm’s Investment Committee is anchored by three of the most respected experts in the finance world: Princeton Economics Professor Burton Malkiel, author of the classic investment book, A Random Walk Down Wall Street; Dr. Charles Ellis, the former longtime chairman of the Yale University Endowment; and Jay Vivian, the former Managing Director of IBM’s $100+ billion in retirement investment funds for more than 300,000 employees worldwide.

Rebalance‘s innovative, pro-consumer approach to retirement investing has garnered high profile coverage. The Firm, and its leadership, regularly have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, Fox, PBS, Forbes, USA Today, CNBC, Nightly Business Review, CBS, The Washington Post, The Economist, and a wide range of other national and local media. Managing Directors Scott Puritz and Mitchell Tuchman are acknowledged industry thought leaders, and Mr. Puritz recently testified before a U.S. Senate Committee evaluating the U.S. Department of Labor’s new fiduciary rule.

Rebalance is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. and Bethesda, MD., and currently manages more than $440 million of client assets.