Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment

The 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.In Unconventional Success, investment legend David F. Swensen offers incontrovertible evidence that the forprofit 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 paytoplay productplacement fees, staleprice trading scams, softdollar kickbacks, and 12b1 distribution charges.Even if investors manage to emerge unscathed from an encounter with the profitseeking mutual fund industry, individuals face the likelihood of selfinflicted pain. The common practice of selling losers and buying winners (and doing both too often) damages portfolio returns and increases tax liabilities, delivering a onetwo punch to investor aspirations.In short: Nearly insurmountable hurdles confront ordinary investors.Swensens solution? A contrarian investment alternative that promotes welldiversified, equityoriented, marketmimicking portfolios that reward investors who exhibit the courage to stay the course. Swensen suggests implementing his nonconformist proposal with investorfriendly, notforprofit investment companies such as Vanguard and TIAACREF. By avoiding actively managed funds and employing clientoriented mutual fund managers, investors create the preconditions for investment success.Bottom line? Unconventional Success provides the guidance and financial knowhow for improving the personal investors financial future.