TEAM MODERNIST ON Our Birthday Gift, Investment Webinar, and John Legend
Last month we celebrated Modernist’s second birthday! In this newsletter, we are sharing some thoughts on our birthday gift, our latest webinar, recent press and more.
Modernist gives back
To celebrate our second birthday last month, we made a $1000 gift to Portland’s College Possible in honor of our clients and allies. Their work embodies one of our core values: Invest in People.
Our fearless leader, Georgia Lee Hussey, took to our blog to share some thoughts on this gift. Check out her essay here.
We are incredibly grateful for all of your support over the last 2 years. Here’s to many more!
Investment insights
Thank you to those who joined us for our second quarterly Investment Insights webinar on August 4th. We discussed Q2 2017 performance and trends across asset classes, the impact of the weakening dollar on investments, and the recent hulabaloo over passive investing.
Click below to check out the video! [29 min]
Portfolio perspectives
In our webinar, we explored the continued popularity of passive investing. With so many active investment managers out there touting their performance, it can be hard to remember that beating the market is a tough proposition.
Thankfully, our Investment Committee did a quick write-up on the data behind stock performance (and whether active managers actually out-perform).
They found that over the last nine decades, stock market performance was driven by just 4% of all stocks! In fact, 58% of stocks did worse over that time period than Treasury bills. On the other hand, the S&P 500 (considered a good proxy for the overall stock market) has produced positive returns over every 20-year period since 1937.
This data underlines what a long shot stock-picking really is for individuals or active managers. Instead, Modernist diversifies broadly while letting global markets work for our clients’ long-term plans.
Songs that are really about being the change
As a B Corp, we are committed to being the change we want to see in the world. John Legend and The Roots share a similar sentiment in “Wake Up Everybody:”
The world won’t get no better / If we just let it be / The world won’t get no better / We gotta change it, yeah, just you and me
Check out the song below if you are looking for inspiration to jumpstart your giving or activism!