🗑️ Slop research

Hey team! Happy Tuesday! How’s it going out there?

I’m a few days away from maternity leave (and deep into time away from this newsletter), but I thought I’d poke my head in to say hi 👋 and share some exciting news on a project I’ve been working on quietly for a while.

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I’m over this era of slop research.

Too many experts who know better like to lean on hollow market facts and loose logic to suggest a trend is forming. They tweet/post/record sensational exposes promising signal in a sea of noise, then they rely on that same sea of noise to sweep away their opinions if those opinions prove to be silly (and most of the time they are).

This is the field I work in. Slop research. A burrito bowl for the financial insights you depend on.

Engagement farming under the guise of expertise thrown together in a way that tastes like nothing (with some AI sprinkled on top). Post, rinse and repeat, reputation be damned.

It doesn’t have to be this way, folks.

For my entire career, I’ve been in the camp of honest, data-driven analysis. Writing strong arguments about topics that matter. Never promising certainty. Paying attention to sample sizes. Drawing conclusions based on a solid framework so you don’t hear me flip-flopping my stances based on who I’m talking to. Tempering my language because we are all different investors with varying time periods and risk appetites.

I’d ascribe this approach to my training in journalism. Good journalists know that you never assume anything. The popular saying in newsrooms is “if you mother says she loves you, ask her to prove it”. Cynical, but true. My first job as a reporter at Bloomberg involved me fact-checking everything I said in a story, and then my editor tearing it apart with red pen because I couldn’t connect all the logical dots.

Sure, that’s a little extreme. But I think we as a collective of analysts, strategists and self-proclaimed experts have erred too far in the other direction. I feel a lot of a responsibility for my words as somebody blessed with the opportunity to speak on behalf of thousands of households with billions in hard-earned wealth. Sometimes I worry that’s a disadvantage for media because I’m not willing to say the catchy thing.

But I will always be this way, for better or worse. You will get honest analysis from me.

Why am I telling you this now? Well, I’ve been working on an exciting side project that I can finally share with you today. One that leans especially hard into honest, data-driven analysis on the most pertinent topics in long-term investing and wealth management.

Introducing…The Compound Insights.

The research arm of the Compound Media, which you know and love.

We take on research and consulting projects from our trusted partners, and then absolutely nerd out over them. Run surveys, pull mounds of data, etc. to provide you with the most in-depth analysis on how investors and advisors view the world around us.

An idea that Graham Thomas and I have been cooking tirelessly for over a year, finally becoming public today with the release of our first project(!!!).

We partnered with WisdomTree to look into the deep and twisty world of registered investment advisor (RIA) mergers and acquisitions. Over the past several years, there’s been a surge in firms buying other firms. Some pair up for strategic reasons, while others simply gorge on smaller firms to boost their assets under management.

In our analysis (steered by the one-and-only Mark Bruno from Emigrant Partners), we delve into what makes for successful RIA M&A, based on transaction and growth data for 10,000 firms over a five-year period (provided by Julian Baneux and RIA Growth Catalyst).

It’s a little niche, but it’s well worth your time. 9% of RIAs have been involved in some kind of M&A since 2019, and you may be an advisor — or client! — of a firm rolled into another firm. Looking at you, little firms swallowed up by the Frankenfirm broker-dealers of the world.

You may be feeling this, too. M&A can change your financial planning experience. You could be swept to a new advisor with way more clients. You may be exposed to more bureaucratic headaches when trying to get one simple thing done.

Download the paper here.

Also, an ask for help on a different Compound Insights project. We’re delving into legacy planning practices at different firms. A topic that makes everybody squirm, because it’s all about what happens when you die. Morbid, but important.

If you’re a U.S.-based advisor, could you take this survey? It’ll take five minutes of your time, and your thoughts will help us better quantify how advisors handle this touchy subject. Oh, and you’ll be entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card.

Here’s to honest, meaningful research.

Have a happy holiday season, and thanks for reading!

Callie

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