Strategic beta, or so-called "smart" beta, ETFs have been all the rage in recent years. New funds have proliferated and new inflows have been strong and steady. Our expert panel will demystify this newly popular category of investments and provide insights on how to cut through the hype.

When used responsibly, liquid alternatives give investors the potential to improve their portfolios’ risk-adjusted returns over the long term. This panel will address the best practices for including liquid alts in a portfolio and offer our panelists’ best ideas on which alternatives strategies are built for tomorrow’s markets

This panel of talented asset allocators will discuss their approaches to investing and detail how they look across asset classes, regions, sectors, and securities for the best opportunities.

Discover the easy way to achieve greater scale and profitability while serving clients’ best interests. Advisors can have a hard time managing growth and bringing on new clients. The quality of client services can decline as work overpowers their personal time. This session will demonstrate with a few simple steps—with or without technology— how to better serve current clients and take on new ones. All while still having a personal life.

Fixed income markets are believe by many to be the last bastion of active management. Do bond index funds stand a chance versus their actively managed peers? What does the future hold for bond indexes?

With an estimated 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day, the number of Americans age 65 and older is expected to reach more than 70 million by 2030. Does it make sense to roll their assets into an income-oriented portfolio? What options exist in this space, and how are the managers navigating the volatile interest-rate landscape?

Most active equity fund managers have failed to beat their benchmarks after fees in recent years, but the portfolio managers on this panel have been winners over the long term. We’ll dig into their funds to discuss why they’ve been successful and why indexing provides stiff competition.

Startups have raised hundreds of millions of dollars under the premise of deploying algorithms and artificial intelligence to disintermediate human financial advisors. But instead, startups have pivoted to cater to the unique needs of human advisors and their clients. In this provocative session, you will learn ways to use your current technology to enhance the advice you provide and be exposed to innovations on the horizon that have the potential to amplify your relationships with clients and prospects.

As trillions of assets transfer to younger investors and women over the coming years, their interest in making an impact with their investments and investing in sustainable companies will drive many of their choices. Research shows that more than 80% of millennials and 70% of women are interested in sustainability. In this session, we will discuss the benefits of incorporating sustainability into your practice with two successful financial advisors. We will also outline practical steps for portfolio construction, as well as integration of client service and marketing strategies for sustainable investment.

From Liar's Poker to The Big Short to his latest, The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis has proven himself one of America's greatest living true storytellers. In this wide-ranging discussion, he'll provide his take on the financial markets, sports, and more.

Value investors have been through trying times. Has value gone missing? Are there any signs that it might soon return? What is the best way for investors to harness that value factor?

In the wake of the financial crisis, inflation has remained well below historic norms, but this threat to investors’ purchasing power looms following years of accommodative monetary policy to stimulate growth. Come hear a panel of three multi-asset portfolio managers discuss current inflationary pressures and different methods of preparing a portfolio for inflation.

Years of low yields across the developed bond markets have meant challenging times for investors. Join us as we talk with three managers who venture beyond the confines of traditional bond benchmarks in their search for value. How will these approaches change if rates continue to rise?

We present a framework that emphasizes coherence between investors’ current financial situation, their long-term fiscal goals, and sensible investment strategies. Risk preferences inform part of this approach, but they are only one piece of a more complicated puzzle. The goals-based risk approach highlights the inherent trade-offs an investor faces when developing an investment strategy and helps clarify the role an advisor has in helping clients make good decisions consistent with their aspirations both in the short and long term.

We present a framework that emphasizes coherence between investors’ current financial situation, their long-term fiscal goals, and sensible investment strategies. Risk preferences inform part of this approach, but they are only one piece of a more complicated puzzle. The goals-based risk approach highlights the inherent trade-offs an investor faces when developing an investment strategy and helps clarify the role an advisor has in helping clients make good decisions consistent with their aspirations both in the short and long term.

Vanguard founder John C. Bogle will talk about the creation of the first index mutual fund and the long journey to index-fund dominance. He'll also comment on the tension between business strategy options for active fund managers and their fiduciary duty to their fund shareholders, the differences between TIFs and ETFs, and some personal reflections on his 65 years in the mutual fund industry. This session will be broadcast via a live video stream.

The rise of robo-advice, as well as increasing pressure from regulatory changes, has fueled a wave of change in the financial advice industry. Advisors have a growing need to prove the value they provide to clients and to develop skills that can set them apart from automated solutions and their human competition. Morningstar has responded to this need through original research and practical solutions that will prepare advisors to better deal with the “softer” side of money management: anxiety, family dynamics, and problematic financial behaviors. This talk will offer a preview of current findings and discuss how advisors can incorporate critical elements of financial psychology work into their day-to-day practice.

Join us for an industry-spanning discussion with the chairman and CEO of the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock. We'll get Larry Fink's views on global trends in ETFs, active management, and the cost of investing. We'll review the shifting regulatory landscape and name the places where BlackRock sees opportunity.

Challenges abound in today's fixed income markets, but investors also have a growing number of tools at their disposal. Join us as three influential bond investors discuss their market outlook, where they're finding value across the global fixed-income markets, and what investment strategies offer the most promise for competing in a world of low-bond yields.

Trading exchange-traded funds can be tricky business. This trading tutorial will cover best practices in EFT trading, equipping investors with the knowledge they need to navigate the ebb and flow of ETF liquidity.

Absolute return strategies (also known as cash-plus or target-return strategies) have long been popular with institutional investors in the United Kingdom and Europe. More recently, some of these strategies have made their way into retail U.S. liquid alternative mutual funds. In this session, we’ll speak to portfolio managers to learn how absolute return strategies are constructed, whether the return targets they promise are realistic, and how investors might look to incorporate such funds into their portfolios.

Changes in Washington and rising yields weighed on municipal bond markets in 2016. Was this a buying opportunity or just the first leg down? Three veteran fund managers weigh in on controversial areas like tobacco and Puerto Rico, as well as tips for choosing bonds among more straightforward government projects.

Even when investors ask for and get good advice from their financial advisor they struggle to follow through and apply it for their own benefit. In this discussion, you’ll hear about how behavioral science can help us understand the obstacles investors face to taking action, and how advisors can tailor interventions to overcome them.