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.

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.

Amid performance, fee, and regulatory pressure, the competitive landscape for fund firms has been shifting rapidly. Join some of Morningstar's equity and fund researchers as they review which asset managers are likely to deliver the best results going forward and which have lost their edge. We'll also discuss the impact on advisors' client portfolios. 

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.