Joshua Brown (better known as The Reformed Broker) posted a summary of the PIMCO investment conference that highlights some points of debate about passive vs. active investing. Passive investing isn’t as simple as it’s made out to be when one passive investing strategy can beat another, and it’s important for investors to understand these options and the risks they each carry.

How many LikeAssets users are beating the market? LikeAssets is the only application that helps investors accurately measure performance and compare it against the appropriate Benchmark. LikeAssets will now be publishing monthly updates on aggregate user performance and asset allocation.

Where does your performance rank?

LikeAssets has recently updated the User Interface and a YouTube video takes users through the app step by step. More features are in the pipeline and we want to hear from our users as well. Also, a recent review in My Money Blog did a nice job of explaining the LikeAssets benchmarking feature.

LikeAssets’ recent review in Barron’s (Link | PDF) provides an overview of the application and mentions a few features that differentiate LikeAssets from other portfolio management tools.

“It [LikeAssets] takes the unusual step of selecting an appropriate exchange-traded fund to use as an asset-class benchmark for each stock, mutual fund, and exchange traded product.”

A better way to measure your portfolio means a better way to manage your portfolio. It’s that focus that separates LikeAssets from the rest.

In the post-pension world, we’ve moved from the certainty of a “defined benefit” to a discussion of outcomes and probabilities under defined contribution plans. Now, as people who have worked longer under 401(k) than pension hit retirement, service providers have perked up with a greater focus on determining and delivering predictable retirement income.


Advisory software and services are honing in on outcome-based investing goals and serving them up as mile-markers for plan participants. But what good is a prediction unless you know what you are up against?


Currently, the best guidepost for a defined contribution plan participant is a Single Premium Immediate Annuity (SPIA).