With John Rekenthaler, Vice President, Research and Columnist with Morningstar
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John built Morningstar’s retirement advice business from a start-up operation into one of the largest independent advice and guidance providers in the retirement industry, reaching more than 10 million participants and 63,000 plan sponsors. John also helped develop Morningstar’s proprietary methodologies such as the Morningstar Rating for mutual funds, and earlier directed Morningstar’s investment information products for variable annuities.
John walks us through the history and evolution of the mutual funds industry over the past 60 years – from a murky industry with gimmick funds and questionable charges once as high as 8% and sales fees of 1% per year in perpetuity. Then things started to get more competition-driven with the advent of no-load funds, greater regulatory scrutiny and greater transparency. ETFs helped put more pressure on the industry, with lower cost and greater diversity to help investors better customize and manage their portfolios.
