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The Long ViewAuthor: Morningstar, Christine Benz - Director of Personal Finance and Retirement Planning, Ben Johnson - Head of Client Solutions, Amy Arnott - Portfolio Strategist
Empowering long-term investors with actionable insights on retirement, personal finance, and portfolio strategy. Hosts Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson talk with influential leaders in finance and investing every Wednesday. Language: en Genres: Business, Entrepreneurship, Investing Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Andy Clarke and Nelson Wicas: Index Funds Aren’t Really Passive, And Other Lessons for Building a Better Portfolio
Episode 386
Tuesday, 25 August, 2026
Our guests on the podcast today are Andy Clarke and Nelson Wicas, co-authors—along with Ganesh Suntharam—of the new book, The Architecture of Wealth: The Art and Science of Portfolio Construction. Andy has spent more than three decades as an investment researcher and writer. He has worked at Morningstar and Vanguard, where he served as assistant to Vanguard Founder and indexing pioneer, John C. Bogle. Andy has published research in practitioner journals such as the Journal of Index Investing. He is the author of Wealth of Experience and a CFA Charterholder. Nelson has developed and managed quantitative equity strategies for more than 30 years. Most recently, he worked at Redpoint Investment Management, where he was a founder and research analyst. After completing his PhD in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Nelson joined Vanguard to help establish its quantitative equity management function. Nelson later helped found Vanguard’s investment counseling and research team to produce portfolio construction insights for clients and internal teams. Nelson has been a visiting professor of economics at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania. Episode Highlights 00:00:00 The Architecture of Wealth 00:06:42 Why Portfolio Construction is an Art and Science 00:10:03 Bogle’s Approach to Active Management 00:15:38 Why Index Investing Isn’t Passive 00:22:09 The Birth of Modern Portfolio Theory 00:26:58 Behavioral Finance, Investor Biases, and Impact of Education 00:36:13 Why Index Funds Finally Took Off 00:39:25 Evaluating Active Managers 00:43:27 The Small-Cap Effect More From The Long View Charley Ellis: Indexing Is a Marvelous Gift Jeff Ptak: The Simple Secret to Becoming a Better Investor Andy Reed: Inertia Is the Most Powerful Force in Behavioral Finance If you have a comment or a guest idea, please email us at TheLongView@Morningstar.com. Follow Christine Benz (@christine_benz) and Ben Johnson (@MstarBenJohnson) on X, and Christine Benz, Amy Arnott, and Ben Johnson on LinkedIn. Visit Morningstar.com for new research and insights from Christine, Ben, and Amy. Subscribe to Christine’s weekly newsletter, Improving Your Finances. If you want more Morningstar podcasts, check out The Morning Filter and Investing Insights. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
