Mandatory Reading for Florida Trustees: get rid of your money manager for index funds or ETFs?

Every Florida trustee should read two recent articles by Dow Jones.   Why?

Things a Florida Trustee or Executor of a Will Need to Know About Investments

• Your duties as a Florida trustee of an irrevocable trust require you to keep up to date.
• Florida’s prudent investor rule for trustees of family trusts and executors of Florida wills  require you to have an “investment strategy.”
• It’s your job to diversify the portfolio, try to save your beneficiaries money, and invest trust funds and estate money prudently.

Should a Trustee Invest in Index Funds and ETF’s (Exchange Traded Funds) ?

• Last week Barron’s had an excellent piece on exchange traded funds which you should read.   www.Barrons.com
• This week, the Wall Street Journal’s Jason Zweig rights an insightful piece on whether active money management is “done”
• Does this mean that Florida trustees & Florida personal representatives should invest in low cost index funds, like at Vanguard or Fidelity, or ETF’s?
• The Florida prudent investor rule suggests that is something which you should consider.

Here is the link to the Wall Street Journal article by Jason Zweig.   http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/08/22/the-decline-and-fall-of-fund-managers/?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLE_Video_second

Jason Zweig is a fantastic writer who I enjoy reading each and every week on Saturdays in the Wall Street Journal.  Jason Zweig writes about investing and finance in a straight forward, no-nonsense way from which I always learn something.