In spite of the dismal stock market, spring comes again and let's hope a few seeds of investor confidence will be planted. Meanwhile, people are working harder than ever and the staff of Financial Advisor is no exception. In fact, I'm writing the editor's note this month because Editor-In-Chief Evan Simonoff has been working diligently to bring you an insightful cover story on well-respected portfolio manager Chris Davis of Selected Funds. Evan spent the afternoon with Chris not too long ago to get his take on the global financial crisis, investor sentiment and how Selected dodged more bullets than most other mutual funds. Evan's article, "Perception And Reality" begins on page 48 and is a must-read for those of you who are not only reading all the news that's fit to print on the crisis, but who also appreciate a thoughtful interview from an experienced journalist who is an expert on the advisory profession.
This issue is packed with other investing articles as well. In particular, I'm very proud of our new section, FA green, which begins on page 55 and focuses on sustainable, responsible investing and dovetails with our microsite, www.fa-mag.com/green, which we unveiled in January. We at Financial Advisor are very excited to offer you magazine coverage and a microsite that highlight developments in the SRI world and how financial advisors are offering these services to their clients. We began the FA green project many months ago, before the bear market, and many people here continued to work hard on it despite the difficult times. That's because we believe that SRI is not only here to stay, but will continue to grow in popularity. As it continues to become easier to measure the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria on financial returns, more investors and advisors will expect companies to perform well on these factors. In addition to our April issue, look for the print edition of FA green in our June, September and December issues.
FA green isn't the only new effort we're unveiling in this issue. Mike Martin, president and chief investment officer of Financial Advantage in Columbia, Md., reveals his perspective on asset allocation, given the financial crisis, in a new column "The Big Picture." Mike previously wrote a column for us on retirement planning, and we were thrilled when he agreed to write quarterly for us again. He's an excellent writer who knows how to make an intelligent argument backed up with facts, and he adds a little humor, too. So don't miss his column, which begins on page 29.
Well, that's about it for this month. But if you haven't done so already, don't forget to visit our home page at www.fa-mag.com and look on the right for a box to click that will take you to our 2009 RIA survey form. We welcome any independent financial planner to complete the survey. We will be publishing the survey results, as always, in our July issue and on our Web site. Don't let the difficult economic times stop you-we all have been traveling this rough road and this survey will help you get your name out there. Keep in touch.
Dorothy Hinchcliff, Managing Editor
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