Meet with PWL Capital: https://pages.pwlcapital.com/en-ca/contact-us?utm_source=content&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=rationalreminder_yt Avoid Online Scams https://pwlcapital.com/stay-safe-online/ Ben Felix or any PWL employee will never reach out to you on social media platforms or WhatsApp to give financial advice. These are scammers trying to commit fraud. In this AMA episode, Benjamin Felix, Dan Bortolotti, and Ben Wilson tackle a wide range of listener questions covering portfolio construction, diversification, active management, pensions, fiduciary duty, and short-term investing decisions. They examine whether breaking apart all-in-one ETFs is worth the complexity, why global diversification remains the default despite long stretches of underperformance, and how investors should think about risk when they have defined benefit pensions or short-term financial goals. Along the way, they discuss the limits of active management, why simplicity often beats optimization, and even reveal their favorite board games. Timestamps: 0:00:00 Intro 0:01:37 Question 1: Is there a point at which you think it would be worthwhile buying the individual component ETFs of an asset allocation ETF instead of the single ETF? 0:13:40 Question 2: What are your favorite board games? 0:17:49 Question 3: In the context of the stock market, I always hear diversify, diversify, diversify. What does diversification actually look like? 0:25:59 Question 4: You frequently mention that outperformance by active managers tends to happen when the AUM is low and that it is no longer possible when there is a large influx of funds and investors? 0:32:04 Question 5: Portfolios are comprised with some allocation of equity and fixed income. How should defined benefit pension plans be treated in this context? 0:39:24 Question 6: I am confused about how fiduciaries work in Canada. I have seen in one of your videos in a brief clip explaining that Canada does not have a "statutory" fiduciary standard for financial advisors. However PWL Capital website homepage Q&A outlines fiduciary duty for their clients. Does a fiduciary duty exist at the firm level for companies registered as portfolio manager? 0:44:42 Question 7: Ben has made some powerful reasoning as to why index funds outperform active managers. However, some individual investors may feel that active managers are not constrained by 1) investment mandates and 2) larger capital size. Given this, is there a strong argument that individual investors (even educated ones) should still stick to index funds and NOT pick individual stocks? 0:52:13 Question 8: What is the reason(s) for underperformance of international stocks for a long time? 0:57:47 Question 9: "I am sold that the right asset allocation for a long investment horizon like retirement is a diversified equity-heavy portfolio, provided you can stomach the volatility. But what should you hold if you are saving for a down payment over a 3-5 year horizon? Links From Today’s Episode: Rational Reminder on iTunes — https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-rational-reminder-podcast/id1426530582. Rational Reminder on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/rationalreminder/ Rational Reminder on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/ Benjamin Felix — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/ Benjamin on X — https://x.com/benjaminfelix Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/