Episode 388: AMA #11 - Your Parents' Advisor, 100% Equity Portfolios, and Investing $10 Billion
Release Date: 12/18/2025
Episode 403: Patrick Adams - When Stock Crashes Matter for Long-Term Investors
The Rational Reminder Podcast
What if your biggest investment risk isn’t the stock market—but your own income? In this episode, we are joined by Patrick Adams, a PhD candidate at MIT, for a fascinating deep dive into how income risk, spending commitments, and liquidity constraints reshape what “optimal” investing actually looks like. Drawing on large-scale administrative tax data, Patrick challenges the conventional wisdom that young investors should be heavily—or even fully—invested in equities. We explore why stocks appear safe over long horizons but become risky when real-world constraints force investors to...
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Episode 402: The Problem with Private Markets
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this episode, we unpack the growing tension in private markets—private equity, private credit, and private real estate—and examine whether their long-standing appeal holds up under scrutiny. With increasing pressure to bring these investments to retail investors, the discussion explores how illiquidity, valuation opacity, and complex fee structures may be masking risks rather than reducing them. We break down how private assets are marketed, why their “smooth” returns may be misleading, and what recent events—like gated funds and forced asset sales—reveal about their true risk...
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Episode 401: Eduardo Repetto & Caitlin Ebanks - Opening the Avantis CAGE
The Rational Reminder Podcast
What if factor investing in Canada became as simple—and affordable—as buying a single ETF? In this episode, we are joined by Eduardo Repetto, CIO of Avantis Investors, and Caitlin Ebanks, Director of ETF Strategy at CIBC, to unpack the long-awaited launch of Avantis ETFs in Canada. This conversation explores how a partnership built on client-first principles and fee discipline is bringing sophisticated, evidence-based investing strategies to Canadian investors in a dramatically more accessible way. We dive into the structure and philosophy behind the new ETF lineup, including how Avantis...
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Episode 400: The Evolution of Index Fund Investing
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this special 400th episode, the Rational Reminder hosts reflect on 50 years of index investing and the profound impact it has had on financial markets, investor behavior, and the cost of investing. The episode features a panel moderated by Ben Felix at the New York Stock Exchange—hosted by Vanguard and S&P Dow Jones Indices—bringing together leading voices in the indexing world to explore how passive investing evolved and what it means for the future of capital markets. Ben is joined on the panel by Tim Edwards (S&P Dow Jones Indices), Jim Rowley (Vanguard), and Shelly...
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Episode 399: James Choi - Portfolio Theory in a Spreadsheet
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this episode, we welcome back James Choi, Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management, to unpack one of the most important—and misunderstood—questions in personal finance: How much of your portfolio should be in stocks? Drawing on his new paper, Practical Finance: An Approximate Solution to Lifecycle Portfolio Choice, James walks us through the classic portfolio choice problem first solved by Robert C. Merton, later extended by Francisco Gomes and co-authors, and now made dramatically more usable through a spreadsheet-based approximation. We explore how risk aversion, wealth,...
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Episode 398: Tom Hardin - Ethics, Financial Crime, and Redemption
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this episode, we sit down with Tom Hardin, also known as “Tipper X,” the former hedge fund analyst who became one of the most prolific informants in the largest insider trading crackdown in U.S. history. Tom walks us through his journey from rule-following soccer referee in Georgia to Ivy League graduate and rising Wall Street analyst—before crossing the line into insider trading at age 29. What makes this conversation so compelling is not just the crime, but how ordinary it felt at the time. Tom explains how small rationalizations, cultural pressures, ambition, and the normalization...
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Episode 397: Hendrik Bessembinder - Constant Leverage & Measuring Investor Outcomes
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this episode, we welcome back return guest Hank Bessembinder for a deeply analytical conversation spanning leveraged ETFs, volatility, and the future of performance measurement. Hank walks us through his latest research on leveraged single-stock ETFs, clarifying the misunderstood concept of “volatility decay” and decomposing returns into rebalancing effects and frictions. The results are striking: meaningful underperformance relative to simple levered benchmarks, driven by both embedded costs and the mechanics of daily resets. In the second half, we shift gears to a more foundational...
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Episode 396: Theresa Ebden - Protecting Investors at the OSC
The Rational Reminder Podcast
In this episode of the Rational Reminder Podcast, we are joined by Theresa Ebden, Vice President of the Investor Office at the Ontario Securities Commission, for a deep dive into how regulators are thinking about modern investor risks—from AI-powered scams to finfluencers and the gamification of investing apps. Theresa explains how the OSC works to protect investors through policy, education, behavioral research, and direct engagement with the public, and why investor education is one of the most powerful tools regulators have. Key Points From This Episode: (0:01:55) Overview of the OSC...
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Episode 395: Charles Chaffin - The Psychology of Financial Planning
The Rational Reminder Podcast
Ben Felix and Braden Warwick are joined by Dr. Charles Chaffin, a leading voice in financial psychology, to explore why investors so often act against their own best interests—and how better tools and frameworks can help bridge the gap between rational plans and real human behavior. The conversation blends behavioral finance, goal setting, and risk profiling, while also introducing a new evidence-based risk tolerance questionnaire now being made publicly available to listeners. The episode digs into why humans are wired for short-term survival rather than long-term optimization, how biases...
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Episode 394: Equal Weight vs. Market Cap Weight Index Funds
The Rational Reminder Podcast
Equal-weighted index funds sound like an elegant solution to some of today’s biggest investor anxieties: high market concentration, elevated valuations, and outsized influence from a handful of mega-cap stocks. In this episode of the Rational Reminder Podcast, Ben Felix, Dan Bortolotti, and Ben Wilson take a deep, evidence-based look at whether equal weighting actually improves portfolios—or simply introduces new risks under a different name. The discussion breaks down how equal-weighted indices differ fundamentally from traditional market-cap-weighted indexes, why equal weighting has...
info_outlineIn this special year-end AMA, the full PWL crew — Ben Felix, Cameron Passmore, Ben Wilson, and Dan Bortolotti — sit down together for the first time on the podcast to reflect on the roller-coaster that was 2025 and to tackle a wide range of thoughtful listener questions. The episode begins with reflections on a year that included wild market swings, an extraordinary rally few predicted, major changes within PWL, and personal milestones. From there, the team dives deep into the psychology of staying invested, the real risks of inexperienced investors going 100% equities, the complexity of asset location and pre-tax vs. after-tax allocation, and how to talk to family members who are paying too much in investment fees.
Key Points From This Episode:
(0:04) Introduction — first-ever full-team recording and setup for the year-end AMA.
(1:12) Why not all AMA questions could be answered — over 400 submissions and many not suited to the format.
(1:48) 2024 market recap — from early-year panic to strong double-digit global equity returns.
(3:59) The speed of recoveries — why missing a quick rebound can permanently derail returns.
(5:34) Cameron’s lessons from 2024 — unpredictability, growing adoption of evidence-based investing, joining a bigger organization, and driverless-car optimism.
(7:41) Ben Wilson becomes a co-host — an unplanned evolution shaped by listener feedback.
(9:51) Dan on humility in forecasting and reconnecting with theoretical research.
(11:18) Ben’s personal year — firm acquisition, equity value jump, and navigating his cancer diagnosis.
(12:32) Talking to parents about high fees — emotional dynamics, non-confrontational questions, and the danger of implied judgment.
(23:01) Should beginners hold 100% equities? Behavioral risk, volatility blindness, and why it shouldn’t be the default allocation.
(30:35) Pre-tax vs. after-tax asset allocation — why RRSP dollars aren’t equal to TFSA dollars and how that changes true risk exposure.
(36:09) Why PWL rarely optimizes asset location — complexity, low payoff, and behavioral clarity.
(44:42) What PWL does (and doesn’t) offer — discretionary management, integrated planning, outside specialists, and tax deductibility rules.
(49:04) “I know I need index funds — but how do I actually buy them?” Robo-advisors vs. one-ticket ETFs and why placing a trade is the real barrier.
(57:47) Ben’s lessons as a new homeowner — maintenance costs far above expectations and the hidden burden of being your own contractor.
(1:01:54) The strangest portfolios — single-stock windfalls, leverage without client awareness, bullion-only strategies, and the infamous “meatloaf portfolio.”
Links From Today’s Episode:
Meet with PWL Capital: https://calendly.com/d/3vm-t2j-h3p
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/benjaminwfelix
Benjamin on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwfelix/
Cameron Passmore — https://pwlcapital.com/our-team/
Cameron on X — https://x.com/CameronPassmore
Cameron on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronpassmore/
Ben Wilson on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wilson/
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)