Tom Brakke, CFA

• Contact information
• To get in touch, please send me an email or schedule a time to talk on the telephone.

• Consulting
• 

  I provide a range of consulting services to decision makers in investment organizations, including asset owners, asset managers, advisory firms, consultants, etc. I work on a project basis, on retainer, or by the hour.

  At times, I aid clients in the evaluation and selection of asset managers or advisors. In those cases I act as a registered investment advisor on their behalf.

  The interactions are often in person, but I have also helped clients via email, phone and video calls, electronic workgroups, etc. There is no one-size-fits-all approach; some clients want to address a small matter, while others seek a more comprehensive evaluation.

  My goal is to provide an outside perspective and some constructive ideas for the leaders of an organization to consider as part of their quest for continuous improvement.

  Investment process, organizational design, and the communication of investment ideas are key topics of attention in most cases, but each type of organization has particular challenges that need to be addressed.

  Please contact me for more information on how I have worked with organizations like yours.

• Workshops
• A few times a year I lead workshops on advanced topics in due diligence and manager selection. Over two days, through case studies and group interaction, the workshops explore the fundamental principles involved, provide frameworks to analyze your organization's approach, and expose the shortcomings of the current state of the art.

  I also offer workshops within organizations that allow teams involved in due diligence and manager selection to review where they are at and to target specific improvements.

  For more information on the workshops and related services and to sign up for the next workshop, please visit this site.

• Writing
• 

  Started in 2008, the research puzzle features essays about key analytical issues. The focus is on creative (that is, atypical) ways of looking at problems and opportunities in the investment world (and within investment organizations). Sign up for email notifications of new postings.

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  Letters to a Young Analyst begins with a very popular series of letters that I wrote in late 2010. But the book contains much more, including commentary from a dozen notable investment experts, including Aswath Damodaran, David Merkel, Guy Spier, and Barry Ritholtz. It also contains more than a hundred links to online resources. Buyers of the book receive a free update every calendar quarter.

• The Prudent Fiduciary Digest

  Asset owners have a lot of balls to juggle and not enough time to read the deluge of material that is potentially of interest to them. The Prudent Fiduciary Digest is a free newsletter that includes a selection of great readings about important investment topics and the challenges of making decisions on behalf of others.

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  A "scrapbook" of ideas, research puzzle pieces covers a wide range of topics concerning the investment business and the markets. The postings are shorter and more diverse than those found on the research puzzle. You can follow the blog via RSS or Tumblr, and email notifications of new postings are distributed to research puzzle subscribers.

• Other Writings

  On occasion, I write for other organizations and publications. Here are a few examples:

  My postings on Freezing Assets, an editorial blog of CFA Society Minnesota.

  Articles for Inside Investing (CFA Institute).

  “Investors Must Take Care When Playing in the Street,” Financial Times.

  “The Other Side of Your Practice,” InvestmentNews.

  Another companion blog, research puzzle pix, is currently on hiatus. It featured unique charts that illustrated different ways of looking at securities, funds, indexes, and economic data, along with lots of links to other material. The past postings are still available for review.

• Press

• “Investment Organizations: Analyzing Them and Building Them for the Future,” discussion with Jason Voss at the 2017 CFA Institute Annual Conference, CFA Institute Virtual Link.

  “Brakke, Letters to a Young Analyst,” Brenda Jubin, Seeking Alpha.

  “The Message, the Mission, and the Messenger,” Nathan Jaye, CFA Institute Magazine. (A Q&A on the topic of my 2016 CFA annual conference talk.)

  “Read ‘Em and Reap: Smart People for Investors to Follow,” Jason Zweig, Wall Street Journal.

  “The 125 Most Important Finance People You Have to Follow on Twitter,” Business Insider. "Brakke is always reading about investing and sharing the best tidbits succinctly — then you can read if you're into it."

  “Top 50 Financial Blogs and Bloggers,” Michael Kitces, Kitces.com.

  “The Best Blogs for Financial Advisors to Read,” Investopedia.