Robin writes:
I’m so very sad to learn of the passing of my former colleague and fellow TEBI contributor Carolyn Gowen.
Carolyn was a lovely person and a brilliant financial planner at Bloomsbury Wealth in London, where she was a branch principal. She put the best interests of her clients at the heart of everything she did.
She believed passionately in financial education. Advice firms, she believed, have a moral and a professional duty to help people make better decisions with their money, even if it didn’t generate fees. For some time, Bloomsbury contributed towards our running costs at TEBI and, looking back, the support they gave us made a big difference, helping us to carry on the work we do.
I’ve linked below to some of my favourite articles of Carolyn’s. But the one that stands out most is a guest post she wrote last Christmas for our sister blog, Adviser 2.0, just before she retired, entitled At last — the evidence is winning.
In it she explained how Bloomsbury had been one of the first financial planning firms in Britain to adopt an evidence-based investment philosophy in 2005.
The media was’t interested
“I think it’s fair to say,” she recalled, “the financial media was not interested in our message, still being very much in love with its ‘star’ fund managers. Many times in those 15 years it has felt as though I’ve been banging my head against a brick wall.
“And then, oh so slowly, over the last couple of years, the tide – almost imperceptibly – started to change.
“Now, when I write (about) evidence-based investing, I no longer feel that I’m banging my head against a wall, now I believe that I’m pushing at an open door.
“It’s no longer anecdotal evidence that the tide has turned. The figures have reached a level where they can no longer be ignored. Our lone voices, in aggregate, have made a difference.”
“I don’t see bars on a chart”
But as always with Carolyn, what mattered most was not proving people wrong: what motivated her was improving outcomes for clients.
Commenting on the latest outflows from actively managed funds to low-cost index funds, she wrote:
“It’s hard to put into words what this means to me. Those charts represent so much more than evidence of money moving from one place to another. For me, they tell a much bigger (and more important) story. The columns on the chart are documenting that tens of thousands of people will in future keep more of their money due to paying lower fees.
“Over time, the compounding effect of having more of their money invested will be huge. And since so few active funds beat their benchmark index, that too will lead to higher values in people’s investment accounts.
“So, for me, this isn’t about numbers on a chart. The simple decision these investors have made to move from active to passive funds may well change their lives. The possibility of being able to retire a bit earlier than hoped for; to afford that bigger house a bit sooner; to be able to help other family members; to leave a legacy. Tens of thousands of lives potentially changed for the better.
“I don’t see bars on a chart. I see the hopes and dreams of the people behind them. And it’s an amazing sight.”
Farewell, Carolyn. You were a friend to investors and to me. You will be sadly missed.
Here’s an interview with Carolyn Gowen from March 2019:
One you learn about EBI, you can’t unlearn it
And here are some of the articles she wrote for TEBI:
Ten simple ways to improve your returns
Why we struggle to see we’re being lied to
To help others, help yourself first
Eight investment traps to avoid
A financial plan is about more than investing
© The Evidence-Based Investor MMXXI
Robin is a journalist and campaigner for positive change in global investing. He runs Regis Media, a niche provider of content marketing for financial advice firms with an evidence-based investment philosophy. He also works as a consultant to other disruptive firms in the investing sector.
