Elephant in the Room

01:32 - Gregg’s background04:00 - Transparency and trust in fintech05:50 - Transparency and trust in asset management07:40 - Shared risk between managers and clients12:26 - “Nothing is free and things shouldn’t be free”16:39 - Transparency in regulation and the SEC’s Regulation Best Interest19:01 - Aperture’s fee model and the future of active management23:50 - Three big steps to improve trust in the financial system26:13 - What does name recognition have to do with trust?31:00 - Why is asset-based compensation hard to change?35:18 - The race to the illusion of “free”47:00 - Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) and performance1:02:45 - The future of finance1:08:35 - In the future of fintech, what will happen to the role of the human?

01:32 - Allen's background03:17 - How Hellman & Friedman differs from other private equity firms06:10 - Private vs public businesses08:49 - Capacity constraints & manager incentives 12:35 - Asset gathering in private equity17:01 - Public vs private portfolios22:42 - Do interest rates matter for returns?24:06 - The importance of culture27:26 - A save environment for "intellectual brutally" 34:28 - Democratization of private equity 39:53 - Is there Alpha in public investing?45:25 - How do you change the negative manager selection bias?53:42 - Challenges and outlook

Marstone CEO and co-founder Margaret Hartigan and CEO Peter Kraus discuss the topic of trust in the financial advice business:02:05 - Margaret's background and how Marstone was born05:23 - Has trust in financial advice eroded?06:58 - How transparent is the industry?11:05 - Educated consumers and the illusion of choice12:40 - I was an advisor; my dad is an advisor16:08 - Why are people avoiding advisors?18:41 - Technology's role in enabling smaller financial institutions21:05 - Maslow's Hierarchy26:02 - Gamification: choose your own adventure financial planning32:07 - Generational differences in the use of technology44:16 - What can smaller financial institutions do to adapt?33:29 - What's likely to change in the future?36:16 - Do people even want to talk to people?

Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and CMO Matthew Siegel discuss the topic of digital trust. 02:20 - Mike's background and how Instagram was born 15:11 - Instagram, trust, and the global financial crisis 20:17 - Simplicity vs scope 23:26 - Connecting with an audience via Instagram 30:24 - How Instagram changed the way we develop trust relationships 32:56 - Investing and social media 36:30 - The importance of human communication 41:42 - Too big to be social? 44:16 - Will Instagram still be around in one or two decades?

Kepos Capital CEO Mark Carhart and Aperture CEO Peter Kraus discuss the topic of quantitative investing. 02:08 - Mark's background and his interest in quantitative investing 05:37 - Quant trends over time 07:38 - Challenges and pitfalls 11:50 - Transaction costs and alpha 13:49 - Defining quantitative investing 16:46 - Machine learning and AI in money management 17:53 - The spectrum between pure judgement and pure quant 23:40 - Lessons from the 'quant quake' 28:32 - Alpha decay 31:32 - Beating the index 36:47 - Should there only be quantitative investing? 41:33 - Passive vs active investing

As part of Season One's exploration of trust, Ep. 2 takes a look at a class of fees - sometimes referred to as "revenue rebates" or "sub-transfer agency" which are paid by asset managers (mutual fund companies) to intermediaries (broker-dealers). Because these fees are often paid out of the asset manager's management fee, most retail clients are unaware that they exist, or that they effectively increase the overall fee they are paying to their broker-dealer. In this episode, Peter Kraus discusses how the industry ended up in this situation, what's being done to add more transparency and fairness to the marketplace, and what investors can do to make themselves more knowledgeable, active stewards of their own capital. Topics discussed include: Mutual funds Revenue rebates and sub-transfer agency fees 12b-1 fees Management fees The SEC's new Regulation Best Interest Conflicts of interest Learn more and sign up for our email list at apertureinvestors.com. Follow Peter and Aperture on Twitter @apertureinvstrs and @kraushopper.

Aperture Investors CMO Matthew Siegel provides a brief introduction to the Elephant in the Room podcast and to the focus of the first season: Trust. He discusses the trust deficit that exists between asset managers and their clients, and the global lack of trust in financial services as a whole. This short episode is an introduction to Season 1 of EITR.