YouSaid · the spoken record

Karin Risi

lines on the record: 53
first: 2025-05-09
most recent: 2025-05-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Yeah, well, again, here I feel like a bit of a ringer because not many 23-year-olds have the benefit of people like Jack Brennan or Bill McNabb, et cetera, telling them explicitly. I remember sitting in the office with Jack Brennan and he said, all you need to do is live below your means. And it was something that Jack Bobo used to say all the time. And it was instilled in you the minute you got into Vanguard, along with things like invest in the 401k and take advantage of the company match and build up an emergency fund and all these things that are the basic tenets of financial planning. But when you're in your early 20s, you know, you don't necessarily focus on these are things that I actually, 28 years later, have benefited from because the magic of compounding was a very real thing that I was able to take advantage of before perhaps many of my peers who were working at different companies where that wasn't such a strong focus.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And understand the context of what's going on at the firm and the history behind it before you charge into whatever you're going to do.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would say for sure pay attention to the company and the mission and purpose of that company, be proud of the company you work for, worry about that more than the job or the starting salary. Think hard about the company that you want to connect yourself with. I mean, it's unlikely that many college grads are going to have a 28-year run at a company like I just did. Even if you're only going to be there for a shorter stint, you know, think about the company ahead of the actual job you're going to do because my next piece of advice is do more than is asked. Think about how you can contribute outside of your finite job description. Lastly, I would say seek to understand the context. When you join a company and you're right out of college and you're eager to make a mark, I think it's really important to understand what came before you take the time to invest in relationships with your peers.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Every Monte Carlos Hilmalian, it goes to 100. Yes, and I cannot tell you how many clients at the time said, that's insane. I'm going to drop dead at 70 or 80 or whatever. And they would fight with us. And now it's not inconceivable.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. I remember when we first started the personal advisor offer and we were creating the advice methodology, we conservatively, our planning horizon was to 100 years.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But fascinating to think about the longevity and the notion of health span versus lifespan inwardly for each person. I have some work to do to live to 100, but I'm game for it. And the book on my shelf next is related to that. And it's called The Longevity Principle. And that takes sort of a broader view of how. Support from an infrastructure healthcare financial sector, all these different dimensions that we'll need to change to support all these people who will be living to maybe 100 in the future. And not that far away.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a fair point. What am I reading now? I just finished and I'm like way behind the times because a million colleagues had suggested I read Outlive by Peter Atia. It's been on bestseller list for multiple years now. Yeah, but”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yep, Roger Lowenstein and the rise and fall of long term capital management. Think about when I joined Vanguard in 1997, that was all unfolding in the early 2000s. I didn't know anything about hedge funds. I didn't know anything about leverage really. It was so far afield from what was happening in Malvern, Pennsylvania. That it was just like a fascinating read and really a cautionary tale.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But really, you know, a required reading on passive, the benefits of passive investing. And, you know, when I joined Vanguard, I knew about indexing, but I didn't know it to the depth that I would later And so that was an early educational book, probably in the same era when Genius failed as a figureline.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, favorites for sure. You can't spend 28 years at Vanguard without the required reading. A random walk down Wall Street, I think, was dropped on my chair, truly, within the first month of my joining the firm of my.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Writing my next chapter and what I want to do post Vanguard, I still am looking to the mentorship and advocacy of both Bill and Tim. So very grateful for them both.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Man, too many to count at Vanguard really just spoiled with lots of great leaders, all of whom were mentors in different ways, particularly in the very early days of my career. People like Jeff Molitor taking a chance on me, giving me my first job at Vanguard when I was not an obvious choice, really helping me develop a thick skin. He was notorious for giving very straight feedback Martha King. I mentioned her earlier, just one of my earliest female role models at the firm when there really weren't that many. There still are not enough across the industry, but many more today than back in the late 90s. And then certainly I mentioned, I've already talked about Jack Brennan, Bill McNab, and Tim Buckley, but certainly Bill McNabb and Tim Buckley for sure figure prominently in my career as advocates for me over decades. They are still to this day, as I think about”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Yeah. For those that don't know, I think it's worth very different from anything you see on TV right now. Gene Smart is, you know, talk about longevity in a career. She's in her 70s. I love seeing that. And it's just a darkly funny, you know, mentorship between one character and a much younger character. It's a good one.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did serve as a member of the Vanguard Foundation Board when I was at the firm. I also served as a member of the Irish Funds Board And I also had the opportunity, it's separate from Vanguard but related. I also served on Vanguard Charitables Board for a number of years. So all of those, you know, through different lenses were opportunities outside of my day-to-day swim lane or job, if you will, to give back to either the community with regard to the Vanguard Foundation or get involved in our international business through our Irish Funds distribution through that board. Or in Vanguard Charitable's case, really think about donor advised funds and learn more about that.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And related, but perhaps a little different than that, I would give the advice to women who are looking for expanded leadership opportunities or more responsibility to be explicit in asking for it. And that's also something that you hope you keep your head down and do the work and you get noticed and you get chosen for the special project or the next assignment or the rotation. And often, you know, you're just not top of mind and that's okay. So you have to be more explicit about expressing your interest in taking on more responsibility, expanding, you know, your remit within the organization or getting on some research project. You have to tell people that you're interested in doing more than you've already been asked to do.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, but I think women can often use some encouragement to one, do the work, develop the point of view, right? That there is work to be done. But once you have a point of view, take a risk and share it and know that it's okay when you are wrong. You will be wrong. I think there's often a fear of the criticism that will follow when you express your point of view. And I think a lot of the counsel is develop the point of view, take the risk because no one will know you're in the room until you open your mouth.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Those are your words. So I'll just say yes, I find many times men are infinitely comfortable. Sharing their point of view”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think particularly about the advice and counsel that I have given to many younger women in the organization, I often will say, don't be afraid to take a risk, you know, do the work, develop a point of view, have your own point of view and be willing to share it. There's often a confidence gap. It's not an aptitude gap.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Into the highest potential leaders that they could be at the firm in whatever area of expertise they were best suited to.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They call it Wills internally at Vanguard, and you're right, it's the women's initiative for leadership success. It was spearheaded under Bill McKnapp's leadership, and I mention that because it is so important that top down, the CEO made it a priority. And I think that's why it continues to thrive today. I had the honor of being one of the founding leaders of our Wills Initiative more than 15 years ago at this point, but it's still an incredibly important employee resource group within the firm and it was the first of several. So we probably have half a dozen or more different employee resource groups now, but the importance of encouraging women and helping them develop into leaders at Vanguard. And I use the term leader broadly, so leader of people, but also specialists in portfolio management or legal or data analytics, you name it. So there's just been a lot of evolution over time.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, that's the other thing. You're right, the demographics, lots of RIAs are looking to turn over their book and they don't have a strong succession plan.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, I don't know what the why is behind that, but I can certainly say just in the time that I've left Vanguard, all of the conversations I've had around the industry, there is a ton of interest in, and you see it yourself, all of the consolidation that is happening among all of those mid and smaller tier RIAs, you know, the larger firms, the top tier are either buying up those RIAs, there's consolidation across the industry, there's a lot of private equity money invested, and investing, interested in investing more in the RIA space. There's just a ton of movement in wealth management, which I think is exciting and hopefully is good for investors.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there are some pretty big and very strong independent RAAs, and we serve a lot of them. They're clients of Vanguard's, but you're right. It's a fragmented market still. There's definitely a top tier for sure.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, we were offering advice, but you're right that there was a little bit of needle threading to do. I think partially we were able to do that well because there was so much internal collaboration across the senior leaders at the firm, first Martha King and then Tom Rampulla ran the FAS division at that time. And when Tom took over, I was running the retail division. And there was a lot of discussion around, you know, what we needed to do to both serve RIAs really well through Tom's division and also be a growing and thriving RIA ourselves serving individual investors with our own advice methodology. And I think there's been a lot of collaboration between those divisions over time where we use research and the things that we learn through our investment strategy group or our in-house research. We share that with the RIAs that we serve.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, for sure. I mean, I would acknowledge that the RIA channel for sure is a totally different division at Vanguard, but it is absolutely critical to our success and growth over time. What we've been talking about is really that direct relationship when a client opens a mutual fund account directly with Vanguard and then that is essentially what I'm referring to as self-directed. in the same timeframe we were growing our financial advisor services division as well and that is a critical component of what we do today.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Totally self directed is really the legacy of the firm. We still have a much greater cadre of self directed clients than advised clients”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Different options. And I think it also led to the genesis of our personal advisor offer because we realized there was an incredible pent-up demand. People who had joined Vanguard. Know perhaps with a single mutual fund, you know, maybe they started with a money market fund. So totally.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There is definitely a difference, but you know, I had in earlier in my career I led phone groups hundreds of phone associates and we would train them to serve the clients transactional needs and help them with guidance. But I cannot tell you in the same way that Bill McNabb would monitor phone calls. I would monitor phone calls when I was leading those groups. And so many clients just wanted to know which funds should I buy? And now we have 400.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And you can add advice to that list. He didn't want to do advice either. Really? In fact, oh, for sure. We had. Thousands of frontline phone associates who were told do not use the word advice. You know, there was a definitely a very clear line between guidance and advice, and we were very careful to step back from the advice line, if you will.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doing research really kind of pulling together research and helping the senior team determine whether they were going to try to do this scalable advice offer. And there were multiple iterations before personal advisor. Personal advisor, which we launched in 2015, that's the offer you just referenced well over $350 billion now, serving hundreds of thousands of clients. It started with multiple iterations inside of Vanguard. So I think we had a couple of goes at it before we perfected what I had really the privilege to lead in 2015.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Great offer, clients loved it, high NPS scores, but certainly not scalable. You know, we had a few hundred fewer than 200 advisors really powering that offer. You know, fewer than 10,000 clients. So we knew that we had the ability to offer great advice using mostly Vanguard product at the core of the advice methodology at the time. And we wanted to scale it. But I credit really Jack Brennan initially for wanting that scalable advice. I mentioned at the top of the program that”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, definitely not my vision alone. It was a firm-wide kind of push for sure. We had been, this is going way back, we had been chasing scalable advice for decades at Vanguard. We had an offer. Very small relative to, you know, the firm size at the time. It was called asset management services. The minimum was $500,000 to invest. You got a one-on-one dedicated advisor, much the same way you do today. And I think we charged back then Barry probably 90 basis points on the first million.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Again, I'm not going to check your stat, but I think, yes, having built out the personal advisor offer from the ground up and passed it on to multiple of my colleagues since then. We're now well over, I think, a thousand advisors for sure. Wow. So it's possible. Luckily, we have other domestic offices, not just Pennsylvania. There's also Charlotte and Arizona and Dallas. So we can attract talent in the CFP ranks from multiple spots.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Certainly not all alternatives are created equally. I think you could say that for sure. And I think with regard to what Vanguard endeavors to do, it'll be up to the current CEO and his leadership team, but I would suspect that they will stay true to the notion of trying to provide clients with the best possible offers that meet their long-term investing needs. And I do think that there is a place for private assets in that, but that'll be up to the current team to decide.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's going to be a matter of you pay different things for different asset classes and private market investing is different than public market investing. So I would imagine that investors should expect to pay more for a private equity offer or a private credit offer. The key for me, you know, and again, speaking personally would be I want to know that I'm getting a top quality manager at a fair price. I think giving a fair price is the obligation that the industry has to investors.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Public markets. Yeah, I think it can be both. It's a really good distinction. I think it can be both. It depends on your wealth level. It depends on how much of your overall allocation you're going to put into privates and then what type of private market asset class you're going to be working with. So yes, I think it can be an uncorrelated return opportunity and also an alpha generation opportunity.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Returns well above public markets over time, and is that something I should incorporate into my portfolio? I think that's a problem statement that many clients aren't even approaching yet, but perhaps should. Perhaps there is a spot for, and I think if you look at all of, you called it a land grab, I think that's pretty fair. I think there's a ton of movement. Everybody I speak with, and probably those that you speak with too are talking about democratizing privates. I think it's a trend right now, but I think in general it's something that should be here to stay.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think it's one of the next things that we as an industry, not just Vanguard, but more broadly advisors have to help clients with, retail clients in particular who are used to, as you said, a conventional 60-40 public portfolio, really thinking about is first, is there a role for privates in their portfolio construction? And then, if yes, if appropriate, then how they should integrate that into their portfolio and then which manager they should do that with. So it is a multi-layered decision process. And I think one that advisors can really help with. That's a personal opinion. I think advisors can help clients who maybe know a little bit about private equity, but not enough or have heard about private credit and all of the press headlines, the private credit is getting right now and really trying to figure out, is this right for me? And in fact, can it generate excess return?”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really excited to join Harbor Vest in May. I'm going to be joining their board, really getting to know the firm in a different capacity. When I was at Vanguard, of course, in 2020, we partnered with HarborVest. I oversaw the team that actually selected HarborVest among multiple managers that we considered for our first So multiple series of vintages of that fund have progressed, and Vanguard continues to work with Harbor Vest, and now I'm looking forward to working with them in a different capacity.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I'm still making the shift. You know, I'm still kind of writing my next chapter, which is really exciting, but I will be joining HarborVest partners board next month”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think it's an exciting one, both for the industry but also for Vanguard. As you mentioned, we began offering in 2020, I think, we began offering private equity fund to some of our retail investors, those that were qualified for it. It was a first for Vanguard, but I would say the notion of broadening access to different types of investments for mainstream investors is not a first. I mean, it's what we did with mutual funds. It's what we did with ETFs. It's what we endeavor to do with advice. And so private equity is part and parcel really of that advice offer for many of our advised clients. I think you'll see a lot more of that. In fact, there was subsequent to my leaving, there was a recent announcement that there is even another product that there'll be more information on with partnering with Blackstone and Wellington.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, sometimes it's still not even popular today, but we've been pretty clear and steadfast in our view that investors should have a goal. They should be intentional about what they're trying to achieve, having some balance and diversification, being thoughtful about how you construct a portfolio and perhaps getting the help of an advisor to do that if an investor would benefit from that. And really having the discipline, to your point of sticking with it for the long term and understanding what your personal risk tolerance is, your investment time horizon, and really thinking about how you're going to achieve those goals.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the Vanguard effect to use Eric's phrase is real. I mean, we have seen that, particularly when we enter new markets outside the U.S.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I'm not going to check your math on that, but I'll buy Eric's and your estimate there on what we've saved investors over time. And I think the focus on cost has been relentless. It's something that is in the fabric of the organization. We counsel our investors and our clients to focus on the things they can control and expense ratios, whether it's mutual funds or ETFs. These are things that are within an investor's control and it helps them keep more of their return. It's part of our whole portfolio construction methodology when we advise clients. It's one of the factors, not the only factor and maybe not even the first factor, Barry, but certainly keeping costs low is something that Vanguard feels obligated to do for its now 50 plus million investors around the world. Wow.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Very similar to what you just described and very consistent with how Vanguard approaches crisis, really. I mean, the GFC was definitely qualified as a crisis for our firm and the industry and investors. And there was a calmness coming from Bill as the CEO, but also the rest of the leadership team and providing assurance to our crew. And you're right. There was an explicit assurance that we were going to keep calm and carry on and really importantly continue investing in our strategic priorities where some firms were immediately pulling back after the GFC. Vanguard had the luxury of we are Playing a long game and continuing, I recall Bill and the leadership team expressing to our crew at the time, we're going to continue to invest in our strategic priorities. We're leaning in. And I think it had a very big calming effect on the crew.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, I think it's an important milestone, but it is a reflection of everything that Vanguard has been over the last 50 years. I think our culture, our mission, our purpose has been incredibly consistent from the top down modeled by every leader. You mentioned the CEOs of Vanguard that you have already had the pleasure of talking to. Gotta get the new guy in here. Yeah, you got to get the new guy in. But, you know, there is just a remarkable consistency across what we try to do for clients and how our leaders express that and how our crew feel that and reflect that to our clients when they serve them every day.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I agree. I agree. I would agree with you, Barry. And I think from a Vanguard culture perspective, it also allowed us to really instill in, you know, now 20,000 crew around the globe, but those of us in Malvern for sure, this notion that our culture is really reflection more of Main Street than Wall Street, you kind of hear that around Vanguard every now and then, and it speaks to the clients that we serve and the way we think about product development and all of the rest of it.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do think it plays a big role in our culture, especially over decades. I think it's a big part of, in some ways, the talent we attract. There is a very purposeful decision on the part of most people in our industry to, in many cases, relocate their family to the suburbs of Philadelphia. Many of them are coming from New York or other areas. And you have to really buy into the mission and purpose of Vanguard and its company and its culture to, you know, make a consequential decision like that. I think it speaks to the ability for our mission and purpose to resonate with top talent in the industry.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that's fair, and I think Sarah Devereux, who runs our fixed income shop at Vanguard now, would agree with you. I think there's a lot of opportunity that the team sees based on what's happening in the environment. And perhaps I don't know, I'm not in a position to say relative to active equity. I don't know if our active equity managers would agree, but I know that Sarah's team would agree.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, he is. He and his team have built out our fixed income capabilities over the years. And so we really are in a strong position to offer active fixed income across the range. And I think you'll see Vanguard leaning into our fixed income product lineup even more going forward.”
2025-05-09 · Masters in Business · Influencing Capital Allocation with Karin Risi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source