Michael Falk | CFA Institute

Personal Details

Bio

I am a Partner with the Focus Consulting Group and specializes in helping investment teams with improving their investment philosophy, process and execution techniques - their decision-making, and investment firms with their strategic planning. In the past, I have been the Chief Strategist on a global macro hedge fund, and a CIO in charge of manager due diligence and asset allocation for a multi-billion-dollar advisory. My background includes extensive asset allocation research, portfolio development expertise and a multi-faceted understanding of behavioral finance and retirement issues.

Apart from my FCG work, I am the author of the CFA Institute Research Foundation 2016 Monograph “Let’s All Learn How to Fish… to Sustain Long-term Economic Growth” and a contributor to the 2017 self-published "Money, Meaning, and Mindsets: Radical Reform for the Investment Industry." I have been part of the CFA Institute’s Approved Speaker program since 2004, and teach on behalf of the CFA Society of Chicago in their Foundations of Investing program. In the past, I had been a contributing member in the Financial Management Association (FMA) Practitioner Demand Driven Academic Research Initiative (PDDARI) group and taught at DePaul University in their Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Certificate Program. I am a frequent speaker at industry events and often quoted in the financial press.

Current position (1)

Partner

Focus Consulting Group

Degrees (1)

Finance

University of Illinois

1985 to 1989

Presentations

Presentations (3)

Let’s All Learn How to Fish…to Sustain Long-Term Economic Growth

Today’s economic growth challenges will become greater in the future if only due to the world’s agedness, fertility levels and entitlement policies. However, those same challenges could be overcome with more thoughtful public policies along with a culture of responsibility and appreciation. This talk, based on my CFA Institute Research Foundation Monograph, reconsiders what makes us “healthy, wealthy and wise,” and focuses on how we might re-imagine healthcare, retirement and education policies to usher in a new ERA of sustainable, long-term economic growth.

For further information, please visit http://www.letsalllearnhowtofish.com

Complimentary copies of this book are provided by the CFA Institute Research Foundation for attendees of this presentation.

Improving Your Investment Decisions

As alpha becomes increasingly scarce or harder to capture, investment philosophy and processes need to continuously improve simply to maintain an edge. Do you embrace deliberate practices or have “learning loops”? And, processes may not be enough in and of themselves. Do you have good decision-making execution, is your team cohesive and do you have a supportive culture? This presentation is about my tales from the trenches; what I have learned from my time being embedded within investment teams for days at a time and how I have helped those teams “raise their game.”

Psychology, Neurology… How Your Biology Impacts Your Decisions

In an industry built on making (or not making) decisions, the process behind those decisions is critical to our success. The question is how much are our decisions the result of “pure” logic versus what could be considered “tainted” motivation. This presentation will introduce research that will likely raise questions, maybe impact perspectives, and perhaps even cause you to alter your decision-making process in some unexpected ways. Tools that practitioners can use immediately will be discussed.

Past talks (4)

Let’s All Learn How to Fish… To Sustain LT Economic Growth

CFA Annual Conference Research for the Practitioner

Philadelphia, PA

2017

Better Investment Decisions . . . via Good Governance?

CFA Annual Conference

Frankfurt, Germany

2015

Enough About The Assets Already

Morningstar Investment Conference

Chicago