Index Fund Advisors
Index Fund Advisors (abbreviated as IFA) is a registered investment advisor (RIA) headquartered in Irvine, California, with representatives in several locations across the United States. The company was founded in 1999 by Mark T. Hebner, former president of nuclear pharmacy company Syncor International, with the goal of providing investment adviser services while also providing educational material regarding investing to the general public through the website IFA.com.
IFA offers high net worth individuals, 401k Plans, 403b Plans, foundations and endowments an expanding range of advisory services that are consistent with IFA’s investment strategy of passive investing. Heavily influenced by the works of Nobel Laureates Eugene Fama, Harry Markowitz, Paul Samuelson, William Forsyth Sharpe, Merton Miller, Daniel Kahneman and Friedrich von Hayek, IFA advises clients to invest in low-cost index mutual funds, such as those provided by Dimensional Fund Advisors, Vanguard or Blackrock's iShares. Additionally, IFA offers advice on faith-based and sustainable investments, through its IFAsustainable.com and InvestingforCatholics.com.
IFA publishes IFA.com and produces videos on IFA.tv. Mark Hebner is the author of Index Funds: The 12-Step Recovery Program for Active Investors, a book on the failure of active management and the advantages of passive investing. Together these various media endeavors advance Hebner's mission to get investors all over the world to stop actively investing their investment portfolios. IFA’s investing philosophy is based on Nobel prize winning academic and empirical research, including the efficient market hypothesis and rejects active management strategies such as stock picking, market timing, manager selection and tactical asset allocation.
IFA reached $2.4 billion in assets under management in June, 2014.
See also
- Enhanced indexing
- Efficient market hypothesis
- Dimensional Fund Advisors