Over Active?

Don and Tom dissect a Morningstar article naming the “best core stock funds” for 2026, noting the sharp decline in recommended actively managed funds and the dominance of low-cost index funds. While they applaud the shift away from expensive stock pickers, they argue Morningstar’s “core” approach still leads to unnecessary complexity and heavy large-cap (especially S&P 500) concentration, with little exposure to small-cap, value, and emerging markets. They advocate instead for simple, globally diversified, factor-tilted funds like DFAW, AVGE, or AVGV. Listener questions cover switching from AVGE to AVGV inside an IRA (risk tolerance matters), improving a 32-year-old’s 401(k) allocatio...