Goals-Based Investing and JWM: Where They Have Been, Where They Are Headed

Abstract

The Journal of Wealth Management has played a key role in supporting research that benefits individual investors. What began as concern over taxes, has grown into its own branch of portfolio theory, now known as goals-based investing. Though originally a behavioral adaptation to mean-variance portfolio theory, goals-based investing now boasts its own normative and axiomatic support, as well as making way for behavioral considerations. I review the story of these ideas over the last quarter-century and highlight the role JWM has played in supporting them.