What I learned from Larry and Mark… In late May I attended the Morningstar Investment Conference. There were three days of lectures and presentations and over 2,000 attendees. In this letter I will tell you what I learned from Larry and Mark. In another letter I will share what I learned from David and Jon.

Larry Fink is the CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. He made two interesting points. First, he said that the U.S. economy was on a good path, with the labor market tightening and inflation low, so the market will likely keep rising. Second, he noted that retirement savings are woefully inadequate and that we need better automatic savings systems in the workplace.

Mark Mobius has been the leader in emerging market investing for Franklin Templeton for decades. He gave a lecture on why emerging markets are attractive. His reasoning: 85% of the world’s population is in emerging markets and they are growing rapidly. Even if we have short-term volatility, the long-term trend is up.

I came away from the conference reaffirmed in our commitment to disciplined, long-term investing. Good research and global perspective remain crucial.

Sincerely,

Katz Family Financial