ETFs: Their Impressive Growth and the Future of the Industry with Eduardo Repetto of Avantis Investors

Orion's The Weighing Machine

As Chief Investment Officer of Avantis Investors®, Eduardo is responsible for directing the research, design and implementation of our investment strategies, providing oversight of the investment team and the firm's marketing initiatives, and interacting with clients.

Prior to Avantis Investors' establishment in 2019, Eduardo was Co-Chief Executive Officer, Co-Chief Investment Officer and Director at Dimensional Fund Advisors LP ("DFA") until 2017. While at DFA, Eduardo provided oversight across the investment, client service, marketing, and operational functions of DFA and oversaw their day to day operations, directed the engineering and execution of investment portfolios and was involved in the design, development and delivery of research that informed the firm's investment approach as well as its application through portfolio management and trading.

Dr. Repetto earned a Ph.D. degree in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology, an MSc degree in Engineering from Brown University, and a Diploma de Honor in Civil Engineering from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Eduardo is a Trustee of the California Institute of Technology. He is the recipient of the William F. Ballhaus Prize from the California Institute of Technology for outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Aeronautics and the Ernest E. Sechler Memorial Award for his teaching and research efforts.

Key Takeaways

• [02:52] - Learn more about Eduardo’s diverse professional background and how his engineering background informs his work in finance today.
• [04:48] - What is unique about the Avantis investment philosophy and what does that mean for their advisors and investors?
• [06:48] - Avantis’ Investment Solutions are designed to capture the benefits of indexing while simultaneously focusing on segments of the market that are likely to outperform. How does this work exactly?
• [10:32] - Avantis recently published an article entitled “What is Value?” What are some of the big takeaways and how does their firm define value?
• [12:20] - What are some of the key drivers in the ETF industry’s continued growth?
• [15:50] - What are some of the latest trends and developments shaping the ETF market and which areas of the ETF market are experiencing the highest growth?
• [18:37] - Which strategies in the Avantis product line are showing the best growth and why is that?
• [20:54] - What strategies at Avantis may help advisors build more resilient portfolios?
• [22:16] - What are some best practices for constructing resilient ETF portfolios?
• [26:55] - How does Avantis set themselves apart in their client services and communication?
• [29:00] - What is currently Eduardo’s favorite investment idea?

Quotes

[05:45] - “[Avantis formed]...in order to bring science, data and technology to analyze securities in a very very efficient way with low labor costs…We can provide portfolios that are very well diversified [with a] very low expense ratio and where the securities are analyzed on a daily basis." ~ Eduardo Repetto

[111:23] - “For us, value is companies that are traded with a very very big discount embedded in their price. In otherwards, companies that have a good balance sheet, good cash flows, but the price is low." ~ Eduardo Repetto

Links

• Eduardo Repetto on LinkedIn
• Avantis Investors
• “Can’t Hold Us (feat. Ray Dalton)” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

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Disclosure(s) ~ Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC, an Orion Company, is a registered investment advisor. Wealth Management services are offered by Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC d/b/a Brinker Capital Investments a registered investment advisor. Orion Portfolio Solutions, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Orion Advisor Solutions, Inc. (“Orion”)

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