Ben Carlson and Paul Merriman on Full Disclosure
About this episode
Paul Merriman and Ben Carlson discuss investing strategies and market history in a candid conversation.
Paul Merriman joins host Roben Farzad on Full Disclosure for a rare conversation alongside Ben Carlson, director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth and author of the new book Risk and Reward: How to Handle Market Volatility and Build Long-Term Wealth . Roben called it a “truth teller tandem” — the first time these two have sat down together — and the result is an hour of warm, candid, data-grounded talk about how individual investors can actually succeed. The conversation opens with a great question: does a century of S&P 500 history mean anything when index funds didn’t even exist for most of it? Paul explains why those long-run numbers still matter — not as a promise of the next ten years, but as a guide to the full range of what markets can do. From there, Paul and Ben trace just how far investing has come since Paul entered the business in 1966: the death of the 8.5% sales load, the arrival of IRAs and 401(k)s, fractional shares, and commission-free trading. As Ben puts it, the barriers to entry have been bulldozed, and today’s investor has a better shot at strong net returns than ever before. But more choices bring more temptation. Paul and Ben dig into…
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