Paul Winkler is the president and founder of Paul Winkler, Inc, an investment advisory firm headquartered in Goodlettsville with 10 offices in Middle Tennessee. He has been the host of his long-running radio show “The Investor Coaching Show” for more than 18 years on Supertalk 99.7 WWTN.
In addition to earning a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Albany, N.Y., Winkler holds several professional designations, such as Chartered Financial Consultant, Registered Financial Consultant, Chartered Life Underwriter, Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow, Chartered Advisor for Senior Living, Retirement Income Certified Professional and Accredited Asset Management Specialist.
As we look forward to Feb. 27 when he will headline a Trevecca Association Business Professionals luncheon, we talked with Winkler about how he got into investing, his radio show and more. Here’s a little of what he had to say.
On how he got into investing:
After earning his undergraduate degree and working in insurance, Winkler got a securities license, started dealing in investments and studied under Nobel Prize-winning economist Eugene Fama, who won the honor for his stance on market efficiency and factor investing. Fama’s views heavily influenced Winkler’s approach to investing.
“Eugene Fama is a really interesting guy. He said that 95 percent of an investment portfolios rate of return is driven by certain factors, what they call market factors. What he was teaching was the opposite of so much of what I had learned as an investment broker, so I was really intrigued with what he was teaching. … As a broker, you’re typically taught to sell investments based on past performance, you’re taught to go and do research on companies and markets and try to determine the best areas of the market to invest in based on what was happening and historical events. It was just very different from what [Fama] was teaching.”
On how his financial advisory firm is different than others:
“We help people implement academic principles of investing. We teach investors how markets work, where returns come from, we don’t expect them to know everything that we know. We teach them what they need to know to be a smarter consumer when it comes to their investments. Most people think they can’t understand investing, that it’s above their heads, that it’s far too complicated. The reality is—one of my professors may put it this way: ‘we ought to be tripping over Wall Street millionaires. We ought to be tripping over investors with phenomenal returns in their investment portfolios over the past 20 or 30 years, but we’re not.’ The biggest part of the problem is that most investors get really bad returns versus the market. There are certain mistakes that the average investor makes. You don’t have to know what I know, but there are certain things you need to look out for in the investment world. That’s one of the things I’ll be talking about.”
On his radio show:
“I talk about current events. I talk about what’s on the news; I talk about financial planning concepts, those types of things. It’s all over the place.”
A show that covers a wide-ranging variety of topics, “The Investor Coaching Show” is centered around common financial questions and the financial news of the week. Winkler started the show in 2001 soon after his studies with Fama. During the call-in show, Winkler endeavors to take some of the mystery out of the financial planning and investing world and dispel common myths that tend to lead investors astray.
What he hopes people take away from the upcoming Trevecca Association of Business Professionals luncheon:
“Do not blindly trust the investing industry. Too many people blindly trust the investing industry and hope that they get it right, and they learn too late that their investments weren’t managed properly … The [traditional] investment industry is driven around sales and transactions, and it’s not that these investment advisers or investment providers are knowingly trying to mislead investors … So, you have to be part of the process, and don’t blindly trust. Nobody cares more about your money than you do.”
Join Winkler at Trevecca on Feb. 27 for “Creating Confident Investors in Times of Uncertainty.” Winkler is expected to discuss investor psychology and its role in investor success as well as financial data that might be ignored by typical investors. The luncheon is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Boone Convocation Center on Trevecca’s campus. Tickets cost $35 per person, while a $500 table sponsorship reserves eight seats.
Founded in 2010, the Trevecca Association of Business Professionals exists to facilitate and foster opportunities for Trevecca alumni and friends within the Nashville business community. The organization hosts two luncheons each year the proceeds of which go toward scholarships for worthy Trevecca business students. Since 2014 the association has awarded more than 46 scholarships from the proceeds.
Presenting sponsor:
