Steven Nathan There is always a frenzy to devour and dissect Buffett’s shareholder letter and extract the freshest pearls of wisdom. This year was no exception, even though the pickings seemed a bit slim. On more leisurely reading, says Steven Nathan, 10X Investment chief executive, some insights relate to the things he didn’t talk about.  Lesson 1: fees are paramount Some points bear repeating. In 2015, Buffett warned investors it’s their own behaviour that can make stock ownership risky. One such behaviour is “the payment of high and unnecessary fees to managers and advisors”. In 2017, he reminded his readers that, unlike returns, “fees never sleep”. Or, as he put it in 2018, “Performance comes, performance goes. Fees never falter.” That message never gets old. Nothing captures the long-term impact of compounding small percentages – as may be attributable to fees – as dramatically as Berkshire Hathaway’s own numbers. Since 1965, $100 dollars invested by the company w...

Warren Buffett (Image credit: forbes.com ) At his recent annual general meeting in Omaha, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Warren Buffett once again reiterated that investors need to question the fees that are charged by expensive money managers and consultants who consistently fail to better the returns of index funds. At the AGM, Buffett explained to shareholders that probably the most important investment lesson in the world is that Wall Street salesmanship has masked poor returns for years. “Consultants have steered pension funds and others to high-fee managers who, as a group, underperform what you could get ‘sitting on your rear end’ in index funds. The arrangements eat up capital like crazy,” said Buffett. His views are echoed by Steven Nathan, CEO of 10X Investments , who agrees with Buffett’s criticism of the traditional investment system that mainly results in an enormous wealth transfer away from savers to the industry. “This system promotes hund...