Introductions

Allow me to introduce myself as Leland Hevner, President and CEO of the National Association of Online Investors that I founded in 1997 with the mission of empowering individuals to invest with confidence via education and the use of online resources.

Since we began operations, thousands of individuals have taken our personal investing online courses, read our published books and or attended our college classes. As a result, we are a major influencer of how people invest today and the financial organizations they choose to work with.

Providing Investor Education and Innovative Investing Solutions

On this page, and throughout this site, you will learn about the NAOI and our unique, multi-faceted approach to investor empowerment. And you may be surprised to find that we not only teach how investing works today, our R&D Division also creates innovative investing methods and investment types that better meet the needs of our students.

The Introduction of Dynamic Investment Theory and Dynamic Investments

One of the most significant changes we have made, and are now teaching to our students, is the use of Dynamic Investment Theory (DIT) for the creation and management of portfolios. This is the first alternative to Modern Portfolios Theory (MPT) for this purpose since the 1950’s.

DIT defines the logic for the creation an innovative investment type called Dynamic Investments (DIs) that are market-sensitive, capable of automatically changing the equities they hold based on a periodic sampling of market trends. By doing so they are capable of producing higher returns with low risk than virtually any MPT portfolio in existence today. You can read about this game-changing approach starting at this link.

DIT and DIs are one development that the NAOI R&D Division has created, there are others. As they are thoroughly tested and released we include them in our education content and demand from the public for them will grow. We also make new developments available to the financial services industry, enabling them to meet this demand, via our Consulting Division.

The current NAOI organization chart is shown below and the purpose of each is discussed.

A Uniquely Effective Organization Structure

In 1997 the NAOI had the singular purpose of teaching individuals how investing works. And we were very successful at doing so. Yet, over time, we realized that education, alone, was not sufficient to enable people to invest with success. Also needed was a better understanding the wants/needs of investing public, investing innovation and more. To better meet the needs of our students, the corporate structure of the NAOI evolved by adding Divisions and resources beyond education.

Below is the current organization chart of the NAOI. You can see that we have evolved significantly since our founding; from an organization that provided only investor education to one that provides multiple components of a total investor empowerment solution; one that will benefit both individual investors AND the financial services industry.

The purpose of each Division and how they share information is described briefly beneath the chart with links to more detail found on this Web site.

The NAOI Education Division

A major problem with investing today is that nowhere in academia, at any level, have individuals been taught even the basics of this critical life-skill. Therefore, most people see little option but to entrust their financial futures to investment advisors, who are also salespeople, and hope for the best.

The NAOI was founded to solve this problem by offering to the public comprehensive, objective and actionable investing education. The NAOI Investor Certification Program, discussed at this link, is the gold standard for investor education today.

NAOI teaches individuals to invest with success via two. We show individuals how to invest on their own, if they wish, using an online broker. We also teach them how to work more effectively with financial advisors. On this path we show students how to evaluate advisor recommended portfolios by using online resources and asking the right questions. We also provide our students with a portfolio performance benchmark that they can use to determine the effectiveness of the portfolios recommended to them by their advisor.

For more information related to NAOI education go to this link.

The NAOI Individual Investor Market Research Division

In the NAOI organization chart shown above I have highlighted Individual Investor Market Research with a different colored box. Why? Because this activity separates us from other organizations claiming to empower investors.

The NAOI knows that the voice of the individual investor today is far too often ignored by the financial services industry today when creating new investing products and services. The job of the Market Research Division is to gather information from our students who represent a cross-section of the investing public. We want to understand their views, opinions, hopes and fears related to the field of investing. And we want to understand how they make investing decisions.

This information is used by our Education Division to shape NAOI education course content. It is also used by our R&D Division to create innovative investment products and investing methods that better meet the needs of the public. And it is used by our Consulting Division to show financial organizations how to create new investment products that individual investors will buy. Those that take action based on this input will own a massive competitive advantage over those that don’t.

The NAOI Financial Planning Center

While the NAOI’s main focus is on creating optimal investing products and investment portfolios, we recognize the fact that Financial Planning is also an integral part of investor empowerment.

To provide this element of investor empowerment we created the NAOI Financial Planning Center as a part of our Education Division. In this area we provide students with a set of online, interactive financial planning calculators and worksheets that enable them to document their current financial profile, the investing goals they want to reach and the actions needed to do so.

NAOI calculators and worksheets can be accessed for free on this site and are also available for licensing and branding by third parties. To access NAOI Financial Planning Center go to this link.

The NAOI Research and Development Division

For over a decade after our founding in 1997 we took for granted that industry-standard investing methods, such as the use of Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) to design and manage portfolios, were optimal for the task and not to be questioned. The goal of our education content was to teach these methods to the investing public. As time passed, however, we found that this thinking was wrong.

Following the market crash of 2008-2009, when the MPT portfolios we had taught our students to create lost significant value, we had to face the harsh reality that buy-and-hold, MPT portfolios, introduced to the market in the 1950’s, simply could not cope with 21st century markets.

With this realization I stopped all NAOI education courses until we could find an alternative to, or supplement for, MPT methods; one designed to thrive in volatile markets. For this purpose I opened the NAOI Research and Development Division. We realized that more then education was needed to empower investors, also needed was innovation.

Following a multi-year R&D project, using extensive input from our students, we found the MPT alternative needed in the form of Dynamic Investment Theory (DIT) and a powerful new investment type that it creates called Dynamic Investments (DIs). This innovative approach produces returns that MPT-based portfolios can’t touch with lower risk and absolute protection from market crashes. Read more about DIT and DIs at this link. They will play a significant role in shaping the future of investing.

The NAOI now teaches DIT and the use of DIs, in addition to MPT methods, in all of our investor education courses. By doing so, we are not just teaching people how investing works, we are also teaching them how to invest in a manner that creates wealth.

The book, pictured above, explains in detail how DIT was created and how DIs. Individuals who read this book will be able to take advantage of the power of DIs immediately after finishing the final chapter; whether they work on their own or with and advisor. Investing professionals who finish the book will have the knowledge needed to create their own proprietary DIs and begin immediately to include them in their corporate planning strategies. The book is available for purchase in the NAOI Store.

The NAOI Consulting Division

The NAOI Consulting Division was created to share our education content, investor-market research data and new developments with the financial services industry.

Via an NAOI consulting agreement we can show your organization how to gain a massive advantage over your competitors by offering more effective products using DIT methods and Dynamic Investments. And we can show organizations how to integrate DIs into their existing product lines with little disruption to current activities. Advisors and financial organizations that offer DIs will own a massive competitive advantage over those that don’t. An NAOI consulting agreement shows you how.

NAOI focus groups consisting of individuals with money to invest tell us that DIT is the approach to investing that they need to enter equity markets with confidence and without fear. And they will search for advisors and financial organizations that offer them. The ROI of an NAOI Consulting Agreement will off the charts high. We guarantee it. For more information go to this link.

NAOI Partnerships and Advisory Agreements

The NAOI offers Partnerships to financial organizations that share our passion for empowering individuals to invest with confidence, with success and without fear. Based on 20+ years of working with the investing public we have gained a sterling reputation as a strong advocate for the individual investor. A Partnership with us will elevate any organization’s “trust-factor” with the investing public to a higher level. This is a significant competitive advantage in a field in which a recent CFA Institute survey (found at this link) showed that only 23% of individual investors trust their financial advisor.

Partnerships are offered in these areas: Strategic Planning, Investor Education, Retirement Planning and Investing Product Research and Development. More information is found at this link.

NAOI President Leland Hevner is also available to join company Advisory Boards to make sure that the voice of the individual investor is heard in the strategic planning process. This a critical factor, too often ignored, that all financial organizations must effective and profitable decisions.

To Survive and Thrive, the World of Investing Must Evolve

Input from the investing public tells us that the way we are taught to invest today has a short life-span. Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), today’s unquestioned industry standard for designing and managing portfolios, is becoming dangerously outdated. As a result, the NAOI is seeing a significant number of people leaving the market, unwilling to subject their financial futures to the risks of owning 1950’s era, buy-and-hold portfolios in modern, volatile markets.

The NAOI R&D Division has addressed this issue with the development of Dynamic Investment Theory (DIT), the industry’s first viable alternative to MPT, and the creation of Dynamic Investments (DIs) a powerful new investment type created by DIT. This is the approach needed to not only stop people from leaving the market but also for bringing into the market people who now on the sidelines in fear of the way investing works today.

DIT and DIs finally free the world of investing from the MPT “box” where it has been stuck for close to seven decades. By doing so we have opened the doors to the development of a vast new world of higher performing and lower risk investment products and portfolios.

Financial organizations that embrace this change will thrive in the future of investing with more clients and increased revenues. Those that choose to ignore it will struggle to survive. That’s just how evolution works.

Let’s Talk

Contact me directly at LHevner@naoi.org to discuss how we can work together to make investing more profitable and less risky for both individual and corporate investors.

“The Future of Investing Starts Here” is a registered trademark of Leland Hevner and the NAOI.