Rob Arnott is presenting at Basis Northwest
One of the original taxable wealth researchers is coming to Seattle, WA in May
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I’m pleased to announce that Rob Arnott, Founder and Chairman of Research Affiliates, is presenting at Basis Northwest.
I first learned of Arnott’s work in 2012 while working as a portfolio associate at PIMCO.
In 2014, I caught the tax-aware investment management bug after reading his and Jeffrey’s 1993 classic Is Your Alpha Big Enough to Cover Its Taxes?
I’ve been re-reading Arnott and Jeffrey’s 1993 paper, and covered it in two recent posts:
Their paper is about the relationship between turnover and tax efficiency. They provide a simple pro rata model that explains how costly turnover can be (in terms of realized capital gains) and later empirically show it.
In 2011, Arnott, along with two of my favorite authors in the space, Andrew Berkin and Paul Bouchey, returned with Is Your Alpha Big Enough To Cover Its Taxes? Revisited.
Then, in 2018, Arnott (with Kalesnik and Schuesler) returned again with Is Your Alpha Big Enough to Cover Its Taxes? A Quarter-Century Retrospective.
Here is a recording of Arnott presenting the 25-year retrospective.
Stay tuned for more about the 2011 and 2018 papers (and maybe some notes about Paul Bouchey’s and Andrew Berkin’s work, too!) in future blog posts and for more about Basis Northwest in Seattle, WA, May 28-29, 2026.
Have a great Tuesday.





Hey Brent - when will registration open for the conference?