John Rekenthaler

John Rekenthaler has worked at Morningstar since 1988, making him one of the most senior and experienced fund researchers in the industry. His columns and research pieces on fund selection, active versus passive management, retirement savings, and financial planning have shaped the thinking of millions of retail investors and financial advisers. Rekenthaler is known for his willingness to challenge conventional wisdom in the fund industry and for applying data analysis to questions about what fund characteristics actually predict future performance. His systematic analysis of fund survivorship bias — documenting how the mutual fund industry's track record looks far more favorable once failed and merged funds are excluded from historical performance statistics — has been among the most important contributions to improving investor literacy about the reliability of historical return data in fund selection.