White Papers

A Better Approach to Dividend Investing

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

Many investors are drawn to dividend paying investments, and it’s easy to see why. Investors fantasize about sitting in a beach chair, pina colada in hand, while passive income rolls into the bank account.

There are limitless strategy permutations for how to invest in dividend paying stocks. The two main flavors tend to be “dividend income” and “dividend growth”.

In their recent report, “Searching for Great Dividend Funds” Morningstar calculates that there are 348 open-end mutual funds and ETFs with over $1 trillion dollars focused on dividends. At a hypothetical 3% dividend yield, that $30 billion in cash dividend buys a lot of pina coladas.

Continuing on in their research article, Morningstar sets out to find some “Great Dividend Funds”.

However, there’s a big problem. We believe they’re looking in the wrong place.

Over a decade ago our CEO Meb Faber tackled this exact topic in his book Shareholder Yield: A Better Approach to Dividend
Investing.

The basic thesis was that due to a structural shift in markets, companies altered how they distributed their cash to investors. While a majority of companies used to return cash to shareholders predominantly via cash dividends, starting in the 1990s companies shifted to only distributing a minority of their cash through dividends. What took their place?

White Papers

Which Institution Has the Best Asset Allocation Model?

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

If you’re like most investors, you’re asking the wrong questions.

Cambria was chatting with a group of advisors back in 2016, and a question arose. We’ll paraphrase:

“We get a steady stream of salespeople and consultants in here hawking their various asset allocation models.
Frankly, it can be overwhelming. Some will send us a 50-page report, all to explain a strategic shift from 50%
equities to 40%. I want to do right by my clients, but I have a hard time reading all the various research pieces
and models, let alone reconciling their differences. Any thoughts?”

The advisor followed up by emailing Cambria a summary of all of the institutional asset allocation models by the Goldmans,
Morgan Stanleys, and Deutsche Banks of the world. And as you’ll see, they are HIGHLY different. Morgan Stanley says only
20% in US stocks, while Silvercrest says 41%! Brown Advisory says 10% in emerging markets and JPMorgan 0%.

White Papers

Meb’s Best – Ranked

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

Our CIO, Meb Faber has been publishing papers, books and blog posts for over 15 years covering everything from asset
allocation strategies and global value investing, to farmland investing, to startups, and even the question of whether or
not institutions and endowments should just be managed by a robot. With thousands of pieces of content, we thought
it was time to sift through them all and try to rank the best! So here we go, starting with a countdown from 30….what
will be the winner at #1?

White Papers

What is the Safest Investment Asset?

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

Let’s say you’ve “won the game.”

“Funded contentment”. That’s the description my friend Brian Portnoy uses to describe the purpose of wealth accumulation.

Essentially, enough money to live the life you’ve dreamed about.

Now, what that amount is varies for all of us. For some it could be $100,000, for others $1 million or even $10 million

wouldn’t be enough. But let’s say you hit your number.

What now? What if we no longer care about increasing our wealth, but rather, to simply protect it. As mentioned before, the

portfolio that helps you get rich isn’t necessarily the portfolio that’s going to help you remain rich.

So what is the “safest” asset in the world? Is there such a thing?

White Papers

All Time Highs A Good Time to Invest? No. A Great Time.

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

Many investors fear buying at recent or all-time highs.

This is understandable. It can feel like you’re chasing performance or showing up at the party just a few minutes before the hosts kick everyone out.

But if we go strictly by the numbers, they paint a different picture. Buying at highs is often aligning your capital with strength, rather than exposing it to weakness.

You’re following a trend. In this case, the trend of climbing stock prices. (And the alternative is equally as important – you’re NOT following the downtrend of falling stock prices.)

Trend following doesn’t just offer strong returns. No matter how you measure it, regardless of the specific parameters of your preferred model, trend can potentially help reduce volatility and drawdowns.

White Papers

Think Income and Growth Don’t Exist Around the Globe? Think Again.

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

In early 2017, we wrote a paper called “Think Income and Growth Don’t Exist in This Market? Think Again” that sought to address a question facing many U.S. equity investors…

Was it possible to find a U.S. equity investment that offered an attractive yield, yet came without a lofty, dangerous valuation?

Our paper concluded that we believed there was an answer.

And so, investors considering income investments in the global opportunity set find themselves facing a similar predicament. Is there a balance between income and growth? We penned a foreign companion to our original US paper, and in this updated version, we still believe the answer is “yes” – in fact, this time, you have two potential options.

White Papers

Think Income and Growth Don’t Exist in This Market? Think Again.

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

Are you having the following argument with yourself?

“I need an investment that’s going to provide me not only potential income, but potential growth too. Unfortunately, investors piled into dividend funds for years in their search for yield, meanwhile, equity valuations have been driven higher. I’m worried this has left me few reasonably-valued opportunities. If I invest in a potentially overvalued dividend fund today and this bull market finally runs out of steam tomorrow, then I’m risking serious losses. On the other hand, keeping my money on the sidelines offers some yield, but I might miss out on growth opportunities. Is there an answer?”

As we’re about to show you, yes, we believe there is an answer – and one we feel is a good one. Income and growth are still possible, even in this market, though admittedly, harder to find.

White Papers

The Investment Pyramid

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

If you’re over the age of 30, you probably remember the USDA’s Food Pyramid. It represented the best thinking (at that time) as to how Americans should structure their diets for optimum health. Unfortunately, its suggestion of a foundation of carbohydrates no longer seems as prudent as once it did. Similar to the Food Pyramid, the best investment thinking of 50 years ago seems a bit silly and outdated to us now, given the layers of knowledge that have accumulated in the years since. In this white paper, we look at the Investment Pyramid of yesterday, and suggest what we believe is an effective one for today.

White Papers

Worried About the Market? It Might Be Time for this Strategy

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

As we get closer to the end of this bull market, whenever that may be, we see many investors are wondering two things: 1) will “whatever’s next” be as bad as 2000 and 2008; and 2) if so, is there a way to avoid it?

No one knows exactly when this bull will finally run out of steam, or how far it will fall; yet, there are signs we’re approaching an inflection point.

In this white paper, we’ll cover four signs of an aging bull, briefly revisit traditional strategies to help protect your portfolio, then highlight a strategy that has the potential to actually profit during a bear market. In our Appendices, we’ll wrap up by detailing an extension to this strategy that many investors might find interesting, and we’ll offer a pointed word to advisors.

White Papers

The Trinity Portfolio

Cambria Investments / September 24, 2026

Does market uncertainty have you concerned about your wealth? If so, you’re not alone.

Many investors today are anxious because they lack a cohesive plan. Their investments are more an assortment of unrelated assets than deliberately-chosen pieces of a unified strategy. Unfortunately, this can leave their wealth exposed.

Our Trinity Portfolio offers a different approach. It’s a holistic investing framework, sturdy, as it’s rooted in respected, wealth-building investment principles, yet also strategic, able to adapt to all sorts of market conditions. The result is a unified framework that we believe can help relieve investors of the anxiety of “what’s the right strategy right now?”

Do you want help generating real investing wealth with less anxiety? Read how the Trinity Portfolio can help.

Ready to Start Investing with Confidence?