Zach Buchwald, Chairman and CEO, Russell Investments

As Chairman and CEO, Zach Buchwald leads Russell Investments, a firm overseeing $370bln in client assets and celebrating its 90th anniversary in providing portfolio management services to institutions and individuals.

Zach details the open-architecture model utilized at Russell, explaining how portfolios are constructed by combining best-of-breed managers and strategies across asset classes. He shares how these portfolios are managed through an outsourced chief investment officer framework, providing institutions with integrated portfolio construction, manager selection, and risk management.

A central theme in our discussion is retirement, a large focus at Russell on behalf of its client base. Zach highlights the long-term shift from defined benefit pensions to 401(k) plans, and the structural and behavioral challenges individuals face in saving for retirement and the growing responsibility they now bear in planning. We discuss the power of compounding, the importance of staying invested through market volatility, and the role that portfolio design can play in helping investors avoid costly behavioral mistakes.

While the 401(k) structure can work well when participants save early and remain invested, Zach notes that many Americans have not accumulated the assets necessary for retirement and that compounding requires both time and consistent exposure to the market.
Default investment options, diversified portfolios, and disciplined asset allocation can help individuals remain invested through periods of volatility and capture the long-term growth of capital markets.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Alpha Exchange, my conversation with Zach Buchwald.