Why is simple investing actually better?

In January 2026, Frank Sullivan, CEO of U.S. industrial conglomerate RPM International, spent over a year navigating the complexities of inheriting his late father’s private equity fund. First, he paid more than $10,000 to a valuation firm to appraise the fund. Then, during the transfer process, the fund company required him to submit utility bills as proof of address—yet due to temporary relocation after a flood, Sullivan was stalled for over half a year before completing the transfer. Later, he attempted to re-register the inherited private funds under his family’s limited liability company to simplify future inheritance for his children—but even this administrative change incurred a $4,000 fee from the fund manager [1]. Sullivan is the CEO of a publicly traded company valued at approximately $14.4 billion and certainly possesses substantial financial literacy. Yet even he endured over a year of frustration with these inherited private funds. He later stated bluntly that claims about ‘democratizing’ private assets—making them accessible to ordinary investors just like institutions—sound appealing but are, in fact, full of falsehoods [1]. Why would even a public-company CEO be so overwhelmed by private funds? The root lies in the inherent complexity of private funds themselves: a significant information asymmetry exists between product designers (fund managers) and buyers (individual investors). The first asymmetry manifests in opaque valuations. Publicly listed stocks have daily market prices; investors can instantly see their asset values. Private funds operate entirely differently. They typically hold non-traded, unlisted assets—and the valuations investors receive rely heavily on methodologies chosen by fund managers. It is not uncommon for the same asset’s reported value to surge by over 1,000% within a single day [1]. Sullivan’s experience illustrates this perfectly: to settle his father’s estate, he had to pay over $10,000 for an independent third-party valuation—simply to determine what the assets were actually worth. That alone underscores the vast transparency gap between private assets and publicly traded instruments. Even worse, accepting this lack of valuation transparency does not translate into superior returns. Statistics show that, over the past decade, private equity funds as a whole delivered annualized returns roughly 4 percentage points below the S&P 500 index [1]. In other words, investors accept more complex structures, lower liquidity, and far less transparency—yet still fail to earn higher returns. Thus, prudent investors should think carefully before purchasing such products. Figure 1: Private equity funds underperformed the S&P 500 by ~4 percentage points annually over the past decade. The second information asymmetry hides in the product names themselves. In 2025, multiple ETFs claiming to track the same factor delivered returns differing by over 10 percentage points: BlackRock’s U.S. Momentum Factor ETF rose 22.1% for the year, while another momentum-focused fund gained only 2.6% [2].

How is RPM (Rust-Oleum) Co., Ltd. of the United States?

RPM International Inc. is a globally renowned coatings company founded in 1947, headquartered in Medina, Ohio, USA. It comprises over 40 specialized subsidiaries, operates 74 manufacturing facilities worldwide, and employs more than 8,000 people. Its product portfolio includes high-performance specialty coatings, corrosion-resistant coatings, wood finishing and decorative coatings, electronics-specific coatings, marine and port coatings, encapsulants, and adhesives. RPM International owns numerous well-known brands, including Rust-Oleum, Carboline, DAP, DAY-GLO, FLECTO, STONHARD, Tremco, and Zinsser. Its products are sold in over 150 countries. RPM’s stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 1688.com — Alibaba’s global largest wholesale procurement platform 18258163384 Wu

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