Life + Liberty Indexes founder Perth Tolle joins Let's Talk ETFs to discuss her firm's flagship Freedom 100 Emerging Markets Index and related ETF (FRDM). Unlike nearly all other emerging market products, which heavily weight some of the world's least democratic countries, FRDM omits countries like China, Russia and Saudi Arabia completely. Does the underlying thesis that less free societies and economies are destined to produce worse long-term investing returns actually hold up?
Show Notes:

2:30 - Perth's backstory and how she came to found Life + Liberty Indexes

7:00 - How is Life + Liberty's approach different and what's your underlying thesis?

12:00 - Example of "freedom" metrics used for the index

14:45 - Discussion of data sourcing given the difficulty of getting accurate information from more closed societies

18:15 - Why specifically are China, Russia and Saudi Arabia to left out of the Freedom 100 Emerging Markets Index?

30:30 - Which countries are considered emerging? The specific cases of South Korea and Poland

35:00 - Weighting methodology

36:15 - Sector breakdown and (lack of) diversification: The seeming overlap between energy/materials and autocratic regimes

39:00 - The Freedom 100 Emerging Markets ETF (FRDM): What are appropriate benchmarks

43:00 - Is this an ESG fund?

47:30 - Differences and similarities between ESG investing and the approach taken here

52:00 - What's next for Life and Liberty Indexes?


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