by Guy Page

Tucked away in Burlington, Vermont sits an investment firm powerhouse.

One Day In July’s headquarters are in an ivy covered building on the corner of South Champlain and College Streets.

This fall, One Day In July surpassed $1 billion in assets under management. In May, One Day In July was ranked among the top 30 firms in the nation on USA Today’s 2024 list of Best Financial Advisory Firms.¹ They were the only Vermont-based firm included in the top 500 firms. 

Earlier this fall I sat down with One Day In July’s founder and CEO, Dan Cunningham, to find out exactly what is driving the investment firm’s rapid growth, and where he plans to go from here. 

First, a bit about Dan – 

Dan Cunningham grew up in Bennington, Vermont. He moved to New Jersey to attend Princeton, then to Boston for a while where he dove into the world of entrepreneurship during the dot-com boom. While he was starting various tech and consumer brands (some quite successful, some not so much), Dan was also paying close attention to the financial world. He was building his own indexing strategy for investing that many years later would form the foundation of One Day In July. Dan landed back in 2005, which is where he still lives today. 

VDC: I have to begin by asking about the name. Tell us how you came up with the name “One Day In July?”

Cunningham: There was this one day in July – July 22, 2016, to be exact – that I happened to read two different reports. The first is a study from a group called DALBAR. It was a big, longitudinal study that said that over their lifetime, the average American investor gets just one dollar out of every eight dollars of market return.² Part of that is due to their own behavioral error, and part of that is because of the fees charged by the financial industry. 

Later that day – after picking up my son from kindergarten – a report came out that said that the top eight hedge fund managers in America made more money than all 86,000 kindergarten teachers in the country combined.³ By the end of that day, I had decided it was time to start my own investment firm that would focus on providing top notch services to clients at a low cost. 

VDC: I have heard about the methodology of One Day In July – index fund investing – tell me more about this, why use index funds? 

Cunningham: There are decades of academic work at this point that show that it is unlikely that you are going to beat an index fund over a long period of time using an actively managed mutual fund, or by stock picking.^4,5 The goal of an index fund is to track the market. There is no expensive fund manager deciding what to buy or sell, or teams of analysts trying to pick the next winning stock. It just tracks the underlying index. This keeps costs down – which means investors get to keep more of their own money. 

This strategy also allows us to limit conflicts of interest. There is no money being exchanged behind the scenes, no fund managers paying our advisors to use their funds, or insurance companies offering commission. We are fiduciaries. Everything we do as advisors is in the best interest of our clients. 

VDC: Ok, so that’s the investing side, what about the process – how did you grow to have so many clients and assets in just eight years?

Cunningham: We place a large focus on building relationships with our clients. Every client has a dedicated advisor – someone who really understands their situation and knows their history. We don’t use call centers. We view part of our job as being educators. People should understand what they are invested in and why. Investing, and the financial industry, can feel unnecessarily complicated, this is part of the problem and part of what One Day In July is trying to fix. 

VDC: One Day In July now has five offices, three in Vermont. Do you plan on opening more? 

Cunningham: Yes. The firm is driven by a mission to reach a lot of people, and not just wealthy people. Americans deserve good advice at a low cost. The way to do that is to continue opening offices in different communities. People like having a local option. They want to be able to walk into their financial advisor’s office and build a relationship with a real person. 

VDC: What percentage of your clients live in Vermont? 

Cunningham: 78% of our clients are Vermonters. We have clients in 31 other states, so while we like to meet in person, we do also offer meetings on Zoom. This is helpful when people are located in communities that are not close to our offices. 

VDC: If someone is interested in becoming a client, what steps should they take? 

Cunningham: Our website, www.onedayinjuly.com, has a wealth of information for those interested in learning more. You can also call us at (802) 503-8280. A One Day In July advisor can meet with you to review your account statements and see if switching to One Day In July could benefit you, your family, or your organization.

I do like to point out that investments can often be moved over without being sold, limiting any possible taxes. If you have things like mutual fund A-shares, annuities or other expensive, often inefficient, products in your portfolio, an advisor will help you navigate a transition that minimizes taxes. We want to make the whole investing process as simple and approachable as possible. The financial industry thrives on inertia. It can be a lot to overcome, but from what I have seen over the years, considering a change is a good idea.

1. The 2024 USA Today Best Financial Advisory Firms list was published 4.23.24. Recommendations were collected through a survey of 25,000 individuals. One Day In July paid a fee to Statista Inc. to license the use of the award name. One Day In July did not pay to be considered for this ranking.

2. Dalbar 21st Annual Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior. 2015 through 2018 Editions.

3. Lauren Carroll Politifact and U.S. Labor Dept 6/15/15

4. S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. Data as of Dec. 31, 2023. Spiva U.S. scorecard year-end 2023 – S&P global. (n.d.). 

5. https://wpcarey.asu.edu/department-finance/faculty-research/do-stocks-outperform-treasury-bills