On a sticky summer morning at the end of the Eighties, 19-year-old Jason DeSena Trennert--a bright, unconnected Georgetown undergrad with big dreams and an even bigger power tie--set out for Wall Street. Mustering the perceived panache of the bigwigs, he burst through the doors of America's...

Investment fund managers make asset allocation decisions on behalf of a significant segment of US households. To elucidate the incentives they operate under, as well as the income and career risks they face, we construct a unique and novel dataset, which encompasses detailed information on the...