I just learned (via P&I, November 25, page 4) of the passing of Gilbert Beebower.

You may recall that he, along with Gary Brinson and L. Randolph Hood, wrote a piece for the Financial Analysts Journal (1986: “Determinants of Portfolio Performance”) that helped in the development of the nascent ideas of performance attribution. What many of us refer to as the “BHB” model was adopted by numerous asset managers and software vendors.

Although the article’s chief aim was to recognize the importance of asset allocation, a peripheral benefit was the encouragement to employ attribution to better identify the sources of return. And even though the earlier Brinson-Fachler model appears to be the dominant approach, we cannot overlook the contributions of Beebower, et al.

He no doubt made many contributions to our industry, and is deserving of our recognition.