Dear Clients and Friends,
One thing that we have learned from this market is that we all want certainty. We want answers. But we live in a world that is, at times, too complex to be predictable. The one certainty is that there will be uncertainty, and we have to prepare carefully and thoughtfully.
So that is a big part of my job: to be strong and steady, thoughtful and rational. I feel a deep obligation to you and I am working hard to deserve your respect and trust.
You are most certainty asking: “Am I OK?” Is there anything we should be now? Should we have done something different? Here are my thoughts:
“Am I OK?”
In the big picture of things: In my opinion, you are all going to be OK. We live in the one of the
wealthiest society in the history of the world and, in times like this, I try to remind myself to be grateful for what I have rather than focusing on what I may have lost.
I believe that most of us will be better off than what it may feel right now. There may be no need to sell any investments any time soon, what matters is not what happened this month or year, but what happens over many years.
And I will be here to help.
Is there anything we should do now?
The prevailing emotion is the fear of losing money. This is not a time to make decisions based on emotion.
The rational side of my brain says that we are nearer to the bottom than the top. Everything that I have ever read says these are the times to stay invested: at the time when everyone else is selling, when emotions are running high, “when blood is running in the streets”. It seems that is where we are right now.
Even though nobody knows what will happen next, especially in the short term, my recommendation is to stick with your plan. We will be in touch with everyone and make any appropriate changes, but the major theme will be stick with it.
Should we have done something different?
Here are some of the things we think we did right:
· All of you have a written plan and projections to meet your goals for the future. This gives us a tool to work with to give you some answers on what may need to be done to ensure that you best achieve your important goals. We might want to update your financial plan to make sure your goals and objectives have not changed.
· In the past year or two, we have moved almost all of our clients into some more conservative investment positions than we had prior. We feel very good that these investments have held up well.
· We have income reserves of more conservative investments set aside for clients who are approaching retirement, and moved more investments to conservative positions for clients who wanted to move their assets to less risky positions.
Here are some things that we can improve on:
· Determining how much risk to assume for each individual client involves hypothetical situations and is an art, rather than a science. We can use this current experience to better determine a balance between your need for investment growth and your tolerance for volatility.
· We can have a greater respect for the severity of uncertain events, rather than just the likelihood. Even if something is very unlikely to occur, if the impact is large, we will try to be better prepared.
· And of course, we always strive to get even better at consistently providing a high level of attention and caring to all clients.
Please give us a call if you have any questions or simply want to talk about your investments and current situation. Don’t hesitate to call if your have any concerns, and feel free to call if you would like to set up a meeting.
