“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
A big part of a financial advisor’s job is to help clients develop a well-thought-out and comprehensive financial, investment, and retirement plan. Yet no matter how thorough and detailed a client’s plan is, what good does it do them if they abandon the plan during an inevitable bout of market volatility?
This is a very important question the wealth management industry continues to ask itself. Advisors can attempt to educate clients about, and prepare them for, these pullbacks and downturns, but until they actually happen it can be difficult to predict or measure just how prepared a client is to be “punched in the mouth.” At Towerpoint Wealth, we believe that developing the intestinal fortitude to tolerate, and even flat-out accept, temporary declines in account balances is one of the primary factors in helping clients build their net worth over time.
Recognizing that we are currently in the throes of the longest bull market in history, stock prices have basically moved in one direction (UP!) for the greater part of the past ten years. And while this remarkable decade-long run has been enjoyable for many investors, witnessing almost linear growth in their account balances and personal net worth, it is atypical.
At Towerpoint Wealth, we are not suggesting that we expect things to change, nor are we predicting an immanent pullback – we are quite humble in our ability (or lack thereof) to consistently and accurately predict the future. And we do remain optimistic that this current expansion can continue. But we will always be pragmatic, and are sober to the reality that building personal net worth is not easy, takes discipline and time, and rarely occurs in a straight-line fashion. Mike Tyson’s professional record was 37-0 before he was knocked out by Buster Douglas in one of the biggest upsets in sports history, and along the same vein, we recognize that a big part of our responsibility is to not only help our clients plan and prepare for the unexpected to happen, but to expect the unexpected to happen. It is essential that we work diligently with our clients to objectively construct a disciplined and customized wealth management plan in times of stability, to ensure we do not change it during inevitable times of instability. In other words, learn how to expect, and take, “a financial punch,” and just as importantly, learn how to minimize its impact.
Speaking of working with clients, our President, Joseph Eschleman, spent two days in Washington, DC last week conducting a comprehensive client financial review meeting. At Towerpoint Wealth, we believe strongly in face-to-face communication, and do not let geography stand in the way of the partnerships we have with our clients.
Additionally, we gave a big thank you earlier this week to one of our trusted business partners, Brian Kassis, of RE/MAX Gold – Sierra Oaks, for the lovely Edible Arrangements fruit basket he gave us. Comprehensive wealth management entails us helping our clients not just with their investments and portfolio, but with the proper coordination of ALL of their financial affairs, including tax minimization, insurance and risk management, estate planning, income generation, personal liability management, company and employee benefits analysis, and real estate portfolio management. It is for this reason that we have formed close partnerships with professionals like Brian; we are afforded, and can offer our clients, a “deep bench” of wide-ranging financial experts who stand ready to help in a myriad of economic areas.
It has been two weeks since we last published Trending Today, and there have been a number of newsworthy and notable events that have occurred:
- Tiger Woods wins the Masters
- Tax Day 2019
- Notre-Dame burns
- A redacted version of the full Mueller report is released
- Easter and Passover, 2019
- Bombings in Sri Lanka kill more than 300
- Brand new Sacramento Kings head coach, Luke Walton, accused of sexual assualt
- Earth Day 2019
- The 2019 NFL draft begins in Nashville.
Lastly, we encourage you to take three or four minutes to review the curated content found below, highlighted by:
- A YouTube video featuring Shirl Penney, CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners, discussing the myriad of resources that Towerpoint Wealth draws from Dynasty, leveraging their very deep bench
- An excellent, up-to-date, “insiders look” at what is happening in Washington, DC politics, including fresh perspectives on the 2020 Presidential election
- A must-have app if you travel internationally
We encourage you to reach out to us (info@towerpointwealth.com) with any questions, concerns, or needs you have. The world continues to be an extremely complicated place, and we continue to be here for you, and look forward to connecting with, helping, and being a direct, fully independent, and objective expert financial resource for you.
