Corona Virus Impact
I just wanted to reach out with a quick update as the markets seem to be going into a broad based panic regarding what ‘might’ happen as related to the Corona Virus and we are getting a number of related questions on our response. Some are very worried, others are pushing money to us quickly to buy into the opportunity.
We do customized investment plans for our clients, each person/ family is in different circumstance with different investment needs so there is no one size fits all solution, but please allow me to speak in some generalities to talk about what we are doing at the moment.
First off, “crazy is waiting till after the flood the build the Ark”. I think I heard that in a movie once, but it thought it relevant in this case. I also feel another analogy that would be more relevant, especially to the office location of Wilmington, is how we handle Hurricanes. We don’t know when they might develop over the Atlantic, nor how bad they might be, nor if they will hit us specifically, nor how we might fair as a result, but what we don’t do is wait for the storm to hit shore on Wrightsville Beach to then develop a response plan. Additionally we don’t run around in the middle of the wind and rain in the heart of the storm to then try to board up windows and deal with a roof that’s been leaking for 3 months.
In a similar fashion, the investment strategy that we put together is done so with the full knowledge and expectation that there will be recessions, market corrections, headline’s that bleed, and yes, even disease and presidential elections. We learned recently that it turns out that there is a presidential election every 4 years (who knew?) and that recessions and corrections are part of the normal cycle of the economy and markets, and there have been unsubstantiated reports that some news sources tend to sensationalize some of the things that they report on. 😊 That’s probably a poor attempt at humor, but if our long term strategy wasn’t designed to ‘weather the storms’ of what we all know is going to come…. then we would need a new strategy.
As it happens though, we take great effort to specifically implement a strategy at the outset, appropriate for each clients unique situation, risk tolerance, time horizon, etc., so that we can live through the short term ups and downs in hope of enjoying a longer term positive horizon. We don’t jump out of the boat in the storm and instead rely on the efficacy of the boat we built before the storm began.
I hope that’s helpful in this ‘craziness’, but if you need anything from us, please let us know.
Best Regards,
Brad Hudson, CFP®, CIMA®, AIF®