Dear Clients,
I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all been significantly impacted, either directly or indirectly, by the pandemic. We appreciate your patience, as this situation has caused an increased demand for advice and counsel, as well as portfolio management services. We’re thinking of you and your families during this time, and we wanted to provide an update on our response to the crisis.
Leading up to the governor’s mandated office closings, we proactively reached out to all clients whose portfolios were in need of rebalancing, and those who were in the midst of financial planning. It was an exceptionally busy time, but we were able to take care of all necessary business prior to closing our physical office location, and transitioned to working from home effective Friday, March 20th.
Although Pennsylvania has required our physical office to be closed, the Financial Regulatory Authority has been in conversations with us through our Broker/Dealer, American Portfolios, to ensure that financial markets remain open and operational, with investment advisory clients continuing to have access to their advisors during this challenging time. We have received and will continue to receive checks to fund accounts for those who see this as an opportunity to invest at depressed market prices. Please reach out before sending a check, so that we can actively keep an eye out for it, and see that it gets deposited promptly. Unfortunately, financial crises provide an opportunity for criminals to prey on fear and uncertainty, and we’ve been made aware of numerous scams that are being used to solicit personal information with the excuses relating to reopening access to a bank account, or claiming the new tax credit. Please take extra precautions and use common sense to protect your sensitive information during this time. We’re here to help, as always.
While working from home, we’ve continued to monitor portfolios daily and are responding to all inbound client calls and emails. A significant amount of time has also been spent on understanding day-to-day operational changes within the financial services industry, and in learning how the CARES Act (the financial relief package passed by congress) will impact our clients’ accounts and planning considerations. Although it should still be considered a last resort, many of the penalties that are typically associated with prematurely accessing retirement accounts have been temporarily waived. Required Minimum Distributions for those IRA holders who have inherited an IRA, or are beyond the age where forced distributions are required, are waived for the entire 2020 calendar year. This is a benefit that allows investors to stay invested rather than having to pull out of the market at an inopportune time. There are many additional provisions, and it would appear as though additional changes may be on the horizon. We will continue to stay abreast of these new developments as they pertain to your investments and retirement planning.
It’s been trying, and yet extremely rewarding for us as professionals to have these conversations about market volatility and to see a heightened level of engagement and understanding from our clients about how to manage their wealth in difficult times. We would like to commend all of you who are heeding our advice and staying financially disciplined during this challenging time. We remain confident that we will get through this together, and that capitalism will prevail. As tempting as it may seem at times, we would encourage you not to attempt to outmaneuver the markets, as it is a task which leaves most professional money managers falling short. The stress of getting out of markets and back in again at the “right” time can be equal to or greater than embracing these market swings, and typically leads to lower long-term returns. One of our main roles as an objective third party is to help keep the natural emotional stressors from becoming entangled with, and a driver of, investment strategy. Avoiding big mistakes is just as important as making sound financial decisions, and we remain committed to serving you as fiduciaries, with your best interest at the forefront of all recommendations.
We appreciate the outpouring of words of support and encouragement that we’ve received from you over the past few weeks, and it’s reminded us that even in difficult times there is much to be positive about. Be safe, be well, and if you need to reach out to our office, please contact us via the methods listed below.
Best,
Greg, Jim, and the team at TBS
TBS Client Update - March 18, 2020
Dear Valued Client,
We hope this message finds you and your family doing well and staying healthy.
The past few weeks have been quite challenging. We suspect the next few weeks (and maybe months) will be too. As an investor, we want to take this opportunity to share some thoughts with you during this difficult time.
We have been diligently monitoring all of our advisory accounts and we have spoken with many of you and have made adjustments—per the strategy that we discussed upon setting up your investment account and have continually reiterated during annual reviews. This strategy is as follows:
Take on the amount of risk that is most appropriate for both short-term and long-term goals.
Deploy financial capital across the entire market to ensure diversification.
Rebalance portfolios, as needed, per a set of rules.
Invest efficiently and minimize costs.
For those of you who haven’t heard from us, please know that we are applying this strategy, but have not yet reached a threshold in your account that would necessitate an adjustment.
We believe that this event is transitory unlike our last significant downturn in 2008 which was more of a systemic breakdown of the financial system. We also believe that the disciplined investor, who has a strategy and who follows through with that strategy (as difficult as it may be) will be better off when we come out on the other side. We encourage you to read the last few posts on our Facebook page which specifically talk about the benefits of staying disciplined during challenging times. Capitalism is messy and unpredictable. Past downturns have always been followed by market upturns. We do not believe that it will be different this time.
We are here to serve you, though governmental guidelines have strongly suggested that we cease all in-person meetings and stick to email and phone communications to maintain our clients’ portfolios and to offer strategic financial planning advice for those of you that are in the midst of a life change that requires it. Annual reviews that would normally have taken place in the months of March and April are being rescheduled to a later date.
Many of our clients are seasoned investors, and not only know, but have experienced the importance of staying disciplined through market swings. For our clients that are newer to investing, we’ll leave you with a quote from someone that you may have listened to on your AM radio in the 70’s:
“The only ones to get hurt on a roller coaster are the jumpers.” – Paul Harvey.
Best,
Jim and Greg