Using the current climate to refine the distribution of clients’ assets

I think the current situation really puts a fine point on what clients’ mix was going into this. If they were a little hot into the investment side, which a lot of people were, because back to 2008, we’d been rewarded for hanging in there and staying in the market with an ever-increasing percentage of our assets in equities, that may have been a structural change that needed to be looked at prior to coming into this. Now they’re feeling that volatility; that’s a little uncomfortable. It’s kind of the analogy about being careful of averages. If you had a lump of burning hot coal in one hand and a chunk of ice in the other, on the average, you’re supposed to be doing pretty good, right?

So it’s important, I think, to make the distinction between what should be at risk and what shouldn’t be. And after the smoke clears, we’ll see if we get the V-shape event that we’re looking for that happened in 1917, that’s happened almost every time there’s a transitory issue with the market. It means we know there’s a beginning, middle and end — this is different than a threat that’s underlying and boiling all the time. This isn’t. This will be over at some point.

So I think that that gives us lots of hope, not only as business people, but also as we look out for our clients’ interests as well. We know it’ll be over. So we’re asking them for their forbearance and their patience in this matter so they can see it through. I like to call it “clicking on the high beams.” Yeah, there are a couple of potholes in the road here. But if we flip on those high beams, look how smooth it is down the way. We’ve got to look beyond the 10 feet in front of our car. If we do that, I think that they’ll realize, yeah, maybe we’re a little heavy in these equities. Look, when this is all over, we’re going to get together, and we’re going to set that straight. So we’re going to have some of your safe money that we know you can’t lose.

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