Change: Working to Manage it Together

As I start this article mid-February, the US stock indexes posted strong gains for the second week in a row, registering a 5% gain on both the S&P 500 and Dow for the month. As recently as February 2, the 10-year Treasury yield was 1.68%. On the 13th of February it rose back to 2%. Oil finished at $52 a barrel, the Greek government is trying to renegotiate its debt package, retail is down, gold is up and it’s -5 degrees outside. By the time I finish this article all of this will change!

I’m leading with this to emphasize the importance of our risk management process. All of our clients have an Investment Policy Statement embedded in the individual agreement with us.

We continually monitor, review and rebalance your investments in line with that document. The IPS takes in to account your time horizon, risk tolerance and individual accumulation or distribution targets. In other words, long-term strategies that “risk” manage your assets. We encourage all of our clients to review this IPS with us on an annual basis because circumstances, hopes, dreams, aspirations and expectations often evolve. Our job is to manage change.

Speaking of change, it’s about this time of year we start “nagging” about reviewing beneficiary arrangements. It is a prudent idea to review all of your documents regularly, and we like to have that conversation annually. Sometimes our clients will make changes to their estate plan and forget to make the appropriate changes to their investment program, (you might want to check your Life Insurance beneficiaries also).

More change!

We will be rolling out access to MoneyGuidePro software to all of our clients who want to be able to review their updated plan information online, 24/7. Obviously, we will be discussing this with you all individually as the first half of the year progresses, so expect a call from us!

In the meantime, stay warm and look out for our article on “Retiring with Purpose”.