We want to assure you Stonebridge Financial Group can weather a storm and has a team of advisors and associates who have decades of experience, including navigating our clients through the unwinding of the tech bubble, 9/11, and the financial crisis 12 years ago. All of our employees are here to serve you, though many are now working from home to reduce the possibility of illness preventing us from servicing our clients.
We had already started reducing portfolio risk as the risk of the markets began to become greater than the reward. As a result, for most of our clients, we had the lowest equity exposure since the financial crisis, and we had also eliminated nearly all junk bonds from portfolios. While the selloff has occurred in normally defensive investments as well as riskier investments, we view this as very temporary and largely a result of forced selling.
Just like during the financial crisis, we believe the most important thing is to have the liquidity to get you through several months so, you are not forced to sell at the wrong time. Because the government is likely to take unprecedented action to stabilize the financial system, we have confidence that we won’t reach the crisis levels of 2008. However, we cannot guarantee this, nor can we guarantee liquidity in the investment markets. Accordingly, having adequate cash in accounts for clients who anticipate taking withdrawals is critical.
Our advisors are returning phone calls and emails as quickly as possible. While we would like to focus on proactively reaching out to clients, sometimes this is not possible when incoming inquiries reach peak levels. If you think you need to make a decision to provide liquidity for future withdrawal needs, we encourage you to reach out to your advisor.
When the dust begins to settle, we feel that there will be incredible opportunities for our clients to take advantage of valuations and yields that we have not seen in years. We very much look forward to exploring these opportunities with you.
We hope all of you stay healthy and perhaps even find time to reflect on the important things in life that we often forget when we are immersed in our daily routine.
View a bulletin from Blackrock Investments on the recent market volatility here. Blackrock Investments is not affiliated with Triad Hybrid Solutions, LLC or Triad Advisors, LLC.
Thank you!