Discussing Investment Strategies During a Crisis- COVID-19 — Tom Miele
I’m regularly in discussion with Tom Miele, change catalyst and senior investment advisor, about the stock market in relation to COVID-19. Tom advises high-net-worth families, entrepreneurs, celebrities, and foundations on a wide range of financial planning and investment objectives.
Read an excerpt from his interview below, or watch the video here.
There’s a lot of discussion in the news media about a potential second wave of the virus coming this fall. For investors with money in the market, should they consider selling and moving the money to cash and wait for a big market decline? Or is it better to ‘stay the course’ and remain invested?
“Well, I don’t think there’s really a clear generic answer I could give you because it really depends on each person and their unique situation. If I had to generalize, I guess I would say this — if someone needs funds in the next 12 to 18 months, I would suggest that we keep those funds in something very safe — whether it’s investment-grade bonds or even a money market. Now on the other hand, if someone has a long term horizon, let’s say five to 10 years, then I think it could make sense to put that money more into the equity markets.
“That doesn’t mean that we would suggest necessarily holding the exact same stocks and bonds. We’re active managers at Bernstein, and what that means is that we have our research analysts all over the world looking for the best opportunities to invest our clients’ money. Historically they’ve benefited tremendously from the benefits of that research.
“One of the services that we offer our clients at Bernstein, which has proven to be very beneficial, is our financial planning. We spend a significant amount of time upfront with our clients, making sure we understand their unique financial goals as well as other factors such as the investment time horizon, when someone wants to retire, how comfortable are they with certain types of risks when it comes to investing. After we have a full understanding of that unique person’s needs and goals, then we begin to invest. We call this goal-based investing and it’s proven to be a very powerful tool when determining an optimal investment strategy in both good and bad markets like we see today.”
Thanks for sharing, Tom.
