COVID-19 Week One Update

News of the novel COVID-19 virus has dominated recent events and has had an impact on the capital markets. We would like to address a few areas of interest for our clients and friends: 

As you know, the markets have come down from recent highs very quickly. As investment advisors, we encourage our clients to take a long-term approach to investing—an allocation of investments that was appropriate six months ago is more than likely appropriate today, unless you have experienced a change in your financial situation independent of what the market is currently doing, such as (but not limited to) an unexpected expense, illness, or change in income.

As with any illness, we make it clear to our team members that their health and safety, and that of their loved ones, is of paramount importance. Our support staff knows they can stay at home with our full support. The advisors on our staff can in many situations work from home if necessary. If you have concerns about meeting face-to-face, we can certainly accommodate you—we can meet on the phone, and we also have the ability to meet via video if you so choose. For paperwork that needs to be processed, many of you have opened accounts using Docusign, which can be done through email, and does not require us to meet face-to-face. 

Although not specifically related to COVID-19, this is a good opportunity to share our emergency preparedness and security measures. Going back to September 11, 2001, the investment industry learned a tremendous amount about information backup, access, and how to maintain client information in disaster situations. Furthermore, as cybersecurity has become a larger issue over time, we have received continuous guidance from Cambridge and done our own due diligence on how best to protect and back-up client personal and account information.

From the standpoint of business continuity, we recently completed and signed an operating agreement which assures clients will continue to be taken care of in the event of partner disability or death.

We hope what you take away from this message is that CrestPoint, as a firm, has made preparations for situations such as the current COVID-19 outbreak, and that we do take issues such as the ability for you to continue business as usual and knowing your information is secure very seriously. In addition, we realize that the market having large swings can be somewhat distressing, but we encourage our investors to stay with the original goals of their individual plans. Please feel free to contact us at any time to discuss your investment strategy. As always, we sincerely appreciate the opportunity to help with your investment planning.

The CrestPoint Wealth Management Team