Is Crisis an Opportunity or Threat?

I’ve been in this business for 40 years,” says Pershing LLC CEO Richard Brueckner, “and I’ve never been as enthusiastic about the industry.” At the opening general session of the 11^th annual Pershing InSite conference in Hallandale, Florida, on June 3, Brueckner recalled the significant changes that have occurred in the industry since last year’s conference, and recounted Alan Greenspan saying last year at InSite that “we’re in the 7^th inning” of the downturn, but also the former Fed chief’s warning that we be in a “26-inning game.” Brueckner told the 1,600 attendees and 114 exhibitors that Dr. Greenspan “couldn’t have been more right,” and that despite the encouraging performance of the market since early March, “it’s too soon to call the game.”

Brueckner thans noted a recent survey that found that 80% of investors are thinking about changing their advisors. “Is that,” he asked the advisors in the audience, “an opportunity or a threat?”

Brueckner said that many people now believe that the current downturn is “looking like a classic recession,” and observed that while the markets are starting to act more normally, “we’re not out of the woods yet,” because of the nation’s high level of debt, and that’s before the nation addresses the biggest issue on the financial and social horizon, the looming healthcare bill that’s coming due.