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October 31, 2011 at 10:58 AM
“We have to take the macro view for our clients.”
So said Susan John, chair of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, at NAPFA’s Practice Management & Investments conference last week in Brooklyn, which hosted more than 200 advisors, scores of exhibitor booths and a large roster of seminars and speeches.
John pointed to the current climate of disconnection between the public and big institutions as seen in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations taking place on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge as the NAPFA conference was taking place.
More than ever, John said, fee-based advisors have a responsibility to work in the best interests of the people they serve.
Here, then, are top tips culled from conference speakers who were taking the macro view:
Nader Mousavizadeh, chief executive, Oxford Analytica: Looking at the politics of the global economy in his opening keynote address, Mousavizadeh considered the European debt crisis, the Arab Spring and China’s growing right-wing movement. And yet his greatest concern for the NAPFA conference goers was the unstable U.S. political situation in Washington. The disturbing debt ceiling debate is a foretaste of what will be a polarized and partisan presidential election season next year, he predicted.
Tip for advisors: “I would recommend that you not pay attention to what’s happening in U.S. politics for the next year,” Mousavizadeh said, noting that what’s more important is U.S. politicians’ apparent willingness to put the full faith and credit of U.S. sovereign debt at risk. “We are not in a world anymore where the United Sates is setting the rules alone.”
