Reality interfered with our plans when “out of the blue,” a vicious virus emanated out of Wuhan, China in December 2019.

In a recent web seminar members of the FLI Investment Committee reviewed the positive economic factors as well as the elements contributing to the wall of worry as we aim to make sense of the markets for our clients and position portfolios for long-term growth.

The fourth quarter and 2019 overall rewarded long-term investors with a robust equity market as well as gains in fixed income. All of our equity-based defensive and traditional equity strategies gained between 20% and 37% for the year, on a net basis. Continue Reading

“It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for.”

-Robert Kiyosaki

The current “wall of worry” is made up of concerns regarding: the timing of the next recession; the state of the (messy) political situation in Washington, including but not limited to the trade situation with China and ongoing impeachment proceedings; negative sovereign yields in Europe and Japan; IPOs of companies with no profits; income and wealth inequality; and other subjects.
While it is true that there is a fair amount to be concerned with, many (including Blackstone) are quick to ignore the strength of the consumer, continued GDP growth in the U.S., low unemployment, and growing corporate earnings. (We do not see a recession in the near future.) There is no distinction being made by Blackstone between high priced bonds and private equity versus a reasonably valued, but not cheap, stock market. And of course, their approach takes a “market” perspective instead of viewing the opportunity through the lens of a concentrated portfolio of fine growing businesses, which is what we at FLI utilize for client assets and our own assets. Read Full Perspective