The Wealth Consigliere

During the Financial Crisis Rahm Emanuel shared his opinion that is now legend.  We are in another crisis that our blog this week will chronicle how we can draft off of Mr. Emanuel’s statement. We know that every crisis is different but as Mark Twain said it often rhymes. Let’s look at ways we can use our time to not waste this unfortunate crisis.  Social Media Social Media is this generation’s cocktail party. While we never want to miss a party we know who to avoid. Successful Social Media accepts that most of the opinions are fake, BUT just like a cocktail party there are people who you need to seek out. This exercise starts with what platform we want to visit and who is going to be at “The Party” ?  Your partner doesn’t need to answer who will be at the party. A good platform lists their guests. Since we have time to look, look!   Bill Gurley shares that he uses Twitter to evaluate potential firms he is considering. Our recommendation is to create a Social Media accou

Today marks  the one week anniversary that our mayors, governors and self aware bosses asked us to shelter in place. The week seems like it took longer than my college grades took to arrive in the mail. After we accepted the boredom we began to identify people and  technology that can help us survive the next few weeks. Our blog will summarize our favorites.   Business Apps Many of our service providers have scheduled conference calls to continue our training or to teach us new skills that will be helpful after we received an all clear. Most  group call technology didn’t make the grade. The only lesson I learned is that bandwidth matters and the time  you start the call matters. Starting the call at the the top of an hour is “me too” and will create a bandwidth issue. Starting the call at at 15 after or before works best. We all need to accept that we will have to wait. What else will you do rather than check the death toll.  Our favorite conference call programs are liste

We have had a great run in the capital markets and in the wealth advisory business.  Unfortunately, the recent market action signals that the wind is no longer at our back.  This week we will look back and discuss what we can expect going forward. History The wind has been at our back longer than the recently ended 11 year bull market.  It helped the Trust Banks attract clients and manage their money investing in lists of well known blue chip stocks.  The wind changed and accounts lost value causing angry clients to look for new firms to invest their money.  Professional money mangers emerged and over the next cycle they thrived until the wind changed.  The next business that picked up the investment torch was the lower cost funds who passively replicated the major market indices.  Now that the wind has changed we should start to look for the firm that has washed their hands and found an improved investment strategy. Unknowns Donald Rumsfeld introduced us to an i

COVID-19 has dominated our news and impacted our markets.  There are numerous qualified organizations who are looking for a cure to this disease and we ALL hope they find it soon.  Our monthly examination of Podcasts can hopefully cure our souls.  We will look for our cure in the familiar places of True Crime, Education and Morning Messages. True Crime Our favorite is a podcast that summarizes the HBO documentary on the group that stole McDonalds monopoly game pieces.  A shocking story. Education We learn a lot from history.  Our favorite podcast is regarding the history of conflicts between businesses that were fighting for market share.    Morning Message While most read a paper or visit a website, I listen to a Podcast.  My favorite is Business Casual hosted by a brilliant millennial.  While none of these Podcasts will cure COVID-19 I hope they cure your soul ....

Twenty-Five years ago, our oldest daughter, Page, was born in Dallas!   The next day my wife and I “decided” to move to San Francisco.   The area’s beauty was breath-taking, but I had a lot to learn.   The first items were the cost of living and the dinner party topics regarding the internet and Stanford.   The other major item I needed to address was my judgmental opinions of people who had a different opinion.   It wasn’t long before I met Armistea d  Maupin .   He cured my shallow opinion on gay people because of his heart, intellect  and our common Southern roots.   Recently our country fears the outbreak of COVID-19 .   Our advice is to seek the advice of a knowledgeable Dr. instead of social media self-proclaimed experts.     Our blog this week is about how we can address our judgmental opinions to personally and professional grow.   I’ll begin with an inspirational TED Talk with the disclaimer that I’m not Black and I’m not gay.   Neither are a valid excuse to not expan