Now more than ever, your clients need you to see the risks and opportunities that lie ahead
For the last few years, you’ve been guiding your clients through a minefield of historically low interest rates, asset valuations wildly out of sync with economic fundamentals, trade wars and growing geopolitical risks.
These formidable challenges now seem almost pale in comparison to those posed by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
As we’ve always said, we don’t have a crystal ball at AllianceBernstein. The nature and scale of this particular risk, and its potential to cause economic damage, were neither the biggest nor darkest clouds on our risk horizon.
And that’s why, long before the virus appeared, we were stressing the importance of having a “2020 Risk Vision”.
Because managing investment risk isn’t about knowing precisely which risk will hurt most; it’s about understanding the potential for all risks―known and unknown―to inflict pain on your clients’ portfolios, and it’s about planning accordingly.
It’s true that the investment strategies that support our risk vision have felt the impact of the extraordinary market events and economic dislocation caused by COVID-19.
It’s equally true that, because they are actively managed, unfettered by market benchmarks and driven by robust stock- and security-selection methodologies, they are better suited to volatile market conditions than many other strategies.
For that reason, they are potentially positioned to perform well as the markets and the global economy recover. You can access our latest and frequently updated research insights and investment commentaries related to the crisis here.
COVID-19 is, of course, more than anything, a humanitarian crisis. That will be uppermost in your mind and the minds of your clients. For many of them, their portfolios and the market and economic outlook will be only one worry among many.
At AB, we hope that our forward-thinking risk vision and the strategies behind it will give you and your clients sufficient piece of mind to focus now on the things that really matter and, in time, to look again to the future―and their investments―with confidence.