C19 Update- The best worst of times.

I have been waiting a little while for a day like today.

Over the last month or so the markets have taken a trip to Crazy Town. Rising and making up most of the losses that have occurred since we began this unprecedented period we are all experiencing together. A lot of politicians— well, actually people in general actually— are comparing this to being at war. We have all heard the rhetoric, but we as a collective do no experience war. There are only certain aspects that any one person can experience, most people in the world will experience war through the news, through the word of mouth, through their leadership.

Unfortunately for those who do actually experience it, who have that experience, I bet they would tell you that this isn’t that. We are ALL in this as an entire collective. The entire world is experiencing this thing every single day, all day and you know what? this might be the best/ worst time for humanity to be going through this sort of experience.

We can do everything from home, we don’t even have to leave the house. We can get all of our information from our fingertips. We can reach out to loved ones and even ones we don’t love and see their faces; communicate.

but,

we can do everything from home, we don’t even have to leave the house. We can get all of our information from our fingertips. We can reach out to loved ones and even ones we don’t love and see their faces; communicate.

Every part of this is at the same time easy and hard.

But the markets go up and down on their own anyways. Sometimes there is a reason, sometimes there doesn’t seem to be one. Either way— doesn’t matter. Our job is to be prepared as best we can, to be right more than we are wrong and when we are wrong, or in the wrong spot, our job is to remedy this as fast as we possibly can.

In April we found ourselves in a spot we shouldn’t be in, we found a small component, about 3-5% of our portfolio, in Canadian Real Estate, in a liquid position, that we did not believe would serve us well and would not recover anywhere near the pace a number of our other positions will. The fund itself, you can see right here, is a solid fund at any other time, but the decision was made to make a move and we began the process.

Funnily enough, it was the best/ worst time to make this decision.

Under normal circumstances, we would be on the phones and emails, setting up appointments and working to see everyone we possibly could in as short a period of time as possible. Our clients can attest to this, we don’t sit idle. But the fact is, we can’t see everyone while the iron is hot. It is the failing of our industry that we can’t stop time, we can’t be in all places at once.

Under these particular circumstances, we have technology on our side. Can you imagine what it must have been like trying to navigate through the crash of ‘87? Recession in the ’90s? The tech bubble crash, when oddly enough, not everyone had technology at their fingertips like we do today?

We, today, can be all places at once, we can stop time.

But—

it doesn’t actually matter. It has still taken months to make the change, people have missed some opportunity because technology isn’t perfect, we aren’t perfect. There will always be a disconnect from reality in the message you are attempting to send, and what people interpret.

So, as of today, we are still not done a task that perhaps ought to have been completed in a few short days back in April. On a more positive note, we only have a few people left to reach and the job will be done for now.

But what about the next time? We work actively, we are not passive. We have a track, to be sure, so anything that looks to derail our experience we will actively work to avoid. But we can’t do the job fast enough. This leads to an unfair balance and leads some accounts to not do as well as others.

This has to change.

For the last number of years, we have been working with fund companies in the insurance industry to see if we can change things and to date, we have made very little headway.

The goal would be for us to have the ability to collect consent from our clients to make changes on a quarterly basis to the overall portfolio with one page instead of hundreds, if necessary, to do what we feel is best for the portfolio.

To be everywhere, at once. (or as close to this as possible.)

It seems simple, but frankly, without support from industry, this is only a good idea. But we need ideas to turn to action. We will continue to find an avenue to support this concept, and do better for our clients. We will never sit still.

We, like the rest of the world, are watching the events around the world unfold for equal justice, #BLM, C19 recovery, the opening of trade and travel, a presidential race, upcoming EU elections, and hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.

It seems we may be in for more “unprecedented” times, so stay tuned and stay healthy.

Thank you for reading.

Darris Cameron,
President & COO
Financial Value Inc.