JSW logo
May: 2010

Boat Image
Joel S. Williams
An Alliance of Wealth Advisers

E-Newsletter
Greetings!
We work diligently to serve our clients with an extremely high level of personal attention and financial expertise. To find out how our national network of diverse professional advisers can assist you to preserve and protect your family's and/or business wealth, contact us today!
Join our Mailing List!
JSW E-NEWS
Dear Friends,

I am writing this during a break at a Certified Financial Planning conference in Richmond Mike and I are attending to help us better advise you. The greatest intra-session drop in stock market history occurred as a speaker was giving us research results on how to take distributions from investments in all kinds of markets.

Bottom line: The rule of thumb and cash flow analysis we have been performing for years is right on spot. Furthermore, the current state of the economy and market should be followed by a couple of decades of more favorable withdrawal rates.

The research goes further on to state that a critical point is that investors have a plan with discipline to remain invested through volatile times because investment managers make their most significant gains in the most volatile times, like we saw on May 6.

The presenter on investment allocation recommended basically our portfolio strategy for the past 18 months:
  • A portion of assets that are not part of the stock market (i.e. our direct participation programs which include real estate; oil/gas; timber).
  • Money managers that can reallocate to areas of less volatility quickly (i.e. our absolute return managers and managed futures strategies). We ran into a rep for one of these managers yesterday and asked, "Are you making money today?" "We should be," was his answer, due to the volatility.
  • Finally, managers who are in the traditional stock market  focusing on companies that can grow their dividends. We have several managers doing that. During low market value times stock buy-back programs have a great impact. Good growth companies can grow dividends in good and bad stock markets, particularly during low interest rate periods.
Over 80% of this audience of professional advisors were very positive about the outlook for their clients going forward. The tools in which we are trained are designed to help us implement plans for clients who can weather storms such as this one. One hundred percent of this group knows that attempting to move in and out of the market is not a successful strategy.

As Andy Rooney used to say, "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain."     
We believe we have positioned our clients' portfolios properly for this current environment, but are continually monitoring the situation. 

- Joel & Mike
Thanks for reading. Please call with questions or concerns. We're here for you.
 
Sincerely,
The Joel S. Williams | An Alliance of Wealth Advisers Team
P: 540.961.6706  |  T: 888.553.2211

Securities & Advisory Services Offered through VSR Financial Services, Inc. A Registered Investment Adviser and Member FINRA/SIPC.  Joel S. Williams |An Alliance of Wealth Advisors is Independent of VSR. These are the opinions of Joel Williams, a practicing Certified Financial Planner™, Certified Investment Management Analyst and Ph.D. in economics. These are not necessarily the opinions of VSR, First Clearing or any of our money managers. These  comments are based on various sources of information including reports and newsletters from Kiplinger, Hays Advisory Service, HS Dent, MSNBC, First Clearing Corporation, Haver Analytics, Dow Jones, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Yahoo Finance, Economic Cycle Research Institute, Barron's, Dow Jones Energy Service, The Hulbert Financial Digest and www.globalfindata.com. VSR does not provide tax or legal advice or services. These sources are believed to be reliable but the accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Past performance does not guarantee future results. One should view, particularly near-term opinions, as not very statistically reliable and purely "my best guess." Keep in mind most of my focus and comfort are in what will happen in the next five years and beyond; not the near term. Compliance requires me to add: This should not be considered individual investment advice.  You should consider your individual investment objectives and risk tolerances before making an investment decision.