There will be a new presidential administration come Jan. 20, but despite the political change there will be the same sluggish economy and the same Covid-19 pandemic to deal with. For many people concerned about their finances, the near future offers more agitation than comfort.
This week, our Suite Talk spotlight takes on an investing hue as Senior Enterprise Editor Phil Hall interviews Mary G. Gardiner, founding partner at The Blue Sandstone Group at Morgan Stanley.
As 2020 recedes further away in the rearview mirror and 2021 looms ahead of us, what are you hearing from your clients regarding the concerns on their investments and the overall state of the economy?
“We have a special passion about empowering women with their money and being able to help people with more complex situations. What we”™re hearing from those clients is concern about the outcome of the election and what does that mean for their investments, for taxes, for estate planning and for their health care. And then we couple that with Covid in terms of how will that impact them going forward and how can we help.
“With our clients, we think very carefully about how we can mitigate any blind spots and make sure their legacies are protected during these very, very difficult and volatile times. We take that step back, look at their goals and help them to plan during that process to be able to mitigate some of these issues that are at the forefront.”
You mentioned empowering women with their money. How is it different to work with women investors vs. male investors?
“Well, we women always have an opinion, right? (laughs) I think the most important thing in working with families is that we always make sure that everyone who”™s part of that family is part of the conversation. In the past, women were not at the forefront of the finances. And in the olden days, it wasn”™t until someone was widowed or divorced that a woman actually was empowered or had to really be in charge of their family finances.
“Today, when we see the shift of baby boomers, we see that women are now the breadwinners in many cases and also the leaders in their families when it comes to finances. It”™s not so much about how people are different, but acknowledging that there”™s a change and how family finances are conducted and being able to make sure that women are included in those discussions. That brings diversity of thought and makes for a better plan.”
If you”™re looking into investment vehicles and investment opportunities in this precarious point in time, what in your professional opinion are the strongest investments?
“We won”™t give specific advice about a particular investment, but I think that there are a couple of core values that are really important to think about, including the importance of diversification. Also, it”™s not so much what are the best investments for someone, but how did those investments really fit into their goals and how can that team of investment experts be able to help them, you know, with those situations? Morgan Stanley is the largest wealth management firm and we have amazing resources in all areas, so we have the benefit of being able to pick and choose what”™s really best for our clients.”
What is the relationship with Morgan Stanley and The Blue Sandstone Group?
“Our team, The Blue Sandstone Group, is actually part of Morgan Stanley. We are an all-women”™s wealth advisory team who practice out of Morgan Stanley”™s headquarters in Purchase and we have branded our business as The Blue Sandstone Group. Interestingly, blue sandstone is the stone of ambition, courage and empowerment, and these are some of the core values of our practices.”
From what I can gather, the European countries are having just as bad of a time, if not worse, regarding the Covid pandemic, and the Chinese economy is difficult to decipher where there is no means of independently auditing what is happening there. What is your opinion about investing overseas at this time?
“It really gets down to an individual investor or a family”™s unique needs and being able to put together a portfolio that will meet those needs. But in terms of Europe, China and other overseas economies, there”™s so much change that”™s going to be going on in the world and the one thing that we know that is constant is there is going to be this change.”
What have been some of the more interesting challenges you faced in 2020, and how have you overcome them?
“It”™s been a really, really difficult year. First and foremost, we really care about the families that we work with, so making sure that everybody”™s OK has been very, very important to us. And we”™ve seen so many people experience the loss of a loved one ”” it has been very difficult to call up and speak to one of your clients and find out they”™ve lost their mom or they”™ve lost their dad.
“We”™ve also seen many times that clients are rethinking their priorities, because they”™re not sure that they really want to be going back into mass transit to get to work. Some are wondering if they can afford to retire early.
“I think the silver lining has been that people are looking back and finding out what”™s most important to them and how can they achieve those goals. We”™ve been extremely busy with being able to help with those challenges and make sure if people are thinking about retiring early or doing something different that they have the financial resources and the plan in place to do that.
“And I think the last thing is that we are all Zoom experts now. We were not experts on this platform nine months ago, and now through the new modes of communication we are pleased to be able to meet people in whatever way that works best for them.”
