Karen Burns, director of Enterprise Planning and Behavioral Finance for Merrill discusses how you can prepare and put a plan in place to help you pursue what matters most to you.
Listen to the audiocast
Project Title: Merrill Financial Planning PWA New Normal Seminar (pre-recorded) |
Date: August 28, 2020 |
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Version #: Final |
Agency/Production Company: thINK |
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Total Run Time: 14:51 |
MAP#: MAP3266327 |
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Audio Script |
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Karen Burns: Thank you for joining us to talk about ways to potentially weather volatile markets with support from your Financial Advisor. My name is Karen Burns and I’m the Director of Enterprise Planning and Behavioral Finance with Bank of America. As we all face unprecedented times, we want you to know that we are here for you. Helping you take stock of your finances and make thoughtful decisions about your investments is our focus today. We will: • Talk about the importance of creating a plan to help you pursue your goals. • Discuss some pitfalls and ways you can take a disciplined approach towards your goals. • Review some of the tools we can use to help you create a personalized strategy. • And learn how working with a Merrill advisor can help you stay the course and be prepared for what is next. Please be sure to review the important information at the end of this program. Before we dive in, first and foremost we hope that you and your family are safe and staying healthy. The coronavirus pandemic has impacted nearly every aspect of our lives and is having a significant impact on people across the country. However, there appears to be encouraging signs in the fight against the virus as well as in the markets. Let’s focus on how we can work together to create an action plan that can help you pursue your goals so you are prepared to pursue them for the long term. As you think about putting a strategy in place, the starting point is taking stock of what is important to you — your goals and what you want to do with your wealth. You may be focused on near-term goals like purchasing a new home or starting a new career. You may also have longer-term goals like funding your retirement or paying for a child’s education. We encourage clients to think about their goals in the six categories that you see here and think about what you want to achieve in each. These goals become the basis of your approach. As you do this, you may want to consult your spouse or family members as you think about: • What you want to achieve for yourself, your family and your legacy. • How you prioritize your goals to understand their relative importance when compared with each other. • And your approach to investing, including your tolerance for taking on risk. The last component informs your investor personality and how you may react to market movements. By understanding you and your emotions about the market, we will be able to better identify the right approach that will put you on the path toward your goals, but in a way that you feel comfortable sticking to. It will also help us personalize the advice we provide to make sure it focuses on your goals and what is most important to you. |
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When you are focused on your goals, you are better able to focus on your portfolio and how you might need to rebalance or adjust based on changing conditions of the market — and the emotional toll they can take. Regardless of how far away your goals are, the markets will have their ups and downs along the way. This is why we encourage you to take a long-term approach to investing for each of your goals. It is also why we measure success not based on last quarter’s performance, but dependent on your time horizon on how well you are progressing toward achieving your goals. An approach that balances risk and reward will help you make steady progress toward the goals you have set and will help you stay on track to long-term success.
In times of uncertainty, it is only human for emotions to take over. With uncertainty in the economy and large swings in the stock market, some of you may have been thinking that you need to get out of the market or sell your investments. Others may be uncertain about what to do. These emotional reactions are normal, but can also be dangerous. For the same reason that feelings of euphoria can result in heightened financial risk in an upward-trending market, feelings of despondency are just as risky in a downward-trending market. The risk in both cases is making decisions based on emotions — instead of fundamentals — and deviating from a disciplined investment approach. While we can help you make disciplined investment choices and provide you insights and advice to help you focus on the long term, the foundation of a disciplined approach is having an action plan in place — one that takes into account your investor personality. That is what we are here to talk about today.
At Merrill, we have a disciplined process in place that can help you create — and stick to — a personalized action plan that can help you make steady progress toward your goals.
• It starts by focusing on what matters to you; taking stock of what is important to you now and what you want for the future. It also means prioritizing your goals so you can evaluate tradeoffs that may increase your chances of achieving them all.
• Armed with insight into what you want to achieve, we can work together to design your path and your plan — a personalized approach paired with advice and guidance that truly supports you.
• With an action plan in place, we can then help make it happen — setting your strategy in motion by drawing from a wide range of financial solutions and adapting the strategy in real time as your circumstances change.
• And finally, we can help you review your progress by tracking your milestones and modifying your personalized action plan when expected — and unexpected — events mean a change is needed. This flexible approach is grounded in regular communication and review and can help you stick to your strategy for the long term.
Let’s take a moment to dive a bit deeper into what we mean by prioritizing your goals. While all of your goals are meaningful, some may be more important to you than others. That is why once you have established your goals, we go further to prioritize them to determine which are essential — like saving for retirement — and which are important or aspirational — like purchasing a vacation home. Your prioritized goals can be used to consider different strategies and trade-offs, so you can make informed decisions. It also helps us truly personalize your investing approach to how you think about your life and wealth.
Based on your goals — and how you prioritize them — we can focus on building a personalized action plan that will help you work toward your goals. There are a number of ways you can approach investing, so we take time to look at your choices and find an approach that works for you, your investor personality and your larger financial situation. During this process we will:
• Explore scenarios based on your current financial situation that can help us define the possible paths you could choose from to pursue your goals.
• Look at trade-offs you may want to consider to increase the probability of success, like changing your target retirement age or increasing your savings rate to build your portfolio more quickly.
• And finally, designing a tailored plan that can be implemented in a way that allows you to balance risk and return and put you on the path toward pursuing your goals.
And along the way, we will be here to answer questions and provide you advice on whatever financial topics arise.
Implementing your strategy will likely draw on a mix of financial solutions — each supporting a different goal. The right mix will depend on your action plan and the evaluation steps we just discussed. To help you make your action plan happen, we offer a range of investing solutions from Merrill and banking and lending solutions from Bank of America. We strive to provide you access to top-quality financial solutions so you have the flexibility to implement a tailored approach — supported by our ongoing advice.
Advice is not the only thing you get when working with us. We view every client relationship as an ongoing dialogue. We stand ready to answer questions, offer advice and discuss your plan whenever you want. We will take time to meet to:
• Review how you are progressing toward your goals.
• And evaluate how the things outside of your control — like the markets — may have impacted you.
By reviewing your progress, you will be better able to know where you stand, and we can make changes to your plan and your investments to adapt to changing conditions and keep you on track.
One of the ways we can help bring your plan to life is by using Merrill Personal Wealth Analysis. This tool helps us build and document a personalized approach that is based on your goals. We can use it as we work together to focus on what matters most to you, set and prioritize your goals and review your financial picture in light of what you want to achieve — all while documenting a personalized strategy that is all about you.
Merrill Personal Wealth Analysis helps guide us through the process we just talked about, and offers a number of benefits. It can help us work together to:
• Focus on what matters most as you share information about your finances and your feelings about investing that will be used to inform your strategy.
• Set goals and help you evaluate them to prioritize. • Review your finances so we can take stock of your savings and investments, your debts and your income. • Evaluate your options using “what-if” scenarios with side-by-side comparisons that help you understand the trade-offs you may need to make to achieve your goals. • Choose from potential investment approaches and actionable investment ideas, drawn from the full solution set offered by Merrill. • Review a copy of your report anytime, sent via secure email or uploaded to your document library in MyMerrill – full of easy-to-understand charts and graphs so you know where you stand. In addition to helping you manage your investments, as a Merrill client you also have access to a wide range of banking and lending solutions from Bank of America. In addition to services like checking and savings, credit cards and home loans, you also have access to Bank of America’s digital financial tools, including: • Insights and planners from our Better Money Habits program. • Seamless online integration of your Merrill and Bank of America accounts through MyMerrill and BankofAmerica.com. • The ability to get a more complete view of your wealth by including data on accounts with other firms using My Financial Picture. • And planning tools like the Bank of America Spending & Budgeting tool that can help you manage your day-to-day finances and stay on the path towards saving for your goals. Taking into account your banking, lending and investments together will help us create a more tailored approach and put you on the right path to help you pursue all of your goals. We have covered a lot today, so what should you consider doing next? First, remember you’re not alone. We are here to help. We can answer questions, offer guidance and insight to help you make sense of the markets. This checklist is a handy reminder of some of the things we can do together. We are here to offer you advice so you can make informed decisions about your finances and design a plan that will help you maintain investment discipline and stay on a path toward your goals. And helping you stay on track is the true value of working with a financial advisor. It all begins with a conversation. Your advisor is always available to answer your questions, provide you with our perspective and offer advice, so don’t hesitate to reach out to them. We have said it a lot during this presentation, but remember to focus on your goals and your investment strategy. Your goals are why you invest and are the foundation of everything we do. Schedule a time to discuss how we can help. Your advisor team is here to help you create, adjust and stick to your investment strategy so that you can stay on the path to achieving your goals. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. [Disclosures on screen: Bank of America, Merrill, its affiliates, and financial advisors do not provide legal, tax or accounting advice. You should consult your legal and/or tax advisors before making any financial decisions. |
Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
All recommendations must be considered in the context of an individual investor’s goals, time horizon, liquidity needs and risk tolerance. Not all recommendations will be in the best interest of all investors.
Asset allocation, diversification and rebalancing do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets.
This material does not take into account a client’s particular investment objectives, financial situations or needs and is not intended as a recommendation, offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security or investment strategy. Merrill offers a broad range of brokerage, investment advisory and other services. There are important differences between brokerage and investment advisory services, including the type of advice and assistance provided, the fees charged, and the rights and obligations of the parties. It is important to understand the differences, particularly when determining which service or services to select. For more information about these services and their differences, speak with your Merrill financial advisor.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (also referred to as “MLPF&S” or “Merrill”) makes available certain investment products sponsored, managed, distributed, or provided by companies that are affiliates of Bank of America Corporation (“BofA Corp.”). MLPF&S is a registered broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, Member SIPC and a wholly owned subsidiary of BofA Corp. and a wholly owned subsidiary of BofA Corp. Investment products: Are
Not FDIC Insured, Are Not Bank Guaranteed, May Lose Value]
(ADA)
Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
All recommendations must be considered in the context of an individual investor’s goals, time horizon, liquidity needs and risk tolerance. Not all recommendations will be in the best interest of all investors.
Asset allocation, diversification and rebalancing do not ensure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets.
This material does not take into account a client’s particular investment objectives, financial situations or needs and is not intended as a recommendation, offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any security or investment strategy. Merrill offers a broad range of brokerage, investment advisory and other services. There are important differences between brokerage and investment advisory services, including the type of advice and assistance provided, the fees charged, and the rights and obligations of the parties. It is important to understand the differences, particularly when determining which service or services to select. For more information about these services and their differences, speak with your Merrill financial advisor.
