How To Set Your Client Up For Success In 2020

By Susan Rupe

If your clients are feeling a sense of déjà vu as we start off 2020, they may have good reasons for it.

Markets at the beginning of the year are mimicking markets at the start of 2018. In both of those years, markets came off a strong year-end from the previous year. So how can you set your client up for success in the current economic climate?

Steve Frazier of Frazier Investment Management, Wakefield, R.I., told InsuranceNewsNet that 2019 “was a reset year” after a significant market drop in the second half of 2018 and the Federal Reserve reducing interest rates three times during 2019.

Despite fears of a market crash from the U.S. trade war with China and conflict in Iran, Frazier said, “it was just a blip on the screen at the end of the day.”

The next thing to watch out for, he said, will come from earnings guidance issued by major companies in February. And then watching out for whether the Fed will make another change to interest rates this year.

“It doesn’t appear that the Fed will be interested in making any move, especially because inflation is still below their target,” he said.

Frazier suggested that clients should consider protecting some of the gains they earned during the market surge of the past year by moving them into a safer product – an insurance product.

“Both the bond market and the stock market are close to all-time highs,” Frazier said. “This would help protect clients from volatility.”

2019 was “a do-over year,” in terms of the market, Frazier said. “But do-overs don’t last forever.”

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.