The 2020 IA25: Josh Brown

By Janet Levaux

Q&A April 22, 2020 at 12:32 PM

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Joshua M. Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, has some 1.1 million Twitter followers, appears often on CNBC and is an organizer of the Wealth/Stack yearly conference.

Top advice

Lead discussions with questions about the physical and mental health of each client and their family members. This is the most important thing right now.

We have found that clients are concerned with their portfolios secondarily these days, which makes this different from all other recessions and financial crises I've been through.

I would also tell advisors to continuously remind clients that this isn't the new normal. Life will resume once there are better treatments and an eventual vaccine.

All of the items on their financial plans and wish lists are still doable; they're just on a delay. Thinking about the future remains as important as ever, despite what's happening in the present.

Biggest Challenges

Keeping everyone positive and connected. We're using Slack and Zoom just as we always have, given that we have always been a firm with half of our employees working remotely.

I'm also trying to make sure that all of the great content we're doing on the blogs, podcasts and video channels are getting to the clients and leading to productive follow-up discussions with their advisors.

Finally, we made a commitment to our 31 employees in early March that we are not participating in this recession.

We're going to fight like hell to keep everyone in their roles, no matter what it takes. I have to stand by that commitment and do whatever I have to in order to honor it.

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