As challenges including the Russia-Ukraine war, high inflation and supply chain constraints continue, compounded now by rising interest rates, there are several steps advisors can take to help their clients overcome their top concerns, according to Dan Kemp, global chief investment officer at Morningstar Investment Management.
Although the worst of the pandemic may be behind us and society is returning to something close to normal, investors remain concerned about lingering challenges like inflation possibly getting even worse, he told the Envestnet Advisor Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday, during a session called "Navigating Investor Concerns in 2022."
Clients are "full of worries" and topping their list of concerns in 2022 are global conflict, inflation and rising interest rates, he said.
Stay on the Rollercoaster
Those are all important concerns that advisors must take into account but none of them is the most important issue, he noted, adding: "The most important thing is whether clients are on track to meet their goals," especially with short-term losses in their portfolios that are part of an "emotional rollercoaster" for them. "It's easy to forget how stressful investing is," he added.
"Our shared goal is to keep them on the path to where they want to be" and it is crucial to address clients' concerns and try to get them to avoid making investment mistakes.
Kemp guessed that most clients are likely not looking to take more risk now. But he said: "Prices are lower. It's a far better time to take more risk now than it was a year ago."
Many investors "want to get off the rollercoaster and not invest anymore [and] we know that's disastrous because once people get off they're very, very bad at getting back on," he explained. "Their goals can become completely unattainable if they jump off at the wrong point," he added.
Addressing Clients' Common Concerns
Addressing each of the three top investor concerns, he said first: "The impact of geopolitical events is entirely unpredictable … I have no idea what's going to happen next in Ukraine." He guessed that very few people aside from Russian President Vladimir Putin do, he added.
The future overall, meanwhile, is uncertain and could bring any of a huge range of outcomes, he said.
The best way to combat geopolitical uncertainty is to create a robust, diversified portfolio for each client that can deal with all four market environments (low inflation, high growth; high inflation, high growth; low inflation, low growth; and high inflation, low growth), he explained.
To combat inflation, advisors should use a flexible, unconstrained investment approach, he said, pointing out all Morningstar portfolios are managed with a valuation-driven approach that helps mitigate the impact of inflation.
To combat rising interest rates, he said, investments should factor in high interest rates. Historically, value has outperformed growth during environments of higher interest rates, he noted.
