Every Bull Has Its Matador
Investors of all kinds should ask more questions.
The first call was from my mother, turning 89 next week.
“What does this bank failure mean to me?”. Practical. That’s my mother.
The second was from my investment banking daughter who forwarded the recap to the entire family with the admonition that we each understand what happened.
The spectacular public failure of Silicon Valley Bank took even savvy financial leaders by surprise. In rapid succession, the story went from an aborted stock sale to a Federal takeover in a coffee break. Regional and global banks alike took a pounding.
“Who’s next?” was being asked before most people fully understood what had happened. But even the takeover was forced by a good old fashioned, 1930s style run by depositors, who now can click instead of stand in line outside the bank.
Our financial system relies on a level of trust that extends to the confidence of investors and a swelling cohort of new retirees. Bull markets – like the mostly 13 year run sputtering now – create complacency. Every bull has its matador and SVB could have that kind of impact, along with the other forces underlying its collapse.
Maintaining trust is key to weathering the storm with clients
At Next Chapter , we are committed to improving retirement outcomes for everyone. Our commitment to “everyone” carries full knowledge of the limited financial literacy of the typical American. We cannot be surprised when ordinary people question who is minding the store – especially when the juicier aspects of an SVB spill out – like the bonuses paid to employees and the ceo before the calamity.
Maintaining trust on behalf of the financial system is the duty of every leader, but even the best can’t head off the errors of competitors and other industry bad actors. And there is no doubt that the old saying, “Good times make weak men” is validated when those bad actors take others down with them.
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We owe it to our clients to be worthy of their trust. As they say hopefully on your next airplane ride, “We know you have a choice of air travel”, and our clients have many more choices available at the click of a mouse. It has never been easier to walk away quickly and without an awkward conversation from pretty much every financial provider. We should be proactively answering the questions everyone should be asking us. Am I ok?
Giving our clients peace of mind
We cannot dismiss the Silicon Valley Bank as a unicorn because we do not know if another bank made similar mistakes. Not so distant history confirms that such isolation in a united financial system is unlikely. We have to be on guard against complacency because complacency kills more businesses than any other factor. But more so we have to be on guard because that is our job. Our clients seek peace of mind more than any other factor and that peace of mind is ours to ensure.
It has been 13 years since the last upbraiding of our financial system, and making sure clients are protected across all forms of potential risk is simply good business. We don’t need a failing bank to create urgency for preparation against all kinds of risks our clients face in retirement. And we cannot predict which events will be the most impactful. But we need to ask.
My mother closes this one out. Speaking of her own situation, having just lost her longtime retirement home to Hurricane Ian on September 28, “Fate has a way of making the tough decisions for you”.
Stay vigilant out there.