How to be Proactive in Today's Market with Mike Prendergast

Mike is a Director at Altfest Personal Wealth Management, helping clients with all aspects of their investment and personal financial planning lives. In addition, he is the Director of the Altfest Dental Practice Group and sits on the firm’s Financial Planning and Healthcare Professionals Committees. Mike regularly advises clients on planning for retirement, structuring investment portfolios, various financial planning areas specific to healthcare professionals, as well as on Social Security, estate planning, and charitable giving. Mike joined Altfest Personal Wealth Management in 2002 and has served in both the financial planning and investment departments. He received his BA in Russian studies from Amherst College and his MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He is a CFP® licensee who graduated from the Pace University Financial Planning program and a member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) and the New York Tax Study Group.Listen in!Key Highlights:[00:01 - 12:53]  How to Stay Calm during Market VolatilityInflation is high, markets are volatile, and clients are concerned about their investments. Mike discusses how to communicate with clients and how to stay calm during these times.Over long periods, the market is usually up, but there have been down years too. Clients can use this information to help them feel more confident about their investments.People who take action solely based on volatility and not analysis have worse returns over long periods..[12:54 - 26:56]  The Rise of Fee-Only Financial AdvisorsThe number of financial advisors in the US is growing, and fee-only advisors are a growing percentage of this population.The growth in advisors is due to increasing education about advisor conflicts of interest and the benefits of working with a fee-only advisor.Changes in the tax code, social security, and other policies are to be observed to find opportunities for higher returns on the upside or protect against risk on the downside.Mike discusses how their firm is investing in technology and developing in-house investment strategies.[26:57 - 26:56]  Questions to Ask Your Financial AdvisorComprehensive wealth management is critical - ensure that this is what the financial advisor can offer. This way, you can get to your goals faster with less stress. Check out https://www.napfa.org/ for more information.Proactive clients who ask the right questions are more likely to succeed.Delegating tasks to experts can help reduce stress and prevent over-analysis.Sometimes, the best thing to do is nothing. It may be better to take a step back to reevaluate instead of taking action triggered by panic.[36:58 - 41:57] Closing SegmentGet in touch with Mike Prendergast to learn more about wealth management!Key Quotes:“It's very easy when things are going crazy at this moment to let your emotions get take over. It's very natural…  But a few things that we need to remember is that one, you know, we've been through this before… We've had periods of extreme volatility before… and so, we'll get through this.” - Mike Prendergast“If the goal is for the medium to the long term, it usually doesn't make sense to change the strategy based on short-term, temporary events.” - Mike Prendergast“The clients that tend to be successful definitely tend to be proactive. They tend to be asking the right questions. They tend to be doing some research.” - Mike PrendergastConnect with Mike:Website: www.altfest.com/about Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-michael-prendergast-aa013918/ Connect with me on LinkedIn!LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, AND LEAVE US A REVIEW on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on. Thank you for tuning in and Stay Tuned for the Next Episode COMING SOON! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.