Turning the corner

Reflecting on the outlook from that first week of January, optimism was a triumph of hope over experience. But today’s reality shows us that a positive perspective on that day was not in fact misplaced.

In early January, I wrote of the promise I saw in the year ahead, albeit noting at the time that “Hope is hard.”

Reflecting on the outlook from that first week of January, optimism was a triumph of hope over experience. But today’s reality shows us that a positive perspective on that day was not in fact misplaced.

To name just a few of the green shoots that have bloomed, the battle against Covid-19 in the U.S. has turned, the vaccine regime has been an exhibit in operational efficiency and of particular importance to the financial advice community, the economy has begun to recover.

For the passive observer, the most immediate evidence of the economic turn lies in the charts of the various indexes, but for our community, look at what’s happening in the earnings of wirehouses, publicly held advice firms and the expectations at megabanks.

UBS Financial Services Inc. reported robust results in the latest quarter, including net new fee-generating assets of $17.2 billion.

LPL Financial added 385 advisers and disclosed more than $950 billion in total assets, a new high.

And JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon cited his expectation that a strong economy will extend into 2023; more importantly, he sees a return to normalcy, setting the expectation for one-half of employees rotating through offices by July.

That sort of return gives cause to exhale and enjoy the spring.