Investment firms reopening, with most planning for September

More than half of investment managers plan to have their offices open by mid-September, even as federal authorities project COVID-19 infections to pick up during the fall.

According to a survey of more than 100 investment firms recently conducted by the Callan Institute, 84% currently have their physical locations closed. But 10% said they plan to reopen this month, 17% in July, 5% in August and 15% during September, according to the report published Friday. Forty-one percent of respondents said they do not know when they will reopen.

Smaller firms, or those with less than $50 billion in assets under management, were more likely to reopen offices sooner, with the majority citing plans for July or earlier. Most larger firms pointed to reopening in August or later.

In the densely populated Northeast, where the spread of COVID-19 has been prominent, more than half of investment firms said reopening would not occur until September or later, according to Callan.

On Monday, the second phase of reopening in New York City began, with offices starting to come back to life. Mayor Bill de Blasio estimated during a press conference that “hundreds of thousands of people” would be returning to work this week.

Investment companies appear to be more cautious when it comes to business travel, the survey showed. More than half, 53%, said they are unsure about when business travel will resume for their companies. Thirty-one percent said travel would likely be allowed by September, though 10% pegged a timeline as far as January 2021, according to the report.

Currently, only 3% of firms said they are allowing visitors into their offices, all of which are smaller, employee-owned companies, the survey found.

The industry is likely keeping tabs on how infection rates are changing around the country. The Callan survey did not ask respondents whether they expected COVID-19 cases to become less common during the fall, nor whether their estimates for reopening were contingent on infection rates falling.

While the rate of new cases stopped accelerating just before summer, it is again rising, and the spread of the virus is expected to ramp up in the coming months, according to statements from the White House reported Monday by The New York Times.

Although the number of new cases in many states have been relatively flat or declining over the past two weeks, rates are rising in at least 23 states, including California, Texas and Florida, according to the Times.

Despite the industrywide change in working arrangements, investment firms said the number of meetings they’ve had with clients and consultants hasn’t changed much, according to Callan’s report. Twenty-three percent said the number of meetings compared with a year ago is the same, while 37% said they have decreased and 35% said they have increased.

About half, 48%, said that nearly all meetings are done via video.

“Based on our conversations with clients, I would say most have said that video conferences have been great and more efficient,” one survey respondent told Callan, according to the report.