State of Our Union

This month we’re going to take a step away from the markets and just talk a bit about us at Second Level Capital.

Relax.  There’s nothing you’re missing in terms of short-term or long-term strategy that has any statistical edge to it, so if you’re thinking of making any changes based on exogenous market factors (Ukraine, inflation, interest rates, etc.), the only real answer I have for you right now, is to sit back and wait for clarity.  There will always be the option to flip a coin and choose correctly, but that’s not investing, it’s coin flipping.  The rally we’ve seen off the lows, at the moment, has an equal chance of being a “bear market rally” or possibly the start of something more interesting to the upside.  Time will tell.

As for Brad and I, things are moving along nicely.  Notwithstanding a pretty snowy February, and our bouts of COVID-19 that swept through each of our families, we can’t really complain.  Children are getting older (we’re not) and new market environments bring new challenges, but that’s to be expected.

Our assets under management grew by about 35% last year, bolstered both by onboarding new clients as well as some outsized market performance.  We remain in “growth mode” at least for the next several years, so please speak kindly about us when you’re lamenting your Q1 portfolio performance with friends.

As some of you may or may not know, there are a decent amount of clients that Brad and I both have not met personally.  As we live in an increasingly digital world, offering financial advice through Zoom or over the phone, certainly doesn’t feel as strange as it used to.  But our job as advisor is more than being an investment allocator, it’s also being a bit of a money therapist.  It’s to find out what makes people tick, and then using that knowledge to build a plan that can bend, but not break.  Our job shouldn’t be one that’s all smiles and rainbows when you’re a new client and then you get sloughed off to the support staff when times get tough.  Today’s environment is a fantastic example, and generally when times get tougher, we tend to gain more new referrals and clients.

So as soon as it was reasonably feasible (both travel-wise and health-wise), we sought out to see as many clients in person as we could.  Share a meal.  Share the idiosyncrasies in thought and manner which provide a different perspective as well as the vulnerability needed to have a real relationship.  Believe it or not, this is THE deciding factor in our decision whether or not to accept a new client.  Would we want to introduce our families to you?  Would we want to share our own imperfections and emotional struggles?  It’s been amazing to see how our “strategy” has compounded into a community of people we respect immensely.

All of this is to say, that if we haven’t come to see you, we will.  We take very seriously the trust you’ve placed in us, and for those of you who have been with us from the beginning when Second Level Capital was simply an idea, we owe you everything, and we won’t forget it.

– Adam