Quarterly Update
“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” –John Quincy Adams
Firstly, we want to thank you for the trust you place in us. It has been a difficult past couple of months, and we have been touched by you reaching out and checking in on us. We fully understand that we would not be in business without you, and we know how nerve-wracking and tense this period has been. We are thankful and grateful to be able to work with you. We will continue to persevere during these tough times and are confident we will come out stronger on the other side. With a well-laid plan and patience, we know that your goals are reachable and sustainable.
With the first quarter behind us, we customarily send out a quarterly letter to provide an update on the markets and your portfolios along with our quarterly reports. However, with all of the uncertainty and volatility, we have made it a point to reach out much more often over the past few weeks. With that said, we will give you just a brief update and highlight some notes of positivity we have seen recently.
From the front-line doctors and nurses to the technicians spending hours performing lab tests, the medical community worldwide has shown compassion and dedication over these past few months. One of the most amazing things we have seen is the speed at which scientists are mobilizing to discover effective treatments and work towards a vaccine. According to the Wall Street Journal, “More than 140 experimental drug treatments and vaccines for the coronavirus are in development world-wide, most in early stages, including 11 already in clinical trials.” Counting drugs approved for other diseases, there are 254 clinical trials testing treatments or vaccines for the virus, many spearheaded by universities and government research agencies, with hundreds more trials planned. Researchers have squeezed timelines that usually total months into weeks or even days. We know that these things don’t happen overnight, but we believe in the ingenuity and perseverance of people, and we are confident that in due time, some type of treatment or vaccine will be successful.
We also want to thank our friends, families, neighbors, and broader communities for the help they have provided to each other in this troubling time. Whether it’s people delivering groceries to their high-risk neighbors, community members donating medical supplies, or as simple as making time for group video chats for a family dinner from far away, the sense of connection has strengthened us. It seems like every day we are bombarded with negative media messaging about the things that make us different. In our opinion, this is the first time since the months following the 9/11 tragedies where it feels like we have truly come together. It has been such a reminder of how important our communities are. Fundamentally, our humanity has brought us together. Although this is a tragedy whose effects are worldwide, it brings to mind the classic John F. Kennedy inaugural quote, “Ask not what your country will do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
And lastly, just to touch on the financial impacts, we have seen an uptick in the markets from the lows we saw on March 23rd. The CARES Act has been passed and will institute large impacts on the lives of everyday Americans, and the Fed has injected liquidity that has stabilized the credit markets. As we have discussed before, this should hopefully provide a level of stability as we continue to take measures to “flatten the curve” and move gradually towards getting people out of their homes and back to work. By no means do we believe it will be a straight march upwards – we anticipate continued volatility, but we are inching closer to the country being open for business again.
Again, we appreciate you and thank you for your trust. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions.