A Mid-Year Client Letter: Wisdom from Three Wall Street Veterans

Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.

Dan Richards

Each quarter since 2008, I have posted a template for a letter to serve as a starting point for advisors looking to send clients an overview of the past 90 days and the outlook for the period ahead.

Advisors have told me that they’ve received a great response to these quarterly letters and the templates rank among my most popular articles – that’s especially the case in uncertain times such as we see today.

This quarter’s letter has four parts:

  1. An update on performance
  2. An assessment of where we are today
  3. Perspectives from legendary investors Dan Fuss and Bob Farrell, each with 50 years of experience on Wall Street, as well as asset allocation advice from Benjamin Graham
  4. Implications for investors and an outline of your recommendations for the period ahead

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Use as much or as little of the content as is appropriate for your approach. I’ve identified two portions of the letter that could be omitted to shorten it.

Just a reminder that if you’re going to use this letter, take the time to customize it and put it into your own words, so that it truly does represent your point of view. On a final note, my special thanks to Tacita Capital’s Michael Nairne for his help in crafting this letter.

The first half in review: Wisdom from three veterans of 50 years on Wall Street

As we enter July, I’m writing to provide perspective on what happened in the first half of 2012 and to share my thoughts on how to position portfolios for the period ahead. To help do that, I have tapped into three longstanding veterans of Wall Street, one who made his career in stocks, the other in bonds, and the third Warren Buffett’s teacher at Columbia who I’ve referred to in past emails.

Before we get into their views, here’s an overview of what’s happened so far this year.