Well, that was a year, wasn’t it? We thought it would be “nice” to revisit 2022, as though going through it once wasn’t enough. In case you missed it, here’s a quick synopsis of the “year that was” for BentOak Capital.
We’ve had a busy year! Did you know we wrote 19 blog posts, shot 13 YouTube videos, hosted 7 live webinars, and posted over 100 times on Facebook and LinkedIn? We did not invest your money in crypto, so there’s that.
One very large thing we did spend our “free time” on was continuous learning. Our team earned 5 new designations this year. Hayden Hill completed the Retirement Management Advisor designation. Michael Cochran completed the Certified Investment Management Analyst certification. Marley Wood and AJ Bunn both earned their Certified Financial Planner designations. Chris Sargent finished the Certified Private Wealth Advisor certification. We are so proud of each of these people for spending countless hours studying outside of our normal business hours.
Looking Back
In January we introduced our theme for the year: Planning with Purpose. Those two ideas, planning (looking not just at today but also at tomorrow) and purpose (the why behind the plan) suffused so much of what we talked about with you this year.
In February, we really introduced our financial planning portal. This online tool has so much to offer. We use it during our regular meetings with you to help keep you on track toward your family’s financial goals. It provides three excellent benefits to you personally:
- You can see your whole financial life in one place
- You can securely send and receive sensitive documents with BentOak Capital
- You have a transparent look at the progress of your long-range financial plan
BLOG
In March, advisor Michael Cochran took us through a data-driven look at the inverted yield curve, one of the most well-known (and misunderstood) recession predictors. This timely blog post is a good introduction to a topic that has become news once again during the second half of 2022.
As spring turned to summer, we once again focused our attention on the importance of estate planning and legacy planning. These topics continue to drive some of our best discussions with you.
Throughout the summer, we consistently talked about staying the course, long-term, and not giving into fear and uncertainty. During our meetings, we emphasized the 15 adjustments – some small, some large – that we have made this year in our investment portfolios. These adjustments were driven by our quantitative investment process. This process uses multiple layers of research, is massively informed by statistics, and is implemented with an eye on potential tax impacts.
Moving from fall to winter, Chief Investment Officer Brandon Garrett helped us frame the investment markets’ decline in historical terms. Brandon has been instrumental to BentOak Capital throughout 2022 in providing context, data, analogies, and well-researched opinions about the investment markets.
We are also thankful for advisor Madison Wallace for her blog post on Qualified Charitable Distributions. We get lots of questions about this topic, particularly in the last quarter of the year, and this is an easy and quick read on the subject.
Chief Compliance Officer and resident gym rat, Stefan Simpson, recently reminded us that your health is one of your most important assets, which is an especially good thing to keep in mind during the holiday season.
WEBINARS
Our webinars this year were mostly centered on the current market and economic environment, as you would expect. We always try to do these in an entertaining and informative way that provides context and a view toward the future. While these are usually advisor hosted, we brought in a few guests to get input on their expertise as well. In October we were fortunate to have our good friend Cole Pfeiffer from Janus Henderson Investments join us to provide an outside opinion on the market. In November, we had an informative and timely discussion about Medicare with guest host Colby Pistocco, and to wrap up the year in December, our CEO Wayne Garrett led a conversation about year-end tax planning opportunities to consider.
LOOKING FORWARD
In keeping with our theme for 2022, we spent a lot of time talking about looking beyond today and focusing on the long term. In 2023, we are hopeful we can spend even more time talking with you about your families, your opportunities, and your dreams. The purpose of the planning we do is to make crystal clear the link between how you want to live your life and the financial and investment strategies we help you implement. In 2023, we intend to spend even more resources on communicating with you, provide more and easier avenues for you to reach out to us, improve and iterate on our world-class investment processes, and double down on our commitment to long-range comprehensive planning.
We believe that life is better lived together, in community, in partnership with people you like and trust. The team at BentOak Capital has never been stronger more talented, or more aligned with this purpose. We have over 100 years of combined experience behind us and trust me: we’re just getting started. Thanks for joining with us.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.
