FSG COVID-19 Update

Dear clients and friends of Financial Services Group (FSG),

As you all are aware, the coronavirus (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic. This evolving situation is affecting our clients, our team members and our communities in rapidly changing ways.

Our firm has instituted a number of internal measures to ensure that we are able to balance serving our clients’ needs with the need to adhere to the evolving legal and community guidelines to limit the spread of this virus.

As of March 16, 2020, our staff and advisor team will continue to work from our office; however, we are reducing in-person contact as much as possible. We have asked our team members to replace all in-person client meetings with a video conference meeting (preferred method), a phone call, or to reschedule meetings to a later date. We would like to point out that video conferencing is a very effective means of communicating and we have the technology in place to make this as seamless as possible for you! This is also an important note as timelines to “go back to normal” are still up in the air.

Secondly, should further legal or community measures prevent us from working in our office, please know what we have protocols in place to work remotely in a secure manner. Our IT systems are secure and stable, and we will continue to ensure that you are well looked after.

In addition, we want to send a note about the current economic environment and financial markets. There are many things in life, as in investing, that we cannot control. A global pandemic, an oil price war and a virtual lock-down of society would all fall into this category – let alone when they all occur at the same time.

There is no doubt that what we are witnessing is a historic event on many levels. It has created fear, panic and uncertainty – all things that investors and stock markets do not like. Although there will be real costs ahead to our economy, our healthcare system and our society, we have to remember that making decisions based on fear, panic and uncertainty is counter-productive to long-term prosperity. What we can control in times like this are the decisions we make, and it should be no secret that decisions are best made when they are based on a PLAN.

FSG’s investment philosophy is built on financial planning and offering investment and insurance products that meet our clients’ long-term needs. It’s important to note that, generally, we take a conservative approach with our clients. We are not stock-brokers or day traders, as we believe these methods focus on short-term objectives and they are either too risky, ineffective or both.

The benefit of having a long-term investment philosophy is that we can look at times like this and feel confident knowing that we are making decisions with an objective, fact-based approach. There are times when our decisions may be contrarian to what everyone else is doing, like offering GIC’s during one of the longest bull markets in history, for example, but again, we would rather focus on the financial well-being of our clients and our firm, rather than winning a popularity contest.

FSG has been around for over 40 years and we will be here for another 40 as well. We have a plan and we are sticking to it.

Lastly, we want to send our thanks to the medical professionals working on the front lines fighting the spread of COVID-19. The hard work and sacrifices these workers are making are very much appreciated by our team and our families.

Sincerely,

Your FSG Team