Name: Guardian Life Insurance's CEO Shares Some Investment Advice
Uploaded: 2020-01-02
Duration: 3 min 40 s
Description: Deanna Mulligan says being conservative is key.

 Deanna, the markets are rallying. It looks like the Dow Jones Industrial Average will soon hit a new milestone, Dow, 20,000. That's what they say. So what does this momentum mean for the investment side of Guardian's business? Obviously, with interest rates going up, it does help our portfolio. You see the market going up. The market may be fully priced for now. It may not be. Who knows? We've had a lot of surprises this year, when you think what happened in June with Brexit, and then, again with the election. So we are cautiously optimistic. Everyone, from baby boomers to young investors, are trying to figure out what are the smart moves I should be making now. What are you telling your clients about what they should be doing with their portfolios, and maybe rebalancing them, given what's going on in the markets? We always advise our clients to be on the conservative side, to dollar cost average at times, and not to make too many bold moves at any given period in time. The other thing that probably makes us different is we do talk to clients about how they manage their money, about budgeting, about being conservative, about how you can find more room to save more and to invest more for the future. I'm sure a lot of your clients are asking you, what should I do about my retirement savings? The big worry always is, will I have enough money or am I going to outlive my savings. What does the rule of thumb that you tell them? That's absolutely true, and many of our clients have that fear. It is possible to outlive what you've put aside for retirement. Again, what we do for clients with our annuity products is we guarantee you an income for life, and that's the advice that we give clients. You've been talking a lot about interest rates going up. How does this impact your client portfolios that are basically fixed income and they are annuity investments? We try to be market neutral, and we try not to take big bets on interest rates because that's not why we're here. And our portfolio does rollover a certain amount every year, but it's 7% to 10%. It doesn't all roll over at once. So our portfolio has many generations of fixed income securities in it. One area that people are still feeling very uncertain about and uncomfortable is health care and the future of Obamacare. I know that this isn't, Guardian is more on the dental and vision, life insurance side of it. But a lot of people are worried about am I going to get the insurance that I need? Can I afford to pay for it in case I get sick? What are you expecting to happen with the future of Obamacare? Well, we really don't know at this point. But President-elect Trump has said on occasion that he would like to keep the part of Obamacare that provides for insurance for young adult children living at home and for people with preexisting conditions. So that should help soothe some of the fears of people about the availability of insurance. And I think that there are things that can be done actuarially to think about how to make this affordable at different levels and different ways. It's interesting that, despite all the bold talk of dramatically changing Obamacare, there hasn't been a single organization representing patients, physicians, or hospitals saying that they think that this plan would make things better. Are you expecting that whatever changes that are going to come to Obamacare that will improve the cost, the access, and quality of health care? Well, it's hard for me to imagine that the administration would want to change health care in such a way that it was a disadvantage to large numbers of American people. So I think the idea is to find a different way to achieve the goals of making health care more affordable and more accessible. 

Guardian Life Insurance's CEO Shares Some Investment Advice

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Deanna Mulligan says being conservative is key.

Deanna. The markets are rallying. It looks like the Dow Jones industrial out average will soon hit a new milestone. Dow 20,000. So what does this Momenta mean for the investment side of guardians? Obviously, with interest rates going up, it does help our portfolio. You see the market going up. The market may be fully priced for now. It may not be. Who knows? We've had a lot of surprises this year when you think what happened in June with Brexit and then again with the election. So we are cautiously optimistic. Everyone from baby boomers to young investors are trying to figure out what smart moves I should be making out. What are you telling your clients about what they should be doing with their portfolios and maybe re balancing them and given what's going on in the market? We always advise our clients to be on the conservative side $2 cost average at times, and you know not to make too many bold moves at any given period in time. The other thing that probably makes us different is we do talk to clients about how they manage their money about budgeting, about being conservative about how you can find more room to save more and to invest more for the future. I'm sure Ah, lot of your clients are asking you, you know, what should I do about my retirement savings? The big worry always is. Will I have enough money, or am I gonna outlive my savings? What is the rule of thumb that you tell them? That's absolutely true. And many of our clients have that fear. It is possible to outlive what you put aside for retirement again. What we do for clients with our annuity products is we guarantee you an income for life, and that's the advice that we get. Clients. You've been talking a lot about interest rates going up. How does this impact your client portfolios that are basically fixed income and they are annuity investments. We try to be market neutral. We try not to take big bets on interest rates. That's not why we're here. So and our portfolio does roll over a certain amount every year, but it's 7 to 10%. It doesn't all roll over at once, so our portfolio has many generations of fixed income securities in one area that people are still feeling very uncertain about an uncomfortable is health care and the future of Obama care. I know that this isn't a guardian, isn't here on the dental and vision life insurance outside of it, but a lot of people are worried about. Am I going to get the insurance that and you cannot afford to pay for it in case I get case I get it. What are you expecting to happen with the future of Obamacare? Well, we really don't know at this point. But President elect Trump has said on occasion that he would like to keep the part of Obamacare that provides for insurance for adults, young adult Children living at home and for people with pre existing conditions. So that should help soothe some of the fears of people about the availability of insurance. And I think that there are things that can be done, actually, really, to think about how to make this affordable a different levels in different ways. You know, it's interesting that despite all the bull talk of dramatically changing Obama care, there hasn't been a single organization representing patients, physicians or hospitals, saying that they think that this plan would make things better. Are you expecting that whatever changes that are going to come to Obama care that will improve the cost, the access and quality of healthcare? Well, it's hard for me to imagine that the administration would want to change healthcare in such a way that it was a disadvantage to large numbers of American people. So I think the idea is to find a different way to achieve the goals of making health care more affordable on dhe more accessible.