President's Message
Happy New Year! All of us here hope 2023 brings you health, happiness, prosperity, and enough personal challenge and growth to make life interesting and fulfilling.
And thank you. I feel truly fortunate to serve such great clients and friends. You are, to a person, people I like, trust, and respect. I feel equally blessed to be surrounded by such a loyal group of colleagues who do everything possible to demonstrate how honest, hard-working, fun-loving, self-effacing, and professional they are to you and to each other in caring for your needs. This team is unique and special.
The beginning of a new year, especially after a period as disruptive to the apparent order of things as this one has been, seems like a big moment. It’s almost compulsive for people in my profession to feel they have to make bold macroeconomic predictions about what’s coming next, and you’ll find no shortage of reports, articles and opinion pieces being published right now that attempt to do just that. Very few of those forecasts provide any lasting value in my experience.
Rather than add to that prodigious pile, I’d prefer to offer a more personal perspective, and share with you some of the changes and opportunities we hope to address here at Lucien, Stirling & Gray in 2023. Then I’d like to ask you for your help. I’d like your thoughts, insights, and your candid advice about ways we can serve your needs best. Truthful feedback from folks who care is valuable, so please help us.
The fact is, we’re a vastly different firm in many ways than we were five years ago. The pandemic certainly wrought some big changes, as it has with everyone. But we were already well into a number of tectonic shifts in this firm that had commenced two years prior to that, so it has felt to me like one long continuum of change, upheaval, and constant adaptation. Now feels like the time to assess and assay.
What hasn’t changed about us is that, fundamentally, ours is a business about working closely, even intimately, with people. It’s often about managing emotions, expectations, behaviors, and relationships – not just money, financial decisions, investment portfolios and long-term plans. There is no automated process, software product, investment algorithm, or artificial intelligence - no matter how helpful and efficient it might be - that can ever replace the uniquely human need for empathy, trust, confidence, and personal connection in successfully helping people achieve their most treasured objectives.
We’re always aware that to be trusted, we must be trustworthy. If we’re to succeed in helping our clients move forward with intention into an uncertain world; to make measured decisions in the face of multiple risks and challenges; to overcome painful, frustrating, and guaranteed setbacks; and to reap the eventual rewards of patient, disciplined long-term investing, we must inspire confidence.
To do that, we must have trust and confidence in ourselves. Not the false confidence that we know the future, for nobody does - but the authentic confidence that comes from being experienced, capable of withstanding adversity and challenge ourselves, prepared to adapt to whatever conditions come our way, and assured that our value is all that it should be. It’s here that we’d like your input.
How are we doing? What are we doing well? What are we not doing so well? What, if anything, should we change? I’d ask that you please share your candid feedback with us.
If you could offer us just one piece of advice about how to serve your needs, and the needs of other people like you better in the coming years, what would it be? Please feel free to email me directly, give me a call, send me an anonymous note, or share your candid thoughts with someone on our team. We’re all eager to listen and benefit from your advice.
One encouragement we’ve already received from many is to reinstitute the tradition we had for many years of great Holiday parties and open-house events, so old friends and contacts can meet and mingle in our beautiful new office space that many have never seen.
We have heard you! And we couldn’t agree more. Please be on the lookout for such an event this spring after tax season is over, and others later in the year. Like many of you, we’re ready to turn outwards again.
Another we have taken on ourselves is to launch a new website that’s more polished, functional, and up to date. There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes in the last few months, so be expecting an announcement soon. Naturally, we’ll be interested in getting your thoughts and feedback on it.
I’m certain there are other great ideas yet to come. In the coming months, as we meet with you and talk over the telephone, we hope to get your considered perspective on some of the issues and questions I’ve raised above, as well as other insights I’m sure will arise out of thoughtful conversations.
We’re fiercely protective of the fiduciary culture we’ve built here, and proud of the fact that our team has worked together for years. At the same time, we’re intent on growing, changing, adapting, bringing new talents and capabilities aboard, and making sure we’re constantly cross-pollinating between the wisdom of the old guard and the talents of the new. We look forward to your help.
Thank you again for your confidence and trust.
Thomas Twombly,
President