Northstar Investment Advisors is one of Denver’s largest independently run investment advisors. They have an office in the middle of the state capital’s busy business district and their office is usually filled with a staff of nine, but that wasn’t the case for Fred Taylor, co-founder and president of the firm, who opened up to Denver Business Journal about his experiences since the shutdown.
Over a month later, Taylor is still the only member of the firm regularly heading into the office. Nonetheless, Northstar has managed to come out strong despite the challenging times.
Taylor remarked that it was difficult to watch the market tumble and see the widespread job loss that came from the coronavirus crisis and the ensuing economic downturn. However, he has seen those global challenges turn into positives for his firm as more and more individuals have been searching for independent financial advisors to help guide them through these strenuous times.
“In a bull market, people don’t care if they are able to call their financial adviser,” Taylor told the business journal. “In a bear market, they do … and it’s scary out there.”
According to Taylor, the firm began fielding calls from clients at all hours in early March. His biggest worry throughout this process was his “retired clients’ portfolios being filled with too many risky bonds.” But those worries have been assuaged due to the quick work of his employees, who reallocated those assets into safer investment options, such as federal and municipal bonds.
“For the most part now that we’ve rebalanced the accounts, we are doing OK,” Taylor explained.
It was his team’s ability to quickly adapt to working from home that made all the difference according to Taylor. He has been impressed by the ease of the transition and believes many will continue to work from home even when the crisis finally begins to abate.
The best news for Northstar is that they haven’t had to lay anyone off, in fact Taylor was able to give all of his employees quarterly bonuses. While the firm won’t make the kind of money this year that it did in 2019, that’s some serious silver lining considering where everyone was just a couple months ago.
As of late 2020, Northstar was the 17th-largest investment manager based in The Centennial State, managing $845 million in assets.
“When the market drops 35% in two weeks, that’s scary,” Taylor told the journal. “It’s pretty nice to be able to call your investment adviser up — and you’re just not going to get that from a robo-adviser.”
