Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | July 6, 2020 | wbjournal.com I t's been a worrying few months financially since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March – and that's for those who've kept their job or their business in operation. A recession began in February and worsened quickly when businesses were forced to close in an effort to curtail the spread of the virus and sent the stock market plummeting – only to rise again, erasing most of the loss. at's created a whiplash-like environment for investors, forcing wealth advisors to switch to the safe haven of cash and for accountants to try navigating business clients through the volatility. "It's been a period of significant uncertainty," said Michael Hogan, the managing director of the wealth advisory team at Cutler Capital Management in Worcester. "I'm stating the obvious." In case it hasn't been obvious, that uncertainty is backed up in data. A volatility index by the Chicago market analysis firm Cboe placed March at nearly an all-time high, second only to October 2008 during the last financial crisis. at's spurred Cutler Capital Management and another Central Massachusetts financial management firm, Provo Wealth Management Group of Shrewsbury, to put more of their holdings into cash, a safer bet during a rocky period. "We've hit the highest cash position we're going to have in our career, and that's been the case since February," said Christopher Provo, the president and CEO of Provo Wealth Management Group. Others are doing the same, even as the stock market has generally been on the upswing since the federal CARES Act was put into place with roughly $2 trillion to help prop up the economy, along with additional lending by the Federal Reserve. e amount of money worldwide held in money market accounts, which are very low-risk, jumped by a third in a two-month span starting in mid-February, hitting nearly $4.8 trillion, according to the London- based Investment Company Institute. e market has had such turbulence in early June the S&P 500 regained the roughly one-third of value it lost in March, turning positive for the year. e S&P and Dow Jones Industrial Average fared slightly worse as June went on, as virus cases spread rapidly in states including Florida and Texas. In fact, some of the larger public companies in Central Massachusetts have higher stock prices today than when the Dow peaked in February, including Ameresco, a Framingham clean energy company, and BJ's Wholesale Club, a Westborough retailer whose business has benefited from more people dining and working from home. "ere clearly is a disconnect between what's going on on Wall Street and what's going on on Main Street," Hogan said. Managing an unprecedented market Financial experts have been in close contact with worried clients for months, answering questions and calming nerves about what's happening with their investments. e excessive volatility of the stock market and the economy leaves Central Mass. investment professionals with few clues on how to advise clients F O C U S F I N A N C I A L P L A N N I N G Predicting the unpredictable BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor Michael Hogan, Cutler Capital Management WWW.DREAMSTIME.COM

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