Welcome to the Third View Perspectives Newsletter—your monthly source for financial intelligence and trusted advice to help you make more informed decisions on behalf of you, your family, and your legacy.

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When markets get volatile, two things tend to spike at once: your portfolio’s daily move and all the noise that accompanies it.

Cable news loves a volatile tape. So does social media, and so do all the polarized political conversations happening everywhere right now. By the time it all hits your phone, the data has been packaged and dramatized and looped back at you with a take attached, and none of that is built to help you think more clearly about your finances.

Here’s a simple reminder for these times of increased volatility (plus data to support it): the real risk isn’t in volatility itself, but how we react to it.

Our job in stretches like these isn't to predict where the next 5% goes, because nobody can do that consistently, and it isn't to react to every headline either. Our job is to keep you connected to the plan we built together, and to talk through things in a straightforward manner while everyone else may be pitching the apocalypse.

When volatility goes up, emotions go up with it, and logic tends to take a back seat. It makes sense, too; it’s human nature. The instinct kicks in to do something, anything…whether that's selling, moving to cash, or waiting for clarity.

The thing is, volatility is also where opportunity tends to show up. The highest fear readings the market produces (when the VIX climbs above 33) have historically been followed by some of the strongest forward six-month returns on record. The chart below makes the point pretty cleanly, since fear at the high end of the range is exactly where the returns increase the most.

Said another way: the moments that feel the worst to be invested have, on average, paid the best to be invested, and some of the best decisions our clients have ever made were made when the headlines felt the worst.

If this resonates, forward it to someone you think might benefit from reading it. And if it spurs additional thought, we’re always here for a conversation.

Third View Co-Founder, Frank McKiernan, recently joined Alyson Tucci on the Barron’s Advisor Podcast to share more on his career story and beliefs regarding the future of financial advising.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

Managing a portfolio of publicly traded assets just isn't a differentiator anymore.

Clients can pull up their phone and buy an S&P 500 index fund in about thirty seconds, which means if we're not offering something more, we're not differentiating ourselves.

The advisors who are going to thrive in this next chapter are the ones who figure out how to wrap genuine planning around their investment work. We're talking about tax strategy, trust and estate guidance, and the deeper conversations about what clients actually lie awake worrying about, because it's almost never just the returns. It's what happens to their family, their business, their legacy.

Private markets are a big part of this story too, but only when done right. Access without expertise is just risk, and we all have a responsibility to bring institutional-level rigor and due diligence to every opportunity we put in front of a client.

At the end of the day, every family deserves the same level of thinking and transparency that a major endowment gets, and that's exactly the standard we've built Third View around. It's how we approach our work every day, and honestly, it's where we believe the real value of this profession is headed.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.

A: The trouble with going to cash and waiting for clarity is that clarity doesn't ring a bell when it shows up, and the best market days tend to land right in the middle of the worst stretches. So, missing even a handful of them changes the outcome.

Since 1950, a dollar invested in the S&P 500 has grown to roughly $400 if you stayed in the whole way, but if you happened to miss just the 50 best days over those decades, that same dollar only gets you to $28, and missing the best 100 days drops you all the way to $5.

So our answer is usually the same: instead of stepping out, let's revisit your plan, look at where dry powder actually makes sense, and stay close.

Have a question you’d like us to answer in a future newsletter? Simply reply to this email to submit it to us.

Third View Co-Founder, Frank McKiernan, recently visited a finance class at his alma mater, Bryant, to share lessons he’s learned from his journey after college. He shared 3 C’s for professional success:

See his full LinkedIn post here.

📖 Forbes: Jerry Sneed Shares A Practical Guide For NFL Players To Compound Wealth Beyond The League

📖 Forbes: Zoltan Pongracz on The Three Biggest Exit Mistakes Business Owners Make—And How To Avoid Them

That’s all for this month. If you enjoyed the newsletter, the greatest compliment would be to forward it to someone you think would find it valuable. We’ll be back with more next month.
- Frank, Jerry, and Zoltan

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Past performance is not indicative of future results. The material above has been provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal or investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security or strategy. The investment strategy and themes discussed herein may be unsuitable for investors depending on their specific investment objectives and financial situation. Information obtained from third-party sources is believed to be reliable though its accuracy is not guaranteed, and Third View Private Wealth makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the information, which should not be used as the basis of any investment decision. Information contained on third party websites that Third View Private Wealth may link to is not reviewed in their entirety for accuracy and Third View Private Wealth assumes no liability for the information contained on these websites. Opinions expressed in this commentary reflect subjective judgments of the author based on conditions at the time of writing and are subject to change without notice. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form, or referred to in any other publication, without express written permission from Third View Private Wealth. For more information about Third View Private Wealth, including our Form ADV brochures, please visit https://adviserinfo.sec.gov or contact us at (203) 408-0098.