{"id":32847,"date":"2023-11-07T19:42:53","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/personal-finance\/wealth\/a-former-undercover-agent-with-1-5-billion-says-investments-come-last\/"},"modified":"2023-11-07T19:42:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T19:42:55","slug":"a-former-undercover-agent-with-1-5-billion-says-investments-come-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/?p=32847","title":{"rendered":"A Former Undercover Agent With $1.5 Billion Says \u2018Investments Come Last\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Team Name: <\/strong>The Spickler Wealth Management Group<\/p>\n

Firm:<\/strong> Merrill Lynch Wealth Management<\/p>\n

Senior Members: <\/strong>Melissa Spickler, Stacey Cassis, Matthew Spickler<\/p>\n

Location: <\/strong>Bloomfield Hills, MI<\/p>\n

Team Custodied Assets: <\/strong>$1.5 billion<\/p>\n

Forbes Rankings: <\/strong>Top Wealth Management Teams High Net Worth, Best-In-State Wealth Management Teams<\/p>\n

Background: <\/strong>A criminal law major from Michigan State University, Melissa Spickler started her career as an undercover agent for the Michigan attorney general\u2019s office, primarily focusing on business fraud. \u201cI had to learn about people and find out if they were telling me the truth\u2014all of that experience was really perfect for later becoming a financial advisor but I didn’t know it at the time,\u201d she recalls. After three years on the job and a few life threatening encounters, she began selling life insurance to car dealerships. It was in 1980 that she decided to pursue a career as a financial advisor, motivated by a client at one of the dealerships who told her more women were needed in the business. In the first six months after starting her business in 1981, she opened 600 new client accounts\u2014both big and small. Over the decades since then, she grew her business and added to her team, which now has nine people in total and includes two of her three sons. Most clients are ultra high net worth families, with some spanning four generations.<\/p>\n

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Competitive Edge: <\/strong>While some advisors are all about investment prowess, Spickler argues she couldn\u2019t be more dissimilar. She and her team favor a long term, strategic approach to building and preserving wealth that starts by focusing on retirement, tax and estate planning while also making sure clients have enough to live on. \u201cInvestments come last\u2014we first want to know everything we can about the client and what keeps them awake at night,\u201d says Spickler. Of her team\u2019s wealthy clients, most are concerned with not wanting to outlive their money and leaving enough to their loved ones. \u201cWhen clients have lots of money they\u2019re not necessarily worrying about making a 5% or 10% return\u2014it\u2019s more about getting under the hood and making sure the whole family is taken care of over the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investment Philosophy\/Strategy: <\/strong>Before deciding on investment direction, the team always first focuses on how much clients need to live on. For the income part of a client\u2019s portfolio, that entails locking in rates of at least 5%, whether through municipal and corporate bonds, certificates of deposit ladders or Treasury ladders, Spickler explains. Once income requirements are fulfilled, whatever money is left gets diversified into a portfolio of growth and value stocks\u2014with a focus on dividend payers and utilities, as well as some alternative investments. The team has been making tactical shifts as needed, including putting money into cash when markets fell last year or more recently, buying CDs and Treasuries as rates went up. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a bumpy time with markets,\u201d says Spickler. \u201cWe\u2019re sitting on the sidelines with cash, some of which we are getting ready to deploy into the market as we position for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investment Outlook: <\/strong>\u201cRates are coming down at some point so markets should do alright,\u201d predicts Spickler. \u201cRates aren\u2019t going to stay this high forever which is why it makes sense to go further out on the yield curve to lock in rates.\u201d What\u2019s more, she thinks market volatility will increasingly level out once rates start going down\u2014or at least stop going up. \u201cWe\u2019re playing it a little bit safer than we normally would,\u201d says Spickler. \u201cNobody knows for certain whether we\u2019ll have a hard or soft economic landing, but when clients ask me I remind them that a well diversified portfolio will weather any storm as it has in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biggest Challenge: <\/strong>A lesson that Spickler learned early in her career was to be mindful of taking on clients who are a good fit. \u201cIn the early days, I took on so many clients but some weren\u2019t good fits for me or my team and that was a challenge to let them go,\u201d she says. \u201cIn this business advisors and clients have to be a good fit for each other, it\u2019s almost like being allowed into the family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best Advice: <\/strong>After more than 40 years in the business, Spickler\u2019s best advice to clients is twofold. \u201cStay the course and do not sell on every correction\u2014the market always recovers no matter how ugly it gets,\u201d she says. What\u2019s more, with many of her clients between the ages of 60 and 80, she urges them not to put off doing things that will bring them joy. \u201cLife is short but it\u2019s so true: Do not put off tomorrow what you can do today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Team Name: The Spickler Wealth Management Group Firm: Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Senior Members: Melissa Spickler, Stacey Cassis, Matthew Spickler Location: Bloomfield Hills, MI Team Custodied Assets: $1.5 billion Forbes Rankings: Top Wealth Management Teams High Net Worth, Best-In-State Wealth Management Teams Background: A criminal law major from Michigan State University, Melissa Spickler started her<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32847","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wealth"},"yoast_head":"\nA Former Undercover Agent With $1.5 Billion Says \u2018Investments Come Last\u2019 | iSafeSpend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Team Name: The Spickler Wealth Management Group Firm: Merrill Lynch 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