Tag Archive for: US Secretary of Defense

June 7, 2018

This last month Hadyn and I attended Raymond James’ national conference in Washington D.C. Time was spent visiting historic sites (The White House & Mount Vernon), professional development, and meeting with some of the best and brightest the financial industry has to offer. A few highlighted speakers that we heard from were Andy Friedman, commonly referred to as “one of the nation’s most sought-after speakers on all things political”, Robert Gates, former US Secretary of Defense, and Adam Alter, who spoke about our society’s current addiction to screens.

We also attended two intimate dinners – one with Jeff Saut, Raymond James’ Chief Investment strategist, and one with James Camp Co-portfolio manager of Eagle Strategic Income. Both dinners were very productive.

The conversation at dinner with James Camp centered on the discipline that it takes to stick to an investment strategy when it is out of favor with what is currently popular. In a day and age where everyone seems to have the secret to the next investment home run it was good to hear some level headed thoughts about keeping it simple and investing in high quality – so called “boring” investments.

Our night out with Jeff Saut was a real treat. We went to dinner a top the W Hotel adjacent the White House. Being able to discuss the markets one on one with Jeff was amazing. He reiterated why he thinks the markets are headed higher and we are in a secular bull market – “The economy is stronger than a garlic milkshake!”.

All in all it was a very productive trip. Every now and then it is good to step away from day to day obligations and spend time focusing on how we can better serve our clients. We cannot wait to take the insights we learned and improve our deliverables to our clients.

 

Sincerely,

Judy

 

Any opinions are those of Judy Singleton and not necessarily of Raymond James.