At Majestic Financial, we hear from a lot of new clients that we “do things differently” than where they used to invest.  At first glance, that shouldn’t be true.  We have no proprietary investments.  We use the same research tools that millions of people use.  We use the Raymond James platform, which means we agree to use investments that Raymond James has vetted.  We use mutual funds, exchange traded funds, individual stocks, and bonds just like every other investment company.

However, when I dig into what our clients are saying – and I really do ask them – there are just two differentiating factors.  What makes us different is our team and our philosophy about investing outside the “normal” mutual fund platform.  I am proud of both factors and so I will explain how I view them.

First, I believe we have a great team in place to help clients achieve their financial goals.  Many firms have multiple advisors, and many of these advisors come from different generations.  But few investment firms work together as a team quite the way we do at Majestic Financial.  While our clients are used to hearing from a specific advisor (or “lead” advisor), we all work together on the accounts.  Every Monday morning, me, Kendra, Mark and Max sit in my office and discuss (argue?) investment strategies and positions.  What makes this both unique and beneficial to clients is that we are all arguing for positions that we believe are best for clients – not for our personal biases.  Another aspect of this style of strategy meeting is the fact that a 22-year-old (Max), two 30ish (Kendra, Mark), and one 50-year-old are all evaluating portfolios together.  While I may not truly know what Pinterest is/does, I know how to evaluate the stock’s financial position.  But without the younger mindset, I would never think of looking at it.
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Another unique aspect of the Majestic team is that while Brandon and I are doing our best to help Max (who has passed two of his licensing exams), Kendra and Mark grow as young advisors, we are also listening to them.  Kendra, as a female advisor, certainly brings a different perspective than I do.  Not better or worse, but different.  I have been described as blunt and even a curmudgeon (that was by family by the way) while Kendra has clients laughing and hugging her.  Brandon may not be that much older than Mark, but he’s a grandfather of 2 while Mark has a newborn child.  Each of our life experiences and world/economic viewpoints help us make the right choices for our clients.  And it also helps us to adjust portfolios when an investment is performing differently than what we hoped.

This brings us to the second differentiator.  As I stated, four of us discuss investment positions each week.  That is probably four more people with an in-depth understanding of investments than most clients have ever met.  Brandon runs faith-based portfolios and buys structured investments for our clients.  There is no single perfect investment for every client, and that is true of those I just mentioned.  However, by talking to clients about their goals, risk profile, and what they are really looking for (even if they don’t know these investments exist), we can use the full spectrum of the investing world to help our clients.  Mutual fund portfolios exist at Majestic Financial but they are a part of a clients’ strategy instead of being the only strategy.

So, whether you are new to Majestic Financial or have been with us from the beginning, we hope that you understand that we really “do things differently”, even if you can’t define exactly what that means.
 
Written by Sean Budlong, CFP®, AAMS, Chief Executive Officer, Majestic Financial, Financial Consultant, RJFS
 
*Disclosures: Any opinions are those of Sean Budlong and not necessarily those of Raymond James. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected, including diversification and asset allocation. Every investor's situation is unique and you should consider your investment goals, risk tolerance and time horizon before making any investment. Prior to making an investment decision, please consult with your financial advisor about your individual situation. There is no guarantee that these statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. This information is not intended as a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any security referred to herein.

At Majestic Financial, we have employees in almost every age range.  From Sean at 40 years old (for the 18th time in September), to Brandon and Leon (both in early 40’s), to Max (22 years old but wise beyond his years), we cover each of the “GEN…”  What interests me is the differences in the ways we communicate with each other and our clients compared to just a few years ago – let alone decades ago.

My first job out of Alma College was working for Lanier Business Products, in Livonia, MI.  I was tasked with calling on law firms (as well as other major companies) in Troy, MI and selling them dictation equipment and this new technology called “voicemail.”  While almost every office understood the benefits of dictation equipment, no one in our Lanier office was able to convince any company of the value of voicemail.  “Why would I buy voicemail when I have people to answer the phone?”

Now keep in mind that this is 1990 – pagers were common, cell phones didn’t exist.  Want to call someone for a ride?  Use the payphone to call a cab.  Calling your sweetheart at college?  You might have to wait for someone to go get them and bring them to the phone in the hall or find the right dorm room to call.  Calling someone in Detroit from Kalamazoo?  That’s long distance, so watch the charges on your bill.  You may not get ahold of the person you wanted to talk to, but someone will pick up a ringing phone – just in case the call was for them (how else could you ever know who was calling?).

To some of Majestic’s employees – Max, Mark, Alyx, Kendra? – this may seem like a comedic movie.  After all, why would anyone answer the phone if you didn’t want to talk to the person calling?  But many of us – Sean, Laurie, Becky – lived most of our lives without caller ID.

While this is humorous to look back on, it also makes the differences in communication seem light years apart rather than just a few decades.  At Majestic Financial, we have employees in 3 different physical offices, plus one in Denver, CO.  We have clients in more than 30 different states, and in every county in MI.  Yet we are in constant communication with our clients and fellow employees.  It’s just often a different form of communication than when I entered the workforce.

At the office, we are all talking via Microsoft Teams.  Not only does this allow real-time communication, but if someone is busy or gone, the messages will still be waiting for them when they are available.  We have meetings with clients in person (just like 30 years ago), but also via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx, and using this thing called a telephone.  Ironically, I have more meetings with MI based clients via the computer than I do in person!

At Majestic, we are trying to make sure that we stay in contact with clients in a world that makes it seem easier to connect, but in fact it is harder.  While everyone has a cell phone, getting them to answer it is much harder when they can decline the call, send it to voicemail and find time to call back (assuming they remember that they need to call us back).  We can’t communicate via text while the rest of the world seems to ONLY communicate via text.

So, this is why we send our clients emails, produce a quarterly newsletter, host client events almost monthly, and host quarterly virtual meetings for various topics.  We want to make sure we are on the same page as our clients – even those clients who have granted us discretionary authority.  We are aware that life changes and this can change goals or liquidity needs.  Hopefully we are top of mind for our clients when their needs change.

Being one of the dinosaurs of Majestic Financial, I understand that sometimes it seems like clients get too many emails, or too many phone calls.  I also wish that there were more hours in the day available for in person meetings – even though a larger % of clients prefer to meet virtually than in person now.  I can envision the day when Max is having a client appointment with his boss (Kendra) and they are projecting their avatar into their client’s home office.  That would make many clients happy, and hopefully I’m long retired when that’s happening.
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Please feel free to let us know how/when you would like to communicate with us.  If you are “old-fashioned,” we’ll just explain to Max how to use a rotary phone.
 
Written by Sean Budlong, CFP®, AAMS, Chief Executive Officer, Majestic Financial, Financial Consultant, RJFS
 
*Disclosures: Any opinions are those of Sean Budlong and not necessarily those of Raymond James. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected, including diversification and asset allocation. Every investor's situation is unique and you should consider your investment goals, risk tolerance and time horizon before making any investment. Prior to making an investment decision, please consult with your financial advisor about your individual situation. There is no guarantee that these statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. This information is not intended as a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any security referred to herein. 

It is June 2, 2025.  Almost halfway through the calendar year.  The optimism that existed among some investors after the election has seemingly disappeared.  The pessimism among some investors after the election has seemingly been proven correct.  In just over 7 months, the questions that our advisor team have been receiving went from “what stock should I buy?” (in December), to “what the heck is happening?” (in April).  And now, we are hearing more “is the market going to crash?” than we have heard since early 2022.
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First, let’s address an issue right up front.  While this whiplash in questions/attitudes seems excessive, it makes perfect sense in a 24-hour a day news cycle.  After the election, people took sides that can often drive everything – purchasing behaviors, worries, and even friendships.  Politics has bled into almost every area of our lives.  So, the questions don’t bother or surprise us at Majestic Financial.

Second, in today’s world most people have gotten used to using their phone/tablet as their main source of information.  Unfortunately, this often means some form of social media.  Heck, I’m writing this as a blog instead of talking individually to clients!  However, not all information is created equal.  Last week, I simply Googled (there’s a new verb for you) “Will the market crash?” and over 5,000 websites were pulled up.  Some of the most interesting were the videos of “financial experts” posting videos on YouTube.

Here is an example of someone who’s posting videos, claiming to know enough to give financial advice, and is saying he believes the sky is falling.

Paul Gabrail has over 2,700 videos and claims more than 265,000 subscribers.  Google him and some of the first videos that come up are on Value investing, what 18 stocks he’s buying, and interesting days in the market.  When you dig into his bio, you will find that while calling himself a “value investor renowned for his value investing strategy,” he made whatever money he has made from buying real estate (specifically apartment buildings).  He doesn’t bother to define value investing or specify why he is qualified to give advice.  Does he make some good points on the market or highlight some good stocks?  Yes, he does.  Does he know what the viewers’ goals, risk tolerance, time horizon, and experience are?  No.  I can only hope our clients don’t view this style of information as quality advice.

I am fairly certain that Mr. Gabrail doesn’t have a direct line to President Trump or any of his economic advisors, and I am also fairly certain that Tim Cook (CEO of Apple) isn’t answering his phone calls.  Full disclosure, I also don’t have President Trump or Cook on speed dial.  I will never claim special knowledge, but I will do the work on research – and trust the quality research of analysts.

Third, everyone has an opinion and most of our opinions are based on our own experience.  So, if you lost 50% of the value of your investments in 2008 and you hadn’t made any changes as the market fell, chances are pretty good you are concerned if the market drops 5% and we don’t make any adjustments.  If you started investing after March 9, 2009, you probably consider yourself a genius.  But what happened in 2008/09, 2011, 2021, etc, doesn’t have anything to do with what is happening in the market or your portfolio on June 2, 2025. 

At Majestic Financial, we are aware of the politics, the geo-political situations, interest rate factors, inflation cycles, and investor worries about all of this.  We are also aware of market opportunities and the fundamentals that can drive an investment up or down.  Our job is to take all the fears and politics out of your portfolio and focus on your goals, risk tolerance, liquidity needs, and time horizon.  I promise you we won’t always be perfect in our timing or investment choices, but if we pay attention to what’s really important and the long-term benefits/risk to our clients, we know we can help clients achieve their goals.
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So, to answer the original question, “is the market going to crash?”  We don’t see it happening based on fundamentals, but we can promise that we are looking at real data to position our clients in the best manner possible each and every day. 
 
Written by Sean Budlong, CFP®, AAMS, Chief Executive Officer, Majestic Financial, Financial Consultant, RJFS, alongside Kendra Omans, Associate Advisor, Majestic Financial, and Max McGuire, Client Service Manager, Majestic Financial
 
*Disclosures: Any opinions are those of Sean Budlong and not necessarily those of Raymond James. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected, including diversification and asset allocation. Every investor's situation is unique and you should consider your investment goals, risk tolerance and time horizon before making any investment. Prior to making an investment decision, please consult with your financial advisor about your individual situation. There is no guarantee that these statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. This information is not intended as a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any security referred to herein. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index of 500 widely held stocks that is generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market. Past performance is not a guarantee of future result

Imagine you are coaching a NCAA basketball team that went 30-4 during the current season.  You won your conference regular season and tournament.  You are selected to play in the 2025 NCAA men’s basketball tournament against a team that was 25-9 and lost 4 of their last 5 games prior to winning their conference tournament.  You lose the first-round game by just 3 points…and if you would have won it would have been considered an upset.  You are the #12 seeded UC San Diego Tritons, and you lost to #5 seeded University of Michigan.  How many brackets would have been busted if the results were changed?  Everyone is looking for that one (or two) teams that they can choose for an upset in the hopes of winning their bracket challenge, but often choose primarily teams that have name recognition.

UC San Diego has been playing NCAA basketball for 60 years and has moved from Division III to Division II (where they hold the all-time record for CCAA Tournament Titles) to the big time in 2021.  This year was the first year they were eligible to play in the DI tournament and they were selected to play.  They are a strong program with a history of success at every level – some would even call them a “Blue Chip” basketball team.  Yet they were underdogs because they didn’t have the national name recognition.

We face the same situation in the financial markets.  Everyone is looking for an edge, a hot stock, the next Amazon or Nvidia, and comparing their portfolio to the Dow Jones or S&P 500.  The question is why?  Not why are you looking for a great investment opportunity, but why does the appropriate investment have to be the next Amazon?  Perspective and expectations are critical to this conversation.  When people talk about the “markets,” they often refer to the S&P 500 and assume that all 500 companies have an equal effect on the movement of the index.  Therefore (the assumption goes), a portfolio made up of select S&P 500 companies should mimic and perhaps even beat the index.  But just like the NCAA selection committee giving preferences to the 4th, 5th, 10th place team in the Big Ten over UC San Diego, four stocks make up 23.76% of the weighting of the S&P 500.  According to Investopedia.com, Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft and Amazon have almost 25% of the total value of the index – which means the daily movement of these 4 companies can carry more weight than the movement of 100 other stocks combined.  If we add the next 6 largest weighted stocks, that % increases to 36.12%! 

Imagine if I came to you and said, “you have $500,000 to invest, and I would like to buy $180,600 worth into just 10 individual stocks.”  You may start to wonder about my financial planning responsibilities.  In 2024, you may have called me a genius, because 7 of these 10 are now called the “Mag 7” for their extreme growth over the last 2 years.  However, in 2022 these same 7 companies combined for -46% return (compared to a -19% drop in the S&P 500).  So, while (theoretically) you should have bought the Mag 7 in 2022 when they were significantly lower in share price, you would have thought I was crazy for suggesting it and perhaps looked for another financial firm.  And in fact, many clients of Majestic Financial were asking us whey they still owned Amazon and Google during 2022 and even most of 2023.  Many of these same clients asked us why they didn’t own more Amazon and Google because of the growth from mid-2023-2024.  As we prepare for April of 2025 to begin, some of these clients are now upset when they see their portfolio a little down – as only one Mag 7 stock is positive for the year (META).

Am I saying clients are being fickle or unreasonable?  No.  But the short-term perspective and expectations can get in the way of allowing strategies to work for them.  We all want to choose the right “Cinderella” team…but it’s a Cinderella for a reason – it may make a huge splash but fade quickly.  Congratulations to those who get lucky and choose correctly but remember that only six teams have made it to the tournament semi-finals as a #11 seed, only one #8 seed has won the tournament, and only two #16’s have ever beaten the top seeds.
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So, is this an argument for just selecting the top seeds – the Mag 7?  Not at all.  My point is that the Mag 7 will change again, just like the top stocks of 2022 were not the Mag 7.  The next big stock may already be in the S&P 500, or it may not even be incorporated yet.  The key is to know what your goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon are and find the right current asset allocation each quarter and year.  Sometimes the portfolio is going to be great for months or years.  Sometimes, adjustments must be made in shorter time frames.

I think we can all agree that selecting the NCAA Tournament Champion would be easier if you picked round by round instead of before the games were played.  Investing would be easier if the universe of stocks was only 10 or 20 companies, and they all grew every year.  But alas, that’s not the case.  So, we will all just keep our eyes open for opportunities that make sense for our goals and hope our Cinderella team dances at the ball.
 
Written by Sean Budlong, CFP®, AAMS, Chief Executive Officer, Majestic Financial, Financial Consultant, RJFS
 
*Disclosures: Any opinions are those of Sean Budlong and not necessarily those of Raymond James. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected, including diversification and asset allocation. Every investor's situation is unique and you should consider your investment goals, risk tolerance and time horizon before making any investment. Prior to making an investment decision, please consult with your financial advisor about your individual situation. There is no guarantee that these statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. This information is not intended as a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any security referred to herein. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index of 500 widely held stocks that is generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results

​It’s now March 10, 2025 and anyone watching the markets and their accounts are either starting to get nervous or have been for a little while.  The Trump Administration has added tariffs to Europe, China, Canada and Mexico.  It has also pushed back tariffs by a month and had (a few) carve outs.  But the messaging hasn’t changed from President Trump – tariffs are good for America.  This is the second blog I have written on tariffs this year, and Brandon and I have also done a podcast on them.  Yet for all the talk and fear, there is still no clarity about what the effects of this round of tariffs will be.  This is because there is no clarity regarding the goals of the tariffs.  Here are 4 possible scenarios that I see in the coming months.  These are taken from an email I sent to a client who was asking about the market volatility and tariffs.
 
Scenarios:

1. There is no real plan from this Administration, just a desire for a showing of strength to bring jobs and manufacturing back to the US.  If this is the case, there will be pain in the short term as tariffs are not viewed by the Administration as a bargaining chip but instead a means to force companies to do its bidding.  This will cause massive disruption in the economies of both the US and our trade partners.  This will also cause both Republican and Democratic elected officials to put severe pressure on Trump to change tactics since many of the manufacturing companies couldn’t adjust their production and workforce in any sort of a short term.  How does this end?  I don’t know, but the politics would be brutal for all involved.  In this scenario, you would want to be invested in high quality companies that are not heavily dependent on international trade.  You would want to be invested in companies that are already producing a large % of products domestically. 
2. The tariffs are designed to create short term pressure on Canada and Mexico, while putting more severe pressure on China and the European Union (both of which have significant tariffs against US goods and have for decades).  In this scenario, Canada and Mexico would have to adjust significantly faster than the US because we are the largest market for their exports.  While there are significant issues where goods cross the borders multiple times prior to final sales (cars), the tariffs would hit the economies of those trade partners sooner and deeper than retaliatory tariffs would the US.  The long-term effect on Europe and China is unknowable right now, but again we are the largest consumer of Chinese goods and their economy is hurting far more than ours at present.  In this case you would want to be invested the same way as Scenario 1 but be ready to shift into some companies and sectors that could see a short-term drop but a quick rebound.  We are ready for this.
3. There doesn’t seem to be any economic plan for the short/long term and the market responds by dropping 20%+ and the analysts and talking heads are screaming about the next “market crash.”  This scenario is an emotion-based situation that I can easily see happening.  However, the fears about the market “crashing” don’t scare me because the fundamentals don’t back it up.  The tariffs are not something I am in favor of, but they are also not crippling enough to damage North America’s economy to the point of a market crash.  Most companies that will be affected have already been dealing with tariffs since Trump’s first term (Biden never reduced those tariffs) and have the ability to respond – maybe not quickly enough to stave off a drop in stock price, but they won’t go out of business either.  An example of this situation is NVDA.  Two weeks ago, NVDA beat analysts’ earnings expectations (and they were extremely high) and the stock still dropped double digits.  But NVDA’s earnings proved that there is not a doomsday coming for the company, which could indicate a buying opportunity.  In this scenario you would want to be invested like in Scenario 2.
4. The tariffs and retaliatory tariffs create an immediate sit down with leaders of our trade partners where they swiftly come to agreements on how to move forward.  The short-term drop in the market is quickly changed to upward momentum – not for every company or sector but for those areas that are not going to be as negatively affected.  This is exactly what happened during the first Trump term.  In this case you would want to be ready to buy specific companies who’s share price dropped but will benefit from the lack of a trade war.  We are ready for this.

 
The bottom line is that while we are not enjoying the market volatility and the potential for a large disruption in the economy, we are ready to adjust to the market each week and month.  We don’t allow politics to determine investment policies, but we are very aware of the impact it has on our clients.  We want to make sure we help ease fears while not creating new ones.
 
 
Written by Sean Budlong, CFP®, AAMS, Chief Executive Officer, Majestic Financial, Financial Consultant, RJFS
 
*Disclosures: Any opinions are those of Sean Budlong and not necessarily those of Raymond James. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected, including diversification and asset allocation. Every investor's situation is unique and you should consider your investment goals, risk tolerance and time horizon before making any investment. Prior to making an investment decision, please consult with your financial advisor about your individual situation. There is no guarantee that these statements, opinions or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct.