Transcript

So liquidity is something we're going to be touching on a lot and I think it's important just foundationally to discuss why does liquidity matter? Liquidity is really access to capital. There are a lot of clients that we have that have a lot of assets and on paper they're worth quite a bit, but having access to that is really what makes it useful. And if you think about on the smallest of scales, liquidity is you have $10,000, are you checking account and you see a street vendor? Selling hot dogs for $2.00 and you really want a hot dog. You go and they don't take debit cards and they don't take checks and you have no cash. You can't get that hot dog because you're not liquid. You have $10,000 but you can't get it. And on a much larger note, one that hits home to me, I'm sure to some of you, you could be a very large corporation that's worth $50 billion on 9/14 of 2008. And because of regulatory interpretations, even though you have billions of dollars in assets, you are not liquid enough with capital to stay afloat and you have to sell yourself to Bank of America because you weren't properly liquid. So liquidity is really. All about flexibility, avoiding forced situations where you have to sell or pass on opportunities. It's about being ready, it's about emergency preparedness, and it's also about managing the tax efficiency for your clients. So there are times when selling something is not going to help them from a tax standpoint, whether it's income or that is capital gains, but having access to liquidity is going to help them accomplish their goals.