Top J.P. Morgan Private Bank exec offers advice for advisers in tumultuous times

By
Rich Pizzutillo
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As the managing director and market manager for J.P. Morgan Private Bank New Jersey in Summit, Alma DeMetropolis gets asked financial questions all the time.

“Is the growth cycle over?” tops the list.

DeMetropolis recently sat with ROI-NJ’s Meg Fry for our annual Interview Issue — and explained the bank’s plans vision for the future: How many employees will a bank of the future have in a branch? What impacts family business as much as anything? And how much will technology change the banking game?

She also gave a little bit of advice to that big question: Is the growth cycle over? Or, more specifically, should I get out of the market?

Here’s her advice.

“Given all the market research we do, we do not think we will have a major pullback of any kind,” she said. “There is no massive bubble to be truly worried about.”

DeMetropolis did, however, acknowledge the uneasiness that comes with tumultuous times.

“Financial markets can offer a great opportunity to grow wealth, but volatility can make investors uneasy, ushering in feelings of fear,” she said. “Reacting to market movements may sometimes seem like the right thing to do for the short term — but research suggests that this approach actually diminishes returns, especially when, nearly 75 percent of the time, a pullback of nearly 14 percent occurs annually.”

Her advice: Stay put and hang tight.

“While it can be tempting to allow short-term market movements and large-font news headlines to drive your decisions, both our real-world experience and research suggest that can actually work against investors,” she said.

To read the full interview with DeMetropolis, click here.

The Interview Issue