Wall Street's kicked off a new month of trading on the back of a fresh set of record highs, but macro uncertainties still lingering on investors' minds. Let's talk about how to balance the highs and the headlines and where to get your advice from. Joining me now is Von Bowman, Mass Mutual's head of wealth management for this week's FA Corner brought to you by Capital Group.

Von, you guys recently did some research looking at where investors are getting their advice from. Um, some percentage of them is getting it, I think about a third were getting it from, um, social media. And I'm I'm curious what your reaction to that was and how what your assessment is of the quality of that advice.

I wish I could say I was surprised, Julie, but I I I feel like that's the reality that we live in today where social media influences so much of what we do, particularly on a generational basis. So, uh, one of the things that we found probably not surprisingly in the research is that uh the Boomer generation was not all about social media when it came to um, you know, getting financial advice, but the Millennials, the Gen Zs, the younger folks out there, uh really do rely on social media.

Um, I think that the data is telling because another thing that we found was that although uh maybe a third or so of people are getting advice from social media, they also know and uh they reported to us when we asked them that uh this was not necessarily a great idea in isolation. Whether some of them made decisions that they then regretted later because of being influenced by social media, or just in general, they sort of recognize the fact that, um, you know, the world is complex and the advice can vary and maybe it's not such a great idea to listen to social media.

So, how do you how do you sort of capitalize on that on that like them using it but maybe not feeling like it's the best idea to try to convince people to come to a financial professional to get that advice?

I, you know, I feel like Julie, it's it's a losing battle to tell people don't pay attention to social media. I don't think that's the course of action and I think realistically it is a part of everyone's uh daily life. I I think that the the path for most people and for uh uh the wisdom of your future financial decisions is to take a beat, not rely solely on social media. Um, use a a trusted, um, you know, friend, colleague, or if you already have an advisor to run these ideas by.

I mean, it's not just social media, you have artificial intelligence now, uh making strides as I'm sure you know and have talked about um significantly. Um, there's all sorts of inputs out there for individual investors to make decisions. So, it's less, ignore it or don't pay attention to it and it's more augment it. Add to the social media inputs that you're getting and maybe what AI is telling you by consulting other sources as well, including a human being.

Okay, so let's let's talk about some actual advice then for right now, right? Because here we are, we're sitting at record highs. I just had a discussion with Mark Zandi a few minutes ago of Moody's where he talked about oil prices at these levels are higher that there is a real risk of recession as a result of that. So there is this like sort of disconnect, right? Um and I'm curious if that's a disconnect that you're hearing about from your clients and what you tell them and what you tell them to do right now.

It's a it's a great question and there's no doubt that there's a there's some disconnect on some level between how people are feeling and how the stock market is going. And that's not a new thing. I think that's been around uh through market cycles for a really long time and and nor is financial anxiety a a new thing either. The the uh lynch pin of a good financial plan is just to anchor back on what you're trying to achieve with your money. What you're trying to achieve for yourself, for your loved ones and for your lifestyle.

And, you know, if you if you've already, if you're already in a really good spot as an investor, you don't need to be trying to hit a home run. If you're not in a good spot and maybe you have a longer time horizon, you can afford to take more risk. So it's those types of conversations. It's not all about beating a benchmark, um as you well know, when you work with a financial advisor, it's more about what do you need five years down the line, 10 years down the line in retirement, and are you on track or off track? That can help guide the risk tolerance that you have as an investor and you know, whether whether and how you up or or or decrease your equity allocation.

Makes sense. Fon, it's good to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you, Julie.

That was FA Corner brought to you by Capital.