10 Years and counting… Looking back at the changing landscape of Financial PR
As of January 28th, it’s been 10 years since I first started AdvisorPR. I set out with aspirations to position professionals in the financial services industry and give advisors doing right by their clients a more prominent voice in their community. Our firm has always specialized in the financial services industry and placed an emphasis on creating media opportunities for an advisor in the local media markets. While that has not changed, we’ve since been fortunate enough to expand our media reach through industry and national outlets.
The opportunities to feature an advisors expertise in their local media markets has evolved over the years, along with the types stories advisors have participated in. I thought for our 10-year anniversary it would be fun to walk down memory lane:
In 2005 the eldest of boomers were getting ready celebrating their 60th birthdays. The economy was good, prices were going up and inflation was a hot topic.
In 2006 we saw home prices double and triple seemingly overnight during that period of time. Being a native of Las Vegas, we experienced this first hand.
In 2007, we saw the beginnings of corporate downsizing take place within the automotive and financial sectors, and the subprime mortgage crisis officially began.
Then came 2008… What a year for financial news stories. To save or spend your economic stimulus check, that was the question! Then the financial meltdown began, aka The Great Recession, and people lost as much as half of their life savings or more, home values continued to plummet, people were losing their jobs across the board, retirements either came really early for some people (due to layoffs), but a lot of other people had to delay their retirements indefinitely… Ringing any bells? We got a new President with new policies, and many people wanted to know what “change” meant for their pocket books.
2009 was a tough year for the country! Consumer confidence in their ability to retire hit an all time low, and the markets bottomed out. We saw another round of stimulus from the government. The list of high profile celebrities who passed away that year, such as Michael Jackson, Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett, to name a few, led to a widespread in conversations about proper estate planning – many articles focused on the “Estate Planning Mistakes of the Rich and Famous.”
Although the recession was technically over in 2010 – most consumers didn’t see it that way. We saw the introduction of the Dodd-Frank bill overhauling regulation of the financial industry. Social Security trust fund ran of money, local governments filed bankruptcy, and we were concerned about a possible double dip recession. Bush tax cuts were set to expire and taxes on a Roth conversion could be done by individuals earning more than $100,000 a year and taxes paid over the next two years.
In 2011 the S&P downgraded the credit rating of the United States, the rise of the U.S. debt crisis and a super committee was tasked (unsuccessfully) with agreeing on budget cuts. We saw the European debt crisis, the Occupy Wall Street movement, gold reach record highs and the federal debt hit $15 trillion.
2012 was the year of the “Fiscal Cliff” During the fiscal cliff, the payroll tax holiday was extended for the year and Bush tax cuts were made permanent for individuals earning less than $400,000. The Dow was on its upswing crossing the 13,000 mark and the debt ceiling was reached by the end of the year.
In 2013 marks a year of record -breaking performances across all indices leaving many American’s to question if it was time to get in, or time to get out. A number of notable government events took place as well, many impacting people’s pocketbooks – sequestration, Fed’s tapering of the bond-buying program, more debt ceilings debates and a government shutdown, the increase of capital gains tax and the addition of the Medicare surtax.
In 2014 the bull markets kept surging ahead, after a brief blip at the start of the year. The Fed began alluding to the rate hike, and QE3 came to an end. New laws on retirement came out of Congress and IRAs turned 40!
Over the 10 years of AdvisorPR we’ve seen the gamut – the good, the bad and the ugly as it relates to personal finance and investing. And all of these occurrences were “pressing” opportunities. People have a LOT of questions about their money. And no matter the economic cycle we’re in – the media will continue to cover financial topics. Members of the press will continue to need you, a qualify financial media resource, so they can better explain the financial topics that are of the most interest or concern to their readers, viewers and listeners.
We look forward to seeing what the next 10 years has in store! We hope you’ll join us.
