Investing opportunities will arise as the country comes out of the Covid-19 economic lockdown, but it is too early to act now, according to a panel of leading women in the financial industry.

“It is hard to sit and do nothing right now, but this may not be the right time to start trading. There will be better entry points for equities later,” said Julia Carlson, founder and CEO of Financial Freedom Wealth Management Group.

Carin L. Pai, executive vice president, head of equity management at Fiduciary Trust International, agreed. “It is too early to make big changes. We think the market opportunities will come, but investors need to be a little more patient,” she said.

The women were part of a panel discussion entitled “The Road to Recovery – How the New Economy Might Look”  that was held today and moderated by Sylvia Jablonski, managing director of capital markets – institutional at ETF strategist at Direxion.

“We are advising clients not to change asset allocations unless they have changes in their own lives that make it necessary,” Pai added. “They should not just react to market volatility.”

Jeanette Garretty, managing director and chief economist at Robertson Stephen Wealth Management, said, “Buying on the dip makes sense only when you have clarity on earnings, and we do not have that yet.”

Elizabeth E. Evans, managing partner of Evans May Wealth, a Sanctuary Wealth partner firm, is optimistic about the near future, as well as the long term, despite the steady stream of troubling news.

“We likely have seen the bottom of the equity market for this year,” she said. “The health news is starting to stabilize. We will see winners and losers separate out. We like companies that have recurring revenue and little debt. This [crisis] gives investors a good opportunity to look at what they have and move into companies that have a good balance sheet.”

There are three levels to any large market disruption: panic, assessment and recovery, she said. “The level of uncertainty was huge in the first phase and the market was down 30%, but that is behind us,” said Pia. “We are in phase two now and we are figuring out when the recovery will take hold and what it will look like.”

The recovery will not be uniform across the country or across industries. “We will see a lot of disparity by region,” Garretty said.

If clients feel they have to be doing something now, rather than biding their time, the panel noted that conversions from traditional to Roth IRAs could be advantageous, especially for younger and high-net-worth investors. Some investors may want to consider creating a grantor retained annuity trust (GRAT), a financial instrument used in estate planning to minimize taxes in the future.

Evans said her firm also is helping clients plan for the waiver of required minimum distributions for this year, meaning they can leave more money in their portfolios.

“There also is a huge dislocation in the bond market. For those clients who have cash available, we have been taking advantage of this by buying layered bonds,” she said.

Educating clients is of primary importance right now, panelists said. “We want to remind them they need to take a long-term perspective,” Evans added.