As markets continue reacting to geopolitical headlines, rising oil prices, and ongoing global uncertainty, many retirees and pre-retirees are once again asking the same question:

What does all of this actually mean for my retirement plan?

In this month’s Matt’s Minutes, Matt Curfman, CFP®, CEO & Co-Owner of Richmond Brothers—with another special appearance from Oliver—shares perspective on recent market volatility, inflation concerns tied to oil prices, and why staying calm during uncertain periods continues to matter.

Timestamps

0:01 – Meet Oliver (and the reminder to stay calm)

0:33 – Geopolitical instability & oil prices

1:06 – Why rising oil prices matter to investors

1:41 – Inflation concerns & consumer spending concerns

1:58 – V-shaped market volatility explained

2:48 – Strong corporate earnings & AI investment discussion

3:41 – Midterm elections & ongoing uncertainty

3:59 – Supporting clients through every stage of retirement

4:34 – AE partnership & DocuSign updates

6:06 – Final thoughts & gratitude

(Full transcript below)

Video Highlights Geopolitical Headlines & Oil Prices

Matt discusses how geopolitical instability and concerns surrounding global oil supply routes have contributed to rising oil prices and increased market uncertainty.

Why Oil Prices Matter Higher oil prices can impact inflation, transportation costs, consumer spending, and overall market sentiment.

Market Volatility & Emotional Investing Periods of volatility can feel uncomfortable, especially for retirees and pre-retirees watching headlines daily. Matt reminds viewers that emotional reactions during uncertain periods can sometimes create more risk than the headlines themselves.

Staying Calm During Uncertainty With a lighthearted cameo from Oliver, Matt emphasizes the importance of staying grounded when markets become noisy and emotions start driving decision-making.

Coordinated Retirement Planning Matters Rather than reacting to every headline, Richmond Brothers continues focusing on coordinated retirement planning across income, investments, taxes, healthcare, and legacy planning.

Key Takeaways

Geopolitical headlines can increase market volatility Global conflicts and supply concerns often create short-term uncertainty in markets.

Oil prices can influence inflation and consumer costs Rising oil prices can ripple across transportation, goods, and broader inflation pressures.

Emotional reactions can create unnecessary risk Reacting emotionally during volatile periods can sometimes be more damaging than the headlines themselves.

No one can predict markets with certainty Short-term market direction remains unpredictable, especially during periods of geopolitical uncertainty.

Long-term planning still matters most Retirement planning should be built around long-term goals and personal comfort—not daily headlines.

Communication with your advisory team is important If your comfort level or concerns have changed, ongoing conversations with your advisory team matter.

Coordinated planning may help create confidence Income, investments, taxes, healthcare, and legacy planning all work together within a coordinated strategy.

Staying calm matters during uncertain periods Volatility is uncomfortable, but reacting emotionally can sometimes increase long-term risk.

In Closing

As Matt shared through Oliver’s calm demeanor at the beginning of the video, sometimes the best reminder during uncertain periods is simple:

Stay calm.

While headlines, oil prices, inflation concerns, and geopolitical events will continue to evolve, the goal is not predicting every market movement.

The goal is helping ensure your retirement strategy remains aligned to your goals, comfort level, and long-term vision.

At Richmond Brothers, we remain committed to helping educate, inform, and guide the families we serve through changing market environments.

Full Transcript

Hi, everyone. Matt Curfman from the Richmond Brothers, here with my Trusty market commentator, Mr. Oliver. He just really wants to make sure you guys are up to speed on everything going on in the world and what’s affecting your finances. Portfolios, investments, retirement accounts. And we are honored to be here to help support you. Aren’t we, Oliver? See how calm he is? That’s how calm we all need to remain in the midst of all of the noise that’s happening out there in the market. All right, buddy, thank you. Thanks for indulging me there. So I want to. We’re into early main. I want to talk a little bit about what we saw kind of coming out of the first quarter, late March and into early April. And then what we’re seeing. So, main headlines that we’re seeing. You hear geopolitical instability, which kind of ties into the Iran war, which leads to higher oil prices. You see oil volatility, but really that means prices are going up. Again, forgive me if I mispronounce this, but there was a lot of talk about the Strait of Hormuz being closed and which limited capacity for oil, again, causing prices to go up. So why does this all matter to you and I? It matters to you and I individually as it relates to your money, specifically, because if oil prices are higher, then going to the gas pump to fill up our cars is higher. Transporting goods around the country costs more. So as it costs more, that can lead to inflation and prices going up. From an individual standpoint, if we’re paying more every time we go to the pump to fill up, those have gas vehicles as opposed to electric, we’re basically spending more of our dollars at the gas pump, and we’re spending more of our dollars, as a, corporate society, to get products to consumers. And so that basically limits capacity for other things. So if inflation really happens because oil prices are higher and we live on a fixed income, most of us do, that eats into our spending power, and we’re going to be able to do less of other things. So that eventually could lead to economy slowing down, sorts of things. So the idea of derailing consumer risk appetite, possibly derailing consumer spending. So those are a lot of the headlines that we saw. So as each day went by, there’s, a lot of uncertainty, and ultimately, we ended up in what I refer to as V shaped markets. So literally, if you were to draw a V and then go look at the market charts for the broad indexes like The Dow, the NASDAQ, the S& P, just to name a few, you would have seen a little bit of growth. Then you would have seen headlines about oil prices going up, the Iran war, markets declined, decline, decline. Well, as they got, just below negative 10% year to date, or from their highs. What ends up happening is the White House then started to issue statements about trying to wind down the war, or two or three week ceasefires. And that allowed a little bit of breath and calmness back into the market. So again, I just want to talk about the things that are impacting your money and how we’re trying to help you navigate through that. One other piece then is corporate earnings have been pretty strong when you look year over year. So this year compared to last year, they’re running at almost 28% year over year, which is a pretty remarkable number. You know, I think in general if you’re running at 8 to 12, percent year over year, those are really good growth factors. So we are seeing corporate earnings going up and then that ties into the question of artificial intelligence, AI and corporations are spending a lot of money to try to get more efficient. They’re trying to build out data centers and all kinds of things. And there’s heavy, heavy talk about spending. The question remains, is the spending going to produce outcomes that allow corporations to get more efficient at what they’re already doing and allow businesses to keep moving forward? So that is a question. But those are headlines that will continue. And then last but not least, as we head into later parts of this year and starting in the summer, I’m sure we’ll start to see, a lot more politics with midterm elections coming up. So I don’t think uncertainty is gone. So our aim of course is just to continue to be your partner. We want to partner with you, along your financial journey. Whether that’s some of you are saving for and building for your retirement, which is not that far away. Some of you are just right on the edge of retiring. Some, Sally from our office just retired on May 1st and that was very public knowledge. So she would love, me sharing that. We, had a nice little send off for those of, we were able to see her on Friday, May 1, and some have already in retirement and they’re trying to manage the spending of their assets, through this craziness. So again we just want to be your partner in, along your financial journey and we’re grateful for that opportunity. Last but not least, lots of questions on our docusign and Kind of our expanded partnership with more and more strategies, proprietary and otherwise, through our partnership with ae, that’s been going really, really well. We really started sending out DocuSigns mid April, starting the day after tax filing deadline, April 16th. So at the day of this recording on May 5th, we’re running about three weeks into that. And just to give you some updates from an overall client perspective of all the households and families we work with, we are approaching, just about two, thirds, of all of the, dollars that we work with as a firm, have already gone through and asked questions and kind of worked through their docusigns. And so we’re really grateful for that. We are finding that some docusigns have gone to maybe a spam filter. So if you would just check your spam, folders in your emails, that would be great. If you still have questions or you’re wondering, hey, how does this impact me? We are here to support you, so Please just email questionsrichmanbrothers.com and myself, the advisory team, are happy to jump in and, and just talk through and answer any questions that you have. You’ll continue to get DocuSign reminders throughout the month of May, and then at the end of May, we’ll reassess where we are at with everyone. And we are, working behind the scenes to, upgrade allocations and looking at individual strategies, account by account, household by household, family by family, behind the scenes. So we are honored to be here to support you. We thank you for your continued support, partnership and trust and confidence. And as always, have a great start to your May and happy spring. From myself and all of us at Richmond Brothers, thanks for tuning in.

The commentary in this video reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints and analyses of Richmond Brothers employees, and should not be regarded as advisory services provided by Richmond Brothers, and are subject to change at any time without notice. Any mention of a particular security and related performance data is not a recommendation to buy or sell that security. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Any indices referenced for comparison are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. As always please remember investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital; please seek advice from a licensed professional. Richmond Brothers, Inc. does not provide tax advice.