Market Intel for Stronger Client Conversations with Matt Berger

[00:00:21] Doug Heikkinen: You know I've shared with you how much I enjoy the market intel exchange that you guys produce, specifically how you're able to take what can be complex topics and turn them into actionable resources for what advisors can bring to their client conversations.

So I want to start by having you take us back. Where did the idea for this come from, and why did you build it the way you did?

[00:00:44] Matt Berger: Yeah, absolutely happy to do it. So, quickly though, I want to set the stage for those who maybe aren't as familiar with this particular resource. So Market Intel Exchange, which you're going to hear me call MIE for short throughout this podcast here, it's a monthly client-friendly resource that we built really with the goal of taking what's happening in markets and all of these things and turning it into simple conversations that financial professionals will feel incredibly comfortable bringing into their next client meeting.

So that is the entire idea, but the why behind it is something that, I'll tell you the story, and I hope it's something that's relatable to some of the listeners as well. So we officially launched MIE about five years ago, back in 2021, but I think the spark for what it's become today ultimately goes back to 2015.

I had just moved into my first true investment role after seven years in variable annuity distribution. I had a degree in finance, a Series 7, a Series 66, a personal interest in investing. I was feeling good, and I figured I knew markets pretty well. Then I picked up one of the big asset manager chart books a lot of folks are probably very familiar with, fully approved, ready for the public, and my head was spinning, I'll tell you what.

Now these were the dark ages, Doug, before AI. So what did I do? I went to the Google machine. I did countless searches just trying to figure out, what am I looking at? This chart on options adjusted spreads, what is it telling me about the state of fixed income? And that's never mind, what would I actually say about it if I had to explain it to a client from outside the industry?

It was a challenge. And at the time, I'll say admittedly I developed a serious case of imposter syndrome, and I remember thinking, "If this is difficult for me, there have to be busy advisors out there who don't have the time to spend learning how to translate these complex topics into a language their client's going to understand."

And that really stuck with me. And then over the years and literally thousands of conversations with financial professionals, I realized it wasn't just me having that issue, which was a good feeling. But, it also made the niche a little bit clear that, as an industry, I'll say we're drowning in interesting market content, and it truly is interesting.

But what we don't have enough of is actionable content that we can pick up and use. Content that's simple, that's repeatable, and really content that's ready for the next client meeting with, and I think this part is so key since we're all busy, minimal time, as little time as possible spent decoding it beforehand.

Because at the end of the day, I always say so to bring this to something timely, clients aren't really losing sleep over the oil futures curve, even though the media spends a lot of time trying to convince us that they do over the last few months. What they're losing sleep over is one really simple question: "Am I going to be okay?"

And our goal is to help financial professionals answer that question, that one in particular, in a way that relates to anyone, no matter how loud the external noise gets turned up, because actionable content beats interesting content nearly every single time.

[00:03:58] Doug Heikkinen: All right. So let's get concrete. For someone hearing about it for the first time, what actually is Market Intel Exchange?

Walk me through it.

[00:04:08] Matt Berger: Yeah. Sure. So monthly deck, charts that are covering the economy, volatility, equities, fixed income, all the way through planning topics like longevity and income planning. I know on the surface that sounds just about as unique as just another pizza shop, but I think there's three things that really make it stand out.

First, client friendly, right? So clear visuals that are easy to look at. I think that's key when we want to put content in front of a client, and it's even got an explanation of the chart itself, what am I actually looking at, and what does it mean on every single page. And it's all in plain English, not institutional speak.

Second, I'd say the diversity of perspectives that you're getting. So I want to be clear, this is not just Lincoln analysis. We partner with leading asset managers that your clients already know and trust, names like, just to name a few, Franklin, BlackRock, JP Morgan, Capital Group, and the list goes on.

So we literally take their top charts, put it into the MIE. So as you scroll through, you'll see their logos alongside the content, and that just helps add instant credibility there in front of your clients. And then last, it's actionable. So we build it truly with the client meeting in mind.

So three questions we always ask: Does this answer a question a client might ask their financial professional? Can this help set up and provide context for a recommendation? And does this... Or I should say, does this help educate clients in a way that makes them better as a long-term investor? So when we develop the content, that's the bar that we hold it to because we're not trying to teach financial professionals everything about the market and sound like the smartest person in the room.

We're trying to win them the conversations that help keep clients focused on their long-term goals.

[00:05:56] Doug Heikkinen: Let's talk about how this is being used. We've got this strange situation where Americans feel about as bad about the economy as they ever have. Sentiment readings recently hit record lows. Yet despite some of these stumbles, the market has been hitting new highs.

I'm sure that disconnect can lead to some challenging conversations. How can Market Intel Exchange help an advisor make sense of all that for a client?

[00:06:21] Matt Berger: Yeah. It's a lot to make sense of. It's really the question of the moment. I think you nailed the discomfort. Sentiment near record lows, and that's according, of course, to the University of Michigan surveys.

And markets, depending on when you're listening to this, at or near record highs. I think two things there that we don't typically associate with each other, but nevertheless, here we are. And this disconnect, really, I think it's a disconnect between facts and feelings. It's producing two what are very normal, very human instincts in client conversations that I see quite a bit, but they're both, ones that can create some unique planning challenges.

So the first is, "I'm just going to wait. I'm going to wait till things feel better, till it feels safer." A natural reaction. And the second is, "I'm going to wait for a pullback. Market's gotta come back, right?" But if you notice, what do those two things have in common? It's the word wait, right? They both end in doing nothing.

Or even worse, for a client who's already invested, they become a reason to move to cash. And I think that's a big problem because we know that for most long-term plans to work, clients need to be invested, they need to stay invested. So what do we do about it? First, and I think this is so important, we lead with empathy.

I can't tell you how often I've seen someone, they're faced with a nervous client, they want to de-risk, or they're sitting on cash, whatever it may be, and the advisor's just sitting there, they just can't wait for their turn to talk so they can pull out their charts, got a line that goes up and to the right and shows the S&P and "Look how wrong you are.

This is so much better." Look, the emotion's real. We should acknowledge it. We should validate it. Then we meet it with the data and the perspective, and there's two charts in MIE built to do exactly that. So I'll get into the crux of your question here, Doug. The first takes on that client who's pessimistic about the economy and, really wants to wait until they feel better to take action.

So I brought along a couple charts here. The first, what we did is we plotted the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index every single month going back to 1978, and you see we marked, distinct cycle peaks and troughs over time. There are 11 of each. We then looked at what the S&P 500 did in the 12 months after each of these peaks and troughs and averaged them out.

And get this, the results are really interesting. After the 11 deepest troughs, so these are the moments that Americans felt worst, stocks averaged almost a 20% gain over the next year. 20%. And after the 11 highest peaks, when everyone felt great, everyone felt really great about the economy, only about 2% over the next 12 months.

So that's nearly 10 times the forward return, just over the next year, when people felt their worst versus their best. And I think there's such an important lesson here. One thing that, within Lincoln here folks know is I like to have fun with this kinda stuff and put it into Seinfeld terms whenever possible.

So if you're a Seinfeld fan, which I hope you are, Doug, you'll recognize this line. "If every instinct you have is wrong, the opposite would have to be right," right? Jerry said that to George, right? But in other words, don't let feelings get in the way of facts. But, personally, I prefer Seinfeld words.

But this one lands today because just in May, we hit a record low in sentiment, so depending on, again, when folks are listening to this, we could be slightly higher today, but it's still highly timely. So here's how I'd frame it to a client. Pretty simple "Look, Mr. and Mrs. Client, it's completely normal to feel unsettled right now, and you are not alone.

Look at this. But what's interesting is historically, when we've collectively felt the worst about the economy, believe it or not, the market actually did its best. And today, we're near record lows. Now, that doesn't always mean it's a smooth ride, right? But, this is a pattern worth paying attention to." So I think that chart just takes that instinct, that "I'll wait to feel better" apart because feeling better isn't what comes before the returns, it's the part that shows up after.

So that's chart one. the second is, what about the clients who are waiting for a pullback, right? Market is again at or near all-time highs, depending on when you're listening to this, at least I hope so. If not, that means something went terribly wrong. So the instinct is, now is the time to de-risk, not invest more.

And, I think on the surface that one sounds really smart, right? We sound really smart doing that and saying that, and it's very easy to rationalize, which is why I think this one surprises folks. Two parts to this one in particular. The first is let's just normalize all-time highs because they are pretty common.

So if you look in the top left, from 1990 through May of this year, the S&P 500 had hit 787 all-time highs. That's more than 21 a year on average. Not every year, but more than 21 a year on average. So new highs, they're not unusual, they're normal. That is the first reframe for clients, right? Let's get them out of thinking that this is unusual.

But I think the true counterintuitive part that surprises a lot of folks is what tends to happen within markets after the highs. So over that same timeframe, we compared investing on any day to investing only when on days when the market closed at an all-time high, and investing at the high actually came out ahead.

Every single horizon we measured about 14% versus 12% over the one year, and you see the gap widens even further in favor of the all-time highs when you push that out to three and five years. So for this one, here's the line, right? Is again, we empathize, I understand why it feels like all-time highs aren't a good time to invest, but a lot of my clients are surprised to hear how common they are, 21 per year on average.

And historically, new highs, they tend to happen during bull markets, and they usually tend to result in more new highs, not necessarily bear markets. Again, not always a smooth ride, but another powerful pattern from history that we can use to articulate to clients. But the real unlock is when you put those two together, right?

You're resetting both of these instincts in one sitting, wait till I feel more confident, wait for a pullback, which both have usually been wrong historically, and we can show them why in two slides. So it really moves the conversation from defense, talking someone off the ledge, to offense, showing them the opportunity, and it also offers a really natural, really smooth transition to recommendations. Recommendations that can help offer more confidence.

So that could be as simple as a diversification story, why we would diversify, or could even include solutions that, balance growth and protection? Like a RILA or with a buffer or even fixed indexed annuities, frankly.

[00:13:03] Doug Heikkinen: One of the things I appreciate about the MIE is that it's not all timely market charts.

A lot of it's evergreen. The foundational long-term investing stuff that comes up in almost every client conversation, no matter what the headlines are doing. Can you talk about that in a broader context?

[00:13:20] Matt Berger: Yeah. Yeah, really that's the part we get most excited about frankly, because the headline charts, they get a lot of attention.

They're great to share on an episodic basis. In these acute-driven conversations they do a great job. But I think the evergreen ones, they cover questions that come up in almost every single planning meeting at some point, whether the market's calm or whether the market is volatile in that particular moment.

Two specific examples here briefly because I think they really do different jobs. And the first one is about really framing why clients should be confident if they're a long-term investor, and more specifically with their long-term money, because we know there's a difference in strategy in what you may do for short-term money versus long-term money.

And I think it can help folks get more or less unstuck perhaps if they're overweight cash, or just simply reassure them that their investment strategy is in line with their time horizon. So this one's incredibly simple, just four pie charts. And what do they show? They show how often the S&P 500 was positive over various rolling, with a monthly step, holding periods, all the way from one year to 15 years.

We went back 50 years for this analysis. And I'll cut right to the chase, because again, I think the takeaway is pretty simple, is that every 15-year period over this timeframe had a positive return, every single one. So I recognize we're probably not putting too many clients in 100% equity. But the point of this is, as a financial professional, as an advisor, now I can shift the risk conversation, right?

And I can look at it through the lens of time horizons and goals instead of predicting when the next crash will come. So I think it doesn't just reassure a client. It can help move them off the sidelines. And I want to say about this one because it's not a novel concept to us in the industry, and I get that, right?

It's kinda easy to roll our eyes and say, "Yeah, I've seen this done before. I get it." But frankly, that's kinda the point, right? That's what makes it so easy to just pick up and use. And I think there's a beauty in telling a story that we're familiar with in a simple way. And oh, by the way, even though we know it, I'm willing to bet a lot of our clients don't.

So that's number one, Doug. The second really does the opposite job. It's not so much about getting invested, being invested necessarily. It's more about not running out of money. So you start to get into the retirement income planning, healthcare planning type of range. So the pre-retiree that's running their first real retirement projection and the question isn't, is this going to work?

It's, how long does the money have to last ultimately? So simple concept here, just three lines. You got male, female, and couple. They all start at age 65, assuming that they're in good health at 65, and it shows the percentages and the probability of them making it to different age bands. And the numbers are a real conversation starter, because if you're a healthy 65-year-old couple, there's a 74% chance, so almost three out of four, that at least one of them lives to 90.

So pretty good. I think that that reframes the whole conversation and the plan, because we're not building for a 15, 20-year retirement. You're building for a 30-plus year retirement perhaps. And it can really act as a jumping off point for countless planning conversations. So those are just two of just so many.

I could go on and on, Doug. So many examples throughout Market Intel Exchange.

[00:16:49] Doug Heikkinen: If you could give one piece of advice to an advisor who wants content like this to actually move the needle, not just sit in their folder, what would it be?

[00:16:58] Matt Berger: First, you gotta engage with it, and I think you gotta get comfortable with it.

And again, we're doing our best to create it in a way that makes it as easy as possible to do that. But I think a good test, Doug, is, and I think it works on any chart, is just take a look at it, look at the chart, read the, "why it matters." Like I told you, we give the interpretation on the chart.

Read that really quick, and then close it, right? Close it. And then right after, just try to explain, even if you're talking to yourself, talking to a wall, try to explain it in 30 seconds. Because that's the bullseye. That's what we're going for when we create these charts and when we create this content.

So if you can do that, you're ready to put it in front of any client. If you can't do that, we're missing the mark, and we gotta do better. I think that that's one thing. Number two is, just relentless prioritization, I think is the other half of it. So MIE, we talked about the breadth.

It is, it's not small. It's anywhere from 75 to 80 pages. I know you've seen it. And a big deck can get overwhelming when you try to make it do everything and you try to use everything. So I think a good practice is, every month, every quarter, whatever your cadence is, or whenever you just need content, take five minutes, page through, look at the table of contents, something that catches your eye.

Pick two or three slides that, pass the test for the questions your clients are asking, the conversations you want to have, and then just ignore the rest. If you can get two, three things out of this that you can actually leverage and bring to your conversations, that's a win.

And we'll help you build that as well. But I also, I wouldn't necessarily just limit it to a client meeting. I think that's the obvious use case. But, financial professionals getting the most out of this, they're using it in three other ways. Number one, just a reason to reach out, right? Via email, whatever it is.

A timely chart that, like some of the ones we talked about now, it's a much warmer, much more valuable touch point than just checking in. I think folks are using it in prospecting as well, because it helps to really demonstrate value and expertise and build trust beyond just product or explicit services that are offered.

And then last, feel free to use it on LinkedIn and newsletters. Pull a single slide into a post. one chart, one stat, one takeaway. We see this all the time from advisors around the country, and we love it. Absolutely, it's great.

[00:19:21] Doug Heikkinen: Last one. How do professionals actually get their hands on the Market Intel Exchange, and where's the program headed from here?

[00:19:29] Matt Berger: Yeah, great question. Probably should have covered that up front, Doug. But, it's pretty simple. There's a refreshed deck every single month that's got the latest data, whatever's trending. Here's where you find it, really simple website. It's lfg.com/marketinsights, so lfg.com/marketinsights.

Bookmark it, and I suggest and ask that you subscribe to get updates, and I know the word subscribe can elicit a visceral response at times, for me as well, and I promise this is not one of those subscriptions where, you buy something from a retailer, and suddenly you're getting four emails a day about the thing that you left in your cart.

We only push updates quarterly, so four emails a year, and you can always check the site for the latest in between for the monthly updates. As far as where it's heading, focused, big focus, and it's a relentless focus, is on making the content even easier to pick up and use. So think bite-sized insights, client conversation guides, always holding the content to that same standard.

Does it pass the actionability test? Is it just interesting, or is it actionable? And if it's not actionable, we move on to the next thing. So quick example I'll give you to look out for. We got a few midterm election charts that tell just a great story, that'll be dropping here in our July update, just in a week or so.

And they're really built to help advisors get ahead of any nervousness before clients bring it to them. That's worth keeping an eye out for and checking out. And I think also that's probably a good note to end on, Doug. Really ultimately, the things in general that make clients nervous, you think about the scary headlines, which there is no shortage of, market volatility, uncertainty.

I think we're all conditioned to see them as a problem, one that we need to navigate. But I like to think of that differently and reframe it because the reality is these are actually the things and the moments where the value of a financial professional to their client I think is most visible, right?

So the ones who show up, first with empathy, but then bring perspective rooted in facts along with a confident recommendation to the table, they're the ones who connect most deeply. They're the ones that drive client satisfaction, and they're the ones that earn loyalty, and that is exactly what we built Market Intel Exchange for.

So, I really encourage everyone to check it out, and I thank you for, having me on today, Doug.

[00:21:57] Doug Heikkinen: Matt, you know I love the MIE, and it was so great to have you on the podcast. Thanks so much for being here.

[00:22:04] Matt Berger: Thank you.

[00:22:05] Doug Heikkinen: To learn more about Lincoln Financial, please visit lfg.com. And again, to subscribe to the Market Intel Exchange, go to lfg.com/marketinsights This has been the Power Advice podcast. For our producer, Tory Miller, and the whole team, thank you so much for listening.

 

[00:22:25] Sources: University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment: 44.8 as of May 2026, record low in continuous series since 1978. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and University of Michigan.

Sentiment troughs versus peaks based on analysis by Lincoln Financial, January 1978 - May 2026. Peaks and troughs separated by a greater than or equal to 15 point reversal.

Returns from all-time highs since 1990. Source: Morningstar, analysis by Lincoln Financial, January 1990 - May 2026

Rolling 15-year holding periods of S&P 500 price returns positive 100% of the time. Source: Morningstar. Analysis by Lincoln Financial.

Healthy 65-year-old couple, 74% probability at least one spouse lives to 90. Source: American Academy of Actuaries and longevityillustrator.org