Evan Harp sat down with financial advisor Gilles Mulard of Mulard Wealth Management to discuss his approach to his practice.
Evan Harp: What is your investment philosophy?
Gilles Mulard: Be universal and accept all needs from clients across the board. As I was born overseas, I understand that we might not have something today, but we could have it tomorrow. What I mean by that is when I came, I didn’t have a social security number. Well, I acquired it. I didn’t have credit. Well, I built it. I didn’t have an investment account. Well, I started it. So, that’s my philosophy, helping clients all along their financial life.
Evan Harp: What’s the biggest obstacle you had to overcome and how did you do it?
Gilles Mulard: My heritage. Sometimes it can be an asset because people remember it, but it can be a detriment because when there is a very strong need, people want clear and easy to understand answers. An accent can be both ways. It’s a little bit like a double edged sword. I would say that’s the most prevalent aspect of the way that I advise.
Mulard on the Market
Evan Harp: What is something happening in the market right now that not enough people are paying attention to?
Gilles Mulard: Interest rates. Interest rates are pretty high. We don’t pay attention to interest rates from insurance companies. We don’t pay attention to interest rates across the board. Interest rates are not a currency. And interest rates are not translated into dollars. They’re just a measure of performance or a measure of correlation between the sum of money and what you could have.
So we don’t pay enough attention to the translation of interest rates. What does it represent? And, the best case, in real estate right now, having rates above 5% on the borrowing, it eliminates a lot of buyers from the same property that you could have with rates at a very low level.
Evan Harp: Who is another advisor that inspires you, and why?
Gilles Mulard: I admire other advisors, particularly the big, phenomenal advisors from LPL, from other firms. I always pay attention to the competitors. So, the advisors that have done very well for themselves, I always want to know how did they do that?
This is what makes Tom Brady special in football. I listened to an interview of Tom Brady, and he said you have to disrupt the level of confidence of your teammates to push them over their limits. And it’s a little bit like my philosophy. I ask what makes those advisors, those billion dollar advisors, so successful? Did they inherit their book of business? Do a thousand clients call them every week? What’s the deal? I try to learn from them.
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