Why Planning, Not Prediction, Wins in Volatile Markets

By Andy Schwartz, CFP®  ·  CEO & Managing Partner, OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners  ·  June 29, 2026

As featured in Advisor Perspectives

Every market cycle seems to come with the same message: this time is different. But after more than four decades in wealth management, OnePoint BFG CEO Andy Schwartz has watched investor behavior repeat itself across the dot-com bubble, the 2008 financial crisis, COVID-era swings, and today’s geopolitical uncertainty. Fear pushes investors out of the market when they should stay invested. Overconfidence convinces them to chase returns when caution is warranted. The antidote is not better prediction. It is a plan built to hold up no matter what comes next.

Planning Holds When Markets Don’t

A strong plan anticipates volatility before it arrives. It aligns strategy with a client’s timeline, liquidity needs, and long-term goals so that market swings stop feeling like emergencies.

Behavior Breaks Portfolios

The biggest threat to long-term success is rarely the market itself. Planning creates guardrails that help clients avoid short-term decisions with long-term consequences.

Discipline Comes From Understanding

Clients stay committed to a strategy when they understand why they are invested the way they are. Set realistic expectations early, and volatility stops feeling like failure.

“The real advantage during periods of uncertainty is not the ability to predict what markets will do next. It’s having a plan that can hold up no matter what happens.”

Andy Schwartz, CFP®  ·  CEO & Managing Partner, OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners

What This Means for Your Financial Plan

The article outlines the key questions every investor should be able to answer before the next wave of volatility arrives: When is capital needed? How much risk is genuinely affordable? What life outcomes does the investment strategy need to support?

Andy also draws a direct line between how well-run advisory firms are built and how well-constructed client plans are built. Both require long-term thinking over short-term momentum, a willingness to evolve, and a commitment to preparation over prediction. The strongest firms, like the most resilient portfolios, are never built around what worked last cycle.

Long-term success is rarely about predicting the market correctly. It is about being prepared for the moments no one can predict.

Read Andy’s full piece in Advisor Perspectives

A clear-eyed take on why planning-focused advisors outperform in every market environment.

The opinions expressed by Andy Schwartz are his own personal views and experiences as an Investment Advisor Representative. Investment advisory and financial planning services offered through Bleakley Financial Group, LLC, an SEC registered investment adviser, doing business as OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners (herein referred to as “OnePoint BFG”). OnePoint BFG often uses Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) in the generation of marketing and advertising and has established policies to ensure all AI generated material goes through human review prior to dissemination.

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