Marc Foster is buying Japanese blue chips.
“Crisis creates opportunity,” said Foster, one of six local wealth advisers recently picked by Barron’s magazine as the top in their field in California (see related stories, above, page 36).
That explains Foster’s recent buys of shares in Japan’s Hitachi Ltd., Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. All of those companies had operations affected in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern part of Japan’s main island.
Running toward a crisis isn’t new for Foster, who’s with UBS Financial Services Inc.’s office in Newport Beach.
When word spread that the federal government was backing some of the nation’s largest financial firms in the teeth of the recession in 2008, he aggressively moved portions of his clients’ money into debt markets and financial services companies.
Two years later, when the Federal Reserve announced plans to infuse the economy with money with the purchase of U.S. Treasuries, Foster transitioned from a debt position to equities, buying up blue-chip stocks that pay relatively high dividends.
When jitters hit the municipal bond market in January amid concerns of deep, widespread city and state budget shortfalls, Foster started acquiring municipal debt.
“When California imploded we jumped back into debt,” said Foster. “We’re opportunists.”
—Chris Cassachia
