This Isn't Business as Usual

I sit on the board of a non-profit organization and somehow I also sit on the finance committee (they thought I knew what I was doing!). Earlier this week we met with our investment advisers and I walked out of the meeting in a state of shock. We in the organization do not make the investment decisions. We just work the budget and make sure there are no shenanigans going on.

These investment advisers have done a fine job for the organization over the past several years but their mantra at the meeting was basically business as usual. Their thinking was why change the plan midstream because it's been working so well and recent woes are just a bump in the road.

A bump in the road? I had to contain myself, especially since we met with these folks a year ago and I quietly suggested they raise some cash. But what really got me going was when they suggested that the time might be right to put a small percent of the portfolio into real estate investment trusts!

On a trading basis, perhaps REITS are a bit overdone on the downside. But these guys are not trading. They must have said a dozen times that you can't time the market. I asked if they had been to the mall lately and noticed how many stores had closed. Oh, not many they said. Well, I said, maybe when you go to the mall and there are a dozen or so stores that have closed the REITs will have it priced in.

Not to worry, they said. We're talking office REITs. Are they joking? Have they seen the layoff announcements? Do they think these offices are going to stay full?

All I could think of was how many other financial advisers are out there who also view this as a bump in the road and that it's business as usual once ''we get through it."

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At the time of publication, Meisler had no positions in any stocks mentioned, although holdings can change at any time.

Helene Meisler writes a daily technical analysis column and TheStreet.com Top Stocks. For more information, click here. Meisler trained at several Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs and SG Cowen, and has worked with the equity trading department at Cargill. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. She appreciates your feedback; click here to send her an email.