First Trust Financial Forum

People sacrifice and work hard to build wealth. Then they ask others to help them protect and grow that wealth. Financial professionals take on this immense responsibility each and every day, and Jim Bowen's core focus for more than 30 years has been to build a money management firm dedicated to supporting financial professionals. Communicating when tumult and uncertainty increase, listening and responding in real time, fighting the good fight side-by-side, and traveling through time together. He can't wait to see you in-person and share his thoughts about where the world, the country, the markets and our industry are headed.

Brian Wesbury¹

Chief Economist

We locked-down the economy for a pandemic, spent trillions of dollars to overcome the economic crisis that followed, and printed trillions of dollars of new money to help pay for it. In the meantime, even though many small businesses did not survive, U.S. stock markets moved to new highs. With vaccines distributed and COVID-19 data improving, the world is heading back to "normal." But will it be a "new normal"? Brian Wesbury will discuss this and more.

Dave McGarel, CFA, CPA²

Chief Investment Officer

Growth crushed Value. Technology crushed everything. COVID-19 and government intervention had huge implications for markets. So, where do we go from here? Using methods discovered during decades of market research, Dave McGarel believes that investors who stay focused on fundamentals can minimize risk and avoid emotional decisions. In our post-COVID-19 world, this matters more than ever.  Listen as Dave explains why markets did what they did and where he believes they are headed from here.