The series, Navigating Financial Turbulence in Challenging Times, offered perspectives on three topics: geopolitical affairs, retirement savings, and financial markets. The Carroll School presented the webinars in lieu of the annual, in-person Boston College Finance Conference. While pivoting online, organizers also widened the focus to address “urgent topics relevant to a broad range of professionals, both specialists and non-specialists alike,” the Carroll School’s John and Linda Powers Family Dean Andy Boynton said in his introductory remarks at the first webcast on June 8.

Altogether, the 90-minute webinars drew an audience five times the typical size of the in-person conferences. Among the headline speakers were former NATO Ambassador Nicholas Burns ’78, H’02, P’09, ’12; noted analyst Alicia Munnell of Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research; and PIMCO chief investment officer for non-traditional strategies Marc Seidner ’88, P’24.

During an opening session on global challenges, veteran diplomat Burns referred to the moral and political fallout from the George Floyd killing—“It’s had an extraordinarily negative impact on how the world sees us.” At the June 10 webinar on retirement savings, Munnell reported that even before the virus outbreaks, no more than half of Americans were on track to keep up their standard of living in retirement, while Edmund F. Murphy III ’84, P’19, of Great-West Life & Annuity, pointed to a bright spot. He said relatively few Americans are raiding their 401ks, for the time being. Meanwhile, at the June 12 session on market turbulence, Seidner suggested it would be unrealistic to expect the U.S. economy and markets to rebound before 2022. His talk drew coverage in a Bloomberg article citing his remark that the economy “took an elevator ride down and will climb the stairs back up.”