Our four-year-old granddaughter, Maeve, came to our house for a sleepover during the Christmas holiday. She was eating breakfast (talking mostly and eating a little) and asked, “What is your Rose, what is your Thorn, and what is your Bud?” We had no idea what she was asking us, but with a bit of questioning, she explained: The Rose is the good thing in your day (life), the Thorn is the bad thing in your day (life), and the Bud is what you are looking forward to in the future.
I think this is a wonderful way to start our 2026 blog series, and instead of relating them to me personally, I wanted to focus on our team at Ullmann Wealth Partners (UWP). Our Rose includes the new talented additions to our team (Rachael Baczynski—Director of First Impressions; Zac Murphy, CFA and CFP®—Financial Planning Associate and Investment Analyst; Jennifer Werba—Director of Marketing and Communications; and Katie Fiallo, Client Services Associate), all of whom added to our expertise and embraced our culture of service. Our Rose also includes our process of Wealth Management—Investments, Advanced Planning, and ensuring that all your professional advisors are engaged around you to communicate with each other for your benefit. Our Rose gets its vibrance from our process and culture—with your investments, estate and tax planning, advice, and being available to you and your family—making you feel confident about your future.
This past year was full of news—sometimes hourly—that moved markets. The Thorn for all of us was and will continue to be news that moves markets, but doesn’t change what companies do to produce products and services over the long term. The announcement by President Trump of sweeping new tariffs triggered market fears of a global trade war. On April 3, 2025, the S&P 500 dropped 4.84%, which was followed the next day with a similar decline. Within five market days, the value of the largest companies in America had fallen by almost 19%. Our mantra has always been that we don’t do forecasts—the future is unknowable. For our clients, these dramatic drops were noise. Keeping you properly balanced within your allocation and ignoring the headlines allowed all of you to watch the recovery from that low point in April to the highs for the year—a recovery of more than 35%.
Ultimately, the Thorn leads to the Bud, which, for our business, and for you, our clients, is that technology is accelerating breakthroughs in the things that matter to all humans. Medical discoveries are not sequential anymore; rather, they are exponential. Advanced CT and MRI technologies help diagnose problems earlier. New therapies (drugs, devices, biologics, immunologics) make many of these diseases chronic instead of fatal—ask me, I can tell you personally. COVID killed over 7 million people worldwide, including over 1 million in the U.S. Yet, from that horrible virus, and thanks to remote-work technology such as Zoom, many of us are now enabled to work remotely from anywhere on the globe, instead of being at a desk in an office.
GLP-1 drugs were developed to help Type 2 diabetics, until researchers realized just how effective these compounds were in helping patients lose weight. We have an epidemic of obesity in our country, and now, with the pill form of the GLP-1s coming to market, we should be able to permanently reverse this trend. Removing obesity as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality is going to lead to other dramatic societal changes—smaller portions at restaurants, lower consumption of food (perhaps leading to a lowering of food costs at the store), and changes in snack and fast-food offerings. One small invention is bending the curve down on our most serious problems.
The Bud includes all the things that will happen in the immediate future, of which we can only dream now.
Fred “Mister Rogers” definitely saw the world as Maeve described it. “We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
Most of the world is the Rose. Thorns can respond to our kind touch and our philanthropy. And the Buds of the future are very bright, despite a lot of dark noise. Maeve is too young to worry about her future, but no doubt it will include all three. Hopefully, she will always be aware of her blessings, her challenges, and the importance of waiting for the next bud.
We wish you a happy, healthy, and beautiful 2026.