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(December 5, 2003) At the final stop for Advisor Forum in Halifax, the Top Advisor Panel discussion proved that even the best faced a challenging environment.

One of the biggest challenges they said they had over the past few years was maintaining not only their clients’ confidence, but also their own.

“The biggest challenge for me has been the emotion, not necessarily controlling the client’s emotions, but controlling my emotions,” said Remy Richard of PEAK Investment Services. “To overcome this, I went back to the know-your-client, making sure the clients were precisely where they were supposed to be. That way, I could convince myself we were on the right path.”

Richard says once he had ensured his own peace of mind, it was easier to face his clients, since a positive, confident outlook made it easier to calm their fears.

“I had to convince myself, because I was getting the jitters,” said Richard. “It’s much easier to relate positively, if you feel positive about the situation.”

Even if a client was in relatively good shape, the common perception was that since the economy was in trouble, their investments must be as well. The mainstream media did little to help advisors convincing their clients that the downturn had not wiped out their savings.

“Most of our clients didn’t fare that badly, nevertheless, they didn’t know that,” said Michael Nuschke of Assante Capital Management. “Even though most of our clients know their rate of return, they watch CNN or they talk to other people. It was a cumulative kind of nervousness — they thought they must be doing badly because of what seems to be going on.”

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Nuschke said it was a challenge to keep clients focused on the future, rather than dwelling on the past. He said having a written financial plan made it easier to demonstrate that these market downturns are historically common and that their portfolios were not that far off from where the plan said they should be.

“That was the most difficult aspect of the last few years for me — dealing with each client in terms of how their emotions and expectations were changing,” said Nuschke. “It’s more of just saying ‘Here is where you really are, this is within the range of what we thought would happen, here is the historical perspective, this is one of those bad times.”

In some respects, the bear market helped to prove the value of financial planning to clients.

“We really had a cohesive plan before we had trouble,” said Nuschke. “Throughout the uncertainty we could say the benefit of having done what we did is now showing up, because your portfolio is not being hurt that much and, in fact, it’s really working now.”

All of the Top Advisor panelists agreed that the financial plan made their client relationships easier, because it serves to focus the client’s attention on their long-term goals and shut out the distractions of daily market fluctuations.

“What we try to do is continue to focus on the plan and I think that getting them away from the mechanics versus the plan is what we’ve tried to do over the years,” said David Bluteau of the Bluteau DeVenney Group of Wellington West. “Most of the clients we deal with are interested in attaining success on the planning side.”

“There were a lot of mornings it was difficult to slap a smile on your face and come into the office, but you had to do it,” said Mike DeVenney, Bluteau’s partner in the Bluteau DeVenney Group of Wellington West. “For the clients, keeping their confidence was keeping in touch.”

The pair faced another challenge this year though. They left TD to join Wellington West.

DeVenney said Bluteau set a goal of meeting every client within one month to explain the transition. They achieved the goal by holding 40 or 50 meetings per week, which DeVenney says he would never want to do again, but that it did pay off in the end.

“We thanked the clients this year for supporting the business,” said DeVenney. “We put them through a big change — we were almost five weeks out of business — so it was an amazing test of their confidence in us. The fact that 92% moved with us was a real support for us.”

And their clients demonstrate that support through referrals. One of the biggest challenges facing advisors across the country is prospecting for new clients. The level of service provided by these top advisors is proven by the willingness of their clients to bring in more potential clients.

For Bluteau and DeVenney, it’s as simple as asking.

“We basically ask them for referrals and they respond,” said DeVenney. “We have a referral package put together which basically outlines what they already know about us. We have a fee-based financial plan we do as an intro, which we waive the fee for any clients that people refer in.”

“The other prospecting markets — like seminars — are drawing fewer people,” said Nuschke. “We pulled back from that and focused more current clients and making sure they understood that [we were] open for more clients. One of our key mottos at work is ‘Always be accessible.'”

He says his office support staff are instructed to never tell a client over the phone that the advisor is busy, as this might lead them to believe you are “too busy.” Instead, clients are simply told that he will get right back to them.

“We were focusing more on not losing any clients than on getting clients and that seemed to work in terms of getting new clients, better than what we were doing before,” said Nuschke.

Filed by Steven Lamb, Advisor.ca, steven.lamb@advisor.rogers.com

(12/05/03)