Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here.
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Dear Bev,
Have people gone crazy? A client called me this week from the hospital. She is 76 years old, was in reasonably good shape but was pushed down in a stairwell because she was not wearing a mask bringing groceries to a neighbor. This woman is a “salt of the earth” and has several million dollars with me, but she volunteers and helps others all of the time. She called just to let me know what had happened. In the event any portfolio decisions needed to be made, she wanted me to know she could be reached but not at her home. She will recover, but she was very shaken up by the event and hurt badly with the emotional and physical impact.
Craziness has taken over. I can’t do much about the general population, but I should be doing something to help my clients deal with the stress and upset of this time. I am at a loss as to what to do. Of course we continue to manage their portfolios and provide planning, but are there other things you are hearing from advisors that we could consider?
M.J.
Dear M.J.,
I agree with your sentiment. The most important thing any of us can do right now is to be a voice of reason and refuse to engage in some of the craziness that is rolling around. You can’t fix things on a broad scale, but yes there are some things you could do to help your clients during these times. Consider….
- If you could find a good book on stress during difficult times or learning yoga or meditation and send to your clients as a gift. I have one client who has been sending books via Amazon (hard copies) and also sending links to online books. He has been very thoughtful about what books to send, the notes that accompany them and which clients need them. He is getting a very good response to this. Clients notice the care and appreciate it.
- Choosing a couple of charities you believe in and that are doing great things during the pandemic. There are many ways to be of direct help to those in need. Make a contribution on behalf of your clients (not by name for confidentiality, but as a group) and then write a nice note letting them know you are doing this and why. Include in the note your perspective that people need to be more supportive of one another and tell them if they want to discuss ideas to do this more broadly, you are open to discuss with them.
- Holding a webinar or Zoom meeting on a health or emotional related topic. I recently recommended to a client to have a nutrition expert join – many people are putting on the “quarantine 15 pounds” and need help minimizing sugar intake or making good choices while in a limited mode. Have a therapist join to talk about coping mechanisms during this time. Ask clients to come and share their best ideas.
- Changing your messaging to reflect your support of everyone during this time. Have a block on your website, or include a few lines in emails that go out about the market conditions or have a conference call to talk about your perspective. Sometimes it feels good just to think you are doing something and contributing to the audience you do have captive!
All of these ideas will depend on your client base. You know your clients and what they will find appealing versus intrusive. Segment your clients and perhaps do some of these things with a portion of them, but not all of them.
It is important for you to do something, so consider what fits you the best.
Dear Bev,
I have a client whose adult son was laid off recently along with millions of other people. The father, my client, who I will call “Sam,” has a great deal of money with me, $7.5 million. But Sam has had the attitude that his children (five of them) should work for a living. When Sam is gone, the estate will be there but he doesn’t want them to know he has this money.
The adult son has never made much of himself, and as a result never made much money. He is living on unemployment and with the additional weekly checks he is making more than he made while working. Sam is furious because his son has the attitude he shouldn’t have any worries about finding a new job and he will wait it out until his unemployment runs out.
Sam keeps talking to me about whether he should reallocate some of the existing money and just give his son a portion of what he has coming. I don’t see this as validating Sam’s work ethic, but rather rewarding his son for a lackadaisical attitude. I have no relationship with the son. If Sam hands over this money, I likely can’t influence anything. And if Sam hands it over to this son, why not take care of the other four children?
I have been trying to get him to see reason but he doesn’t seem to be listening to what I am saying. We’ve not liquidated funds yet and he hasn’t made a final demand for this. Am I missing something I could do to help him see reason?
S.I.
Dear S.I.,
Please do not take this the wrong way. I respect that you believe you are trying to help and support Sam and enforce the values he has espoused to you over the years. But when you say “see reason,” are you sure it is not your reason rather than his? You are clearly an advisor who has listened over the years and cared about supporting Sam and his viewpoint. But things change. Sam is older, his son is older and things are quite different in the world than they were even a few months ago. Could it be that Sam is re-thinking his priorities and his decisions?
There may be other reasons why now is not a good time to liquidate assets – the market conditions, the allocation of Sam’s portfolio and so on. I’m not telling you how to do your job as an advisor and you might have a perfectly rationale reason for asking him to hold off on this decision.
It sounds like Sam is using you as a sounding board so perhaps you could do the following: Schedule a 45-minute call with Sam to review options around this decision. Bring notes from past discussions you’ve had reminding Sam of his view and why he felt that way at the time. Ask him if anything has changed. If so, how has it changed? Be careful not to interrupt him or bully him or dispute what he is saying. Your role is to listen.
Then share options from a financial viewpoint. How will removing these funds impact him? What will it do to other short and long-term planning? What are the pros and cons of doing this now, versus waiting two months or two years? Be a facilitator and consultant to him to help him be more objective and more thorough.
Once Sam has made his decision, support him and know that the reasons are his reasons.
Beverly Flaxington co-founded The Collaborative, a consulting firm devoted to business building for the financial services industry in 1995. The firm also founded and manages the Advisors Sales Academy. She is currently an adjunct professor at Suffolk University teaching undergraduate and graduate students Entrepreneurship and Leading Teams. Beverly is a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Values Analyst (CPVA).
She has spent over 25 years in the investment industry and has been featured in Selling Power Magazine and quoted in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC.com, Investment News and Solutions Magazine for the FPA. She speaks frequently at investment industry conferences and is a speaker for the CFA Institute.
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Beverly Flaxington is a practice management consultant. She answers questions from advisors facing human resource issues. To submit yours, email us here. 
