Advisers remain calm as Cramer yells fire

“Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week,” Jim Cramer said on CNBC’s “Today Show” in an interview with Ann Curry.

Predicting a possible 20% drop in the markets, he said, “I do not believe that you should risk those assets in the stock market right now.”

At the Denver-based Financial Planning Association’s annual conference in Boston today, some advisers looked with disfavor on the excitable pundit’s pronouncement.

Mr. Cramer is a “fear monger,” said Barbara Steinmetz, principal at Steinmetz Financial Planning in San Mateo, Calif.

However, her clients seem to be taking his comments in stride.

"No one has panicked, and no one has called," Ms. Steinmetz said. "I checked my e-mail before we went out to lunch and no one has contacted me.

Steinmetz Financial has $32 million in assets under management.

Others, however, said that his comments were throwing fuel on an already blazing fire.

"Everyone is on their phones and BlackBerry," said Robert Auclair, principal at Providence, R.I.-based Randall Financial Group LLC, describing the mood at the FPA conference in the wake of the market tumbling and Mr. Cramer's remarks.

Trying to reassure concerned clients the last couple weeks with the constantly worsening market is a major challenge, Mr. Auclair said.

"Every day you come back, it seems like there is a new bottom," said Mr. Auclair, whose firm has just under $25 million in assets under management.

"We're in unchartered territory right now."

In late afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 628.50 to 9696.88, the Nasdaq Composite Index had slipped 134.91 to 1812.48 and the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index had dropped 72.97 to 1026.26.