I've been in this business for over four decades. I've lived through Black Monday, the dot com collapse, the Great Financial Crisis, COVID, and every major correction in between. And if there is one thing I know with absolute certainty, it is this: when markets fall apart, clients don't call their advisor to talk about beta or duration. They call because they're scared. They want to know if they're going to be okay.
That question—"Am I going to be okay?"—is the most important question any advisor will ever be asked. How you answer it, and how consistently you show up for clients when they ask it, defines the kind of advisor you truly are.
Behavioral finance has moved from academic concept to practical necessity. For all the attention we pay to portfolio construction and asset allocation, the real work in a volatile market is managing fear. Clients don't come into financial planning as rational actors; they come as human beings, shaped by emotion, loss aversion, and the very real anxiety that comes with watching their savings decline.
I learned this early. On the evening of October 19, 1987: Black Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 500 points in a single session. This represented a 25% drop in one day. I was three years into the business and found myself sitting on my couch watching CNN as commentators declared the end of financial civilization as we knew it. My phone rang all night. Clients weren't calling for investment advice. They were calling to make sure I was still there, that I hadn't disappeared, that there was someone on their side who had a plan.
That night taught me more about this profession than any textbook ever could. Being accessible in the hard moments is not optional. It is the job.
The instinct for some advisors (I've seen it firsthand) is to minimize. To say, "don't worry, we'll get through it." I understand the impulse: you want to reassure, to calm. But clients are perceptive, and they know when they're being brushed off. The more powerful approach is to acknowledge what they're feeling before you move to solutions. People don't care what you know until they know that you care. Clients are depending on you to be their port in the storm.
Once you've done that—once they feel genuinely heard—you can move into your role as the calm in the storm. Even if you feel some internal uncertainty yourself, your clients need you to remain steady. Remind them you've seen this play before. Remind them the plan was built for this. And then, critically, show them the plan.
Every market crisis I've navigated has reinforced one lesson above all others: the advisors who come out stronger are the ones who dramatically increase client communication when things get difficult. Not just for their most anxious clients, not just for the ones who call. For everyone.
When COVID hit in 2020, we shifted our quarterly BullTalk client update to a weekly program. Every Thursday at 12:30 p.m., clients could call in for a 30-minute briefing on markets and the economy and could ask questions in real time. Six years later, we're still doing it every week, and the participation has never dropped off. I've had clients tell me they're more faithful listeners to that program than they are to their weekly religious service. I've had others use it as a first introduction for a friend they want to refer.
That kind of consistency, week after week, channel after channel, isn't glamorous. But it builds something no competitor can easily replicate: trust. It moves the relationship from portfolio manager to trusted advisor, from service provider to faithful advocate. Clients don't remember your quarterly returns as vividly as they remember whether you were there when it mattered.
In October 2022, after a stretch of significant market turbulence, we put together a piece we called "How to Survive a Bear Market Attack." We approached it almost like a Boy Scout field guide—practical, grounded in historical perspective, and honest about the fact that bear markets are neither new nor permanent. The three-part framework—be prepared, avoid panic, stay confident—gave clients a concrete playbook rather than mere platitudes. It became the most requested piece of content our practice has ever produced.
The message was straightforward: we have been here before, we know how this story ends, and we will navigate through it together. Framed in that way, a bear market stops being a catastrophe and becomes a chapter. That "How to Survive a Bear Market Attack" field guide is still available for any advisor looking for a practical model for client communication in a downturn.
Former U.S. President and Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces Dwight D. Eisenhower said it best: “plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” The plan will always need to be adapted. What cannot adapt is your commitment to the clients sitting across from you. Avoid jargon. Speak plainly. Keep them invested. Because clients who stay in the game have a chance to recover, and the ones who panic and sell are the ones who turn a temporary downturn into a permanent loss.
After four decades, that remains the most important work I do: helping clients stay the course when every instinct they have says run. That's not portfolio management. That's our profession.
Pickler Wealth Advisors, 1135 Halle Park Circle, Collierville, TN 38017, 901-316-0160
Securities and advisory services offered through Commonwealth Financial Network®, Member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Adviser
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