Take care of yourself so you can better care for your clients

Last week, we lauded the 2020 Best Places to Work for Financial Advisers. Companies of all sizes emphasized quality of life and self-improvement as ingredients for a healthy and productive (thus profitable) workplace and staff.

While the day-to-day demands of guiding the hard-earned wealth and financial well-being of others has its own ebb and flow, the stresses caused by the usual external forces — markets, interest rates, inflation, geopolitics — pale in comparison to the current struggle to make sense of a global crisis that’s been thrust upon us so suddenly.

The worldwide pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus has upended life as we know it. Without warning, the office life that we took for granted disappeared. Company outings and daily social interactions have been replaced by video conferences and virtual happy hours. For a time, it seemed novel, a welcome interlude. We’re all in it together, we said cheerily. But after nearly two months, the social isolation is becoming a source of stress and anxiety for many.

Comfort and care

While financial planners won’t be mistaken for the brave doctors and nurses selflessly treating COVID-19 patients on the front line, they still have a responsibility — and not just a fiduciary one — to provide the same level of comfort and care for themselves as they do for their clients’ financial well-being.

Advisers themselves contend with the very same financial and emotional strains amid the historic economic downturn, and they will do better by their clients if they employ appropriate self-care.

“As financial advisers, we are doubly or triply at risk,” Kol Chu Birke, a financial behavior specialist at Commonwealth Financial Network, wrote in the April 13 issue. “Fee-based business revenues are shrinking while expenses stay the same. We are watching our own investments shrink as we are encouraged or forced to distance ourselves from those who bring us sanity. All the while, we must provide emotional strength and comfort to our clients and loved ones.”

Support network

In the absence of the traditional support network of colleagues and friends that advisers lean on in normal times, it’s important to create a healthy inner space that gives them the mental and emotional security — and acuity — to continue to serve clients who, during these unprecedented times, are looking for a lifeline both financially and emotionally.

Last week, Jeff Benjamin wrote about a surge in new clients coming to financial planners in April as the pandemic roiled markets in March and frayed investors’ nerves. It’s of supreme importance that advisers be well-prepared not just with sound financial advice but mentally to handle the fragility and fears associated with so much uncertainty.

“These are the times you train for as an adviser,” Sarah Newcomb, a behavioral economist at Morningstar Inc., writes in a contributed piece on Page 14. “These are the days when your leadership, poise and perspective can help clients overcome the forces of emotion that cloud their judgment.”

To create a healthy mindset, Birke suggests that advisers maintain their balance by engaging in simple activities: a walk through the neighborhood, writing an email of thanks, taking a bath. On the opposite page, we’ve compiled a selection of the many responses to a poll that asked advisers how they and their firms are coping in these trying times.

Remember: To take care of others, you must first take care of yourself. Be safe and stay well.