In California, advisers worry about clients

From the 11th floor of her San Diego office, Margaret F. Eddy could see cars streaming toward Qualcomm Stadium, which housed thousands of wildfire evacuees. Her mind wasn’t on the safety of the home and financial planning practice she shares with her husband, Bob, but rather on the well-being of her clients. “We called all of the clients in the impacted areas,” said Ms. Eddy, a certified financial planner and the president of Creative Capital Management Inc. of San Diego. “I couldn’t get a hold of some clients in the Jamul area. In some cases, the phones just rang.” On Oct. 21, a combination of hot Santa Ana winds and dry vegetation fueled fires in seven Southern California counties. Within four days, 719 square miles were burned and more than 500,000 people were evacuated. With memories of the 2003 Cedar Fire in Southern California still fresh in their memories, advisers are finding that it pays to have a business continuity plan — mainly because it allows them to focus on their clients. An informal InvestmentNews survey of 110 advisers doing business in the affected counties found that 78.5% had a business continuity plan in place. Forty-eight percent of respondents said their practices had been affected by the fires, and 19% said they had been forced to evacuate their home or business. The survey also found that 19% of respondents had heard from clients whose homes were lost in the recent fires. And that 77% of respondents are planning to reach out to all their clients living in the affected areas in the weeks ahead. For the full report, see the upcoming Oct. 29 issue of InvestmentNews.