March seems such a long time ago. I remember standing on the touchlines on a lovely spring morning watching my son and his teammates playing rugby against a local side. Unfortunately the season was being brought to a premature end for understandable reasons, making us realise we take a lot of simple things for granted.
Market volatility became apparent by mid-February. Prior to the current market crash, I worked with clients to prepare for major market falls, both during the initial planning process and at annual meetings. We call these preparations lifeboat drills, but of course they can never fully replicate the apprehension and shock of an actual market drop. I often use the analogy of dipping into freezing water. It takes your breath away no matter how many times you’ve fallen in before or mentally prepared for capsize.
During the financial crisis of 2007-2008, before I became a financial planner, I was working at an investment bank on the trading floor. My income was tied to the future of the banking sector, which at the time seemed to have an uncertain future. This period gave me first-hand experience of how fear of what might happen can create a drag on emotional wellbeing. Humans crave certainty, but sometimes we must learn to live without it.
Despite taking place over a decade ago, the above period is still fresh in my mind. So, when the market began to decline, I contacted every client to see how they were coping. What I found interesting was that the market falls were not at the top of the mind of most clients. Some had been hit by falls in business revenue but were relieved that neither they or their immediate families had been infected with the virus, and they were grateful for the small things in life. A number of providers were great at sending through timely material that put the current falls into context. I passed those onto clients that had expressed an interest in being kept up to date. For clients who wanted to see how the downturn affected their financial plan, we had an online meeting to show how we had stress tested them in advance for situations such as these.
Face to face first meetings are something I feel are important. It is a chance to build rapport that I feel you can never fully replicate using online meetings. However, once a prospect becomes a client, we usually switch 100% to remote meetings. If I can remove time lost due to travel, that gives us the opportunity to deliver a comprehensive service to more clients, while not impacting service levels of existing clients. It also gives us more flexibility to our role as we can deliver the same service from anywhere in the world given a reasonable setup.
Prior to the pandemic, I had been holding most of my financial planning meetings online. With dual monitors I was able to see the client on one screen and share the financial plan on the other. I had invested a lot of time in learning Voyant and was able to alter plans with the clients in real time where required. I feel that this setup works well for both me and the clients, allowing flexibility for both parties. For example, one of my clients is a teacher with a long working week, so we meet virtually early on a Saturday morning. It saves one of us travelling time and works for both of our schedules.
But whether you’re meeting with a client face to face or remotely, I believe most clients want a human interaction, with many not being comfortable with a full “robo” service. I feel it is becoming increasingly important to be able to demonstrate to your clients that you are offering genuine value.
This leaves me wondering if there is space in the market for a fully remote financial planning and advice offering where the financial planner is able to devote the vast majority of their time to the thing that matters most, helping their clients. I have spoken to a few financial planners over the last few months that have been feeling this way and recent events have made them seriously consider revisiting their proposition.
From a personal point of view, I feel that we have been very fortunate during this period. None of our family have fallen ill, and it has been great to have everyone at home. We have managed to do some of the things that have been on our wish list for some time, from installing a zip wire in the garden to expanding the family with a tiny puppy. I have even started writing a book on “Escaping the City” which I had been meaning to write since I escaped in 2017.
Noel has been in the financial services sector since 2000, primarily within investment banks. He left the city in 2017 with the aim of working with people planning for retirement in Surrey and London. Outside work, Noel is passionate about rugby, coaching his son’s team and supporting both local teams and the Scottish national team.
The views expressed in this article are that of this author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Voyant.
