IN THE WAKE of the worst recession since the Great
Depression, many Canadian investors remain shaken. Financial
planners are hoping to play a key role in restoring their faith.
“How quickly and how severely the whole (economy)
unravelled affected clients’ stability factor. There is no question
it had a huge impact on clients. Two years later people are
nervous but they’re starting to look for strong returns,”
said Margaret Franklin, president and chief executive
officer of Kinsale Private Wealth Inc., an investment
management company in Toronto.
“For many clients, this is the first experience they’ve had with
a downturn,” she added. “Advisors were very good at holding
hands. That needed to be done.”
The key is open and honest communication, said Keir Clark,
associate director of wealth management with ScotiaMcLeod,
“While it’s exceedingly difficult work,” he noted, “advisors
must keep clients focused on distant time horizons to help
them avoid making poor quality decisions in the short term
based on the news of the day.”
The need for ongoing outreach to clients is ever
present — regardless of the ups and downs of the economy,
on a long-term investment strategy, our experience is that
investors are tolerant of pullbacks when a planned approach
was initially employed.
“Moreover,” he pointed out, “it is imperative that advisors
are not improperly influenced by capital market or economic
uncertainty when their client’s personal investor characteristics
and circumstances have not changed.”
