The stock market is not static. It’s always in transition, more often than not triggered by economic uncertainty.
It’s perfectly natural, during periods of extreme volatility, for clients to experience a heightened desire to gain control over their financial lives. The more uncertainty they feel, the more control they want to gain. If that happens to you, don’t be surprised. Empathize. Think like your clients think. Put yourselves in their shoes. In crazy markets, clients always have two concerns. One is a lack of predictability, and the other is a fear of loss of control.
Address the lack of predictability by reminding your clients that it is impossible to predict the stock market. Assure them that history has proven that what’s going on now shall pass. We will survive and we will emerge stronger than ever.
Lack of control gives anyone a feeling of helplessness. Remind your clients that the biggest single waste of time on earth is wishing thing were different. We must not focus on things we cannot control. Instead, we must focus on what we can control. The more we can control, the less our uncertainty. We can’t control the market, but we can control our reaction to it.
Remind your clients that this is why you created a financial plan Assure them that, at all times, it is essential to maintain a long-term time horizon and that’s why they hired you to manage their assets in all kinds of changing circumstances.
Related: 5 Ways Financial Advisors Can Establish Credibility and Build Trust