So how can advisers help clients focus on the longer-term picture, and filter out noise ahead of any key event?
Staying the course is often the best plan
One of the best ways advisers can support clients is through leveraging behavioural coaching, to help clients make good decisions and avoid bad ones. This is one of the most important benefits of financial advice, yet it is one that clients may not even be aware of.
A key aspect of this is normalising the inevitable ups and downs that clients will experience over the course of long-term investing.
By doing so, and setting appropriate expectations, advisers can remove – or at least diminish – the fear-inducing noise clients have been so exposed to this year.
As provocative headlines are stripped of their power, clients are less likely to feel the need to speak to their adviser for reassurance. They understand that it is all part of the investment cycle and feel comfortable that their adviser is there to guide them through.
It might sound obvious, but this professional assurance is an essential source of comfort for clients and allows them to remain focused on their long-term investment goals.
Lifting the worry from clients’ shoulders
Morningstar’s research shows that the primary reason people hire and then continue to work with a financial adviser is due to their own discomfort at handling financial issues. Peace of mind and having the worry, responsibility and decision-making lifted from them are all frequent themes.
Clients can feel confident in the knowledge and skill of their adviser. Taking comfort in their financial future being based on a robust, data-driven plan with a diverse portfolio that can withstand those ups and downs and navigate through attention-grabbing headlines.
That is just one of the many benefits that good advice offers, and the only way to find stability in an increasingly volatile world.
Mark Sanderson is managing director of Morningstar Wealth UK and International
