Practice Proactive Phoning
We're being proactive. [A client] knows intellectually that he's fine, but emotionally, he needs support. --Ross Levin
Some planners are taking what, for them, is the unusual step of initiating phone conversations—and possible follow-up sessions in person outside of any regularly scheduled meetings—solely to discuss clients' feelings about the market and its effect on their portfolios. Clients whom Levin good-naturedly calls "catastrophists" tend to contact his firm during market doldrums. But, he says, there are many other clients who, though not as nervous or vocal, are nonetheless concerned because of the extent of the current market decline, and they need some phone time. "We're being proactive," Levin says. For example, Levin's firm recently made a check-in call to a client who came to the practice after "a disastrous 2002. He knows intellectually that he's fine, but emotionally, he needs support."
-Ross Levin, president of Accredited Investors in Edina, Minn., in What Do I Do Now?
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