Last Updated on August 7, 2020 by Carlo Navarro
Suggested email template
This email assumes your client is in a properly diversified portfolio and that you replace the content in the [brackets]
We did have our friends in compliance review this. However, your compliance team should review before you send.
For each client you’ll need to choose:
[time frame and index for performance]
– We suggest 30 days and the S&P 500
[the account or collection of client accounts referenced]
– We suggest the broadest collection of accounts you manage
You’ll need to fill in:
[performance of the relevant collection of accounts]
[$ value of the difference between actual and performance if invested in the S&P]
Here is the text.
********************
Subject: It’s a challenging market but our strategy is working
Body:
Hello [client name],
We are busy monitoring the current market as well as the money you’ve entrusted to us. We thought it would be a good time to give you a brief update.
In short, while everyone in the market is experiencing losses, our strategy is working to help you better weather the conditions.
To make that concrete for you, over the past [month, the S&P 500 has lost over 28.8%].
However, in aggregate, the [accounts we manage for you] have lost only [16.2]%. While losses are disappointing, that difference between your results and the broad market represents over [$550,000] that our strategy has protected.
We will continue to monitor the situation and make any recommendations that we deem appropriate but given that your goals and time horizons haven’t changed, we believe the current strategy remains the best course of action.
[add signature]
[add disclaimer]
********************
Video Transcript
Hey, everyone. And thanks for joining me today. This is Justin Shepherd, your friendly neighborhood advisor success coach, here at Blueleaf.
As your partner, we want to reach out to offer some help on how to keep clients calm during these confusing and turbulent times. We also want to remind them of the value that you bring as their advisor.
Now clients are getting bombarded with information and much of it is scary. Covid 19, the wild market downturn, etc.. They’re seeing broad market indexes reported every day with headlines that they’re not really used to. Things like Dow Jones biggest one day drop in history. S&P 500 plunges again.
We know you’ve properly diversified your clients’ portfolios and broad market indexes don’t truly reflect exactly what they’re invested in. However, those broad market indexes are what they’re seeing. It’s what’s being thrown at them on Facebook and the nightly news. And they’re going to assume that the performance of their accounts is the same or similar to the performances of the indexes thrown at them.
In a down market, comparing to a broad market index is actually an opportunity to calm and reassure them, to show them how they’re doing compared to, and you can’t really see my air quotes, but “the market”.
Equally important, it’s an opportunity for you to remind them of why you have them in a diversified portfolio as well as remind them of the value that you, their adviser, bring to the table. You can even do that quantitatively by letting them know exactly how much less they are down than the broad market indexes that they hear about in the news. Here’s how:
So from your dashboard, just go here to where it says view accounts. This is going to bring you to an overview. It’s essentially a list of all your accounts and your client accounts. And then right here at the top, we want to go to the performance tab. So now the accounts can be listed by performance and we want to click here where it says gain percentage and click it twice. That way, we’re going to show your worst performing accounts right here at the top. We’re also going to make sure we’re selected for 30 days with this bubble right here. I’m going to show worst performing accounts over the last 30 days.
You will quickly see that while clients may be down, they’re not likely down as much as the S&P 500 is over the last 30 days. They are doing better than the market and it’s because of you, their advisor. Don’t get me wrong. Being down 10, 15 or even 20 percent doesn’t look good or feel good for your clients, but your value in this situation is clear and quantifiable.
And it may sound cliche, but they need you now more than ever. You’ve been preparing them in their portfolio for this moment for years. So it’s time for you to earn your fee by providing them perspective and to make communicating in mass simpler.
You can simply export this list or just scroll down. We encourage you to reach out to your clients and craft a very simple message that says, hey, things aren’t great, but you’re doing great in comparison, so stay the course. Reassure your clients that you’re monitoring things closely and you’re working for them every day.
If you need anything from us at Blueleaf, we are absolutely here to help. Please reach out to our VIP support team at VIP support at Blueleaf.com and a member of our team will get right back to you.
Have a great rest of the day. And stay safe out there.
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