New ways of approaching conversations with clients to understand their situation and state of mind may be needed, and ways in which to document your findings and the action you are going to take will almost certainly be necessary to meet the requirements of the regulator.
Concerns about one’s financial wellbeing can be hugely damaging to a person’s mental health and vice versa, this is where the services of a professional financial adviser are absolutely invaluable.
We have long helped consumers who are in good health and secure employment understand the importance of protection. The damage wreaked by Covid-19, if nothing else, has clearly demonstrated the ways in which someone’s control over their finances can be destroyed overnight by unforeseen forces.
Helping your clients to create a robust financial plan, with protection at its heart, will certainly help some to feel less vulnerable, whatever the future may bring.
Our sector is consistently agile and quick to react to changing circumstances, and we have seen some real innovation over the past year in relation to supporting vulnerable clients and some fantastic education and training resources from providers and lenders.
SimplyBiz launched its own Vulnerability Hub back in June 2020, and a programme of events, guides and updates, which has been warmly welcomed by the companies who use our services, with thousands of visits to the online resource over the past six months.
I think it would be difficult to find anyone who has not felt vulnerable in one way or another during the past year and, while I hope it has been a temporary state for most of us, I believe we all know someone who is facing a longer-term struggle.
I am sure that we are all making an effort to check-in with our friends and family and, hopefully, are also receiving the same support in return.
When it comes to clients, advisers and brokers are uniquely positioned to demonstrate the value in our services, which could be more important to vulnerable consumers than ever before.
Ken Davy is chairman of SimplyBiz
