Over the holidays, when everyone seems to be crazy busy, financial advisors definitely feel a change in the air. "Our offices are relatively quiet between Thanksgiving and the New Year," says Mark Snyder, president of Mark J. Snyder Financial Services in Medford, N.Y. "Typically, at least one of our staff members will use this time for a vacation."
Besides the fact that most people are shopping, having parties, traveling, visiting family and so forth, John Piershale, wealth advisor at Piershale Financial Group in Barrington, Ill., adds that "the market usually performs well this time of year, so there isn’t as much hand-holding during this time." (Of course, this year has been an exception . . . more on that later.)
But that doesn't mean the practice can take a rest. "It's a very busy time for advisors, as we're often trying to proactively reach out to clients to remind them that they only have a matter of weeks before year's end to make any last-minute investment decisions," says Bill Van Sant, senior vice president and managing director at Univest Wealth Management in Philadelphia. He cites, for example, the selling of a security for tax-loss purposes, or processing a required minimum distribution from a retirement account.
The holiday lull is also an opportunity for professional reflection and reconnaissance. "Any potential slowdown at year-end can be a good time for our staff to catch up on any outstanding items and brainstorm any process improvements that we should look to implement in the new year," says Van Sant.
Still, the bigger the practice, the easier it is for personnel to rotate time off. "A licensed person is always around to take any kind of call," says Piershale. "Not just this time of year, but all year-round."
Advisors who want to take some vacation time might do better to wait for the latter part of the season. Van Sant says that business really tends to slow after the second week of December. "[That] is a good time for our staff to take time off, recharge and spend quality time with family and friends."
This year, though, has been somewhat different. "Due to the late-year market turmoil and anxiety over the year ahead, this year has been a bit of an exception," says Snyder. An influx of anxious client calls, he explains, was quelled by a reassuring email message. "Once we issued an email noting our position, most client calls stopped," says Snyder.
Even when advisors do get time away, they are rarely completely out of touch. "Technology has made it easier to stay connected," says Van Sant.
Does the relative calm of the holidays create a big logjam in January? "There may be a little backlog, but not that much," says Piershale. It helps, he says, to be organized ahead of time and not just wing it. "We have systematized our office to handle things throughout the year, so things do not get away from us. We are big believers in systems, and our clients like our organized systems, too."
That's key, because whether or not there's a backlog of work that's piled up like a snowdrift at the curb, when January comes many firms are busier than ever with a range of demands. "Shortly after the New Year begins, however, we hit the ground running," says Snyder.