It’s important to let clients know you care about them, not just their money, he said. “We will be back in touch with clients one-by-one to ask how they're holding up and to identify if there's anything in particular we can do to help,” said Parry.
Caring about and for clients is also important to Michael Zmistowski, another financial planner in Tampa. When a client—a fragile 84-year-old widower with no family, who'd been a client for nearly 38 years—pulled up to Zmistowski’s house to talk about the impending storm, "he was a little scared," recalled Zmistowski. So Zmistowski and his wife invited the man to stay in their spare bedroom. "My wife and I both enjoyed the extra company,” said Zmistowski, “especially during the 15 hours when we had no electricity."
Good Advice
The devastation affected clients of advisors in calmer climes as well.
“We reached out to all of our clients who own property in that area to express our concern and support,” said Kenneth Van Leeuwen, managing director and advisor at Van Leeuwen & Co. in Princeton, N.J.
His advice for devastated clients, gathered from an expert in the property and casualty insurance field, was first to assess your damage and file a claim immediately. If you have separate flood and wind coverage, he said, make sure you file both sets of claims.
Second, he said, be patient because insurance companies will be inundated. “After you file your claims, you may want to hire a private adjuster who is based outside of Florida to help you with your claim” and make sure everything is in order, he said.
Finally, be on the lookout for insurance and contractor scams, he said. There’s nothing like tragedy to bring out swindlers and charlatans eager to prey on the exhausted and unwary.