Here’s something the pandemic likely won’t change. The week between Christmas and New Years tends to be a time when clients aren’t at work, relaxing at home and in a good mood. This can be an ideal time to get in touch. You can ask for business too.

Five Reasons To Call Clients
You call. The client answers. They are in a good mood. They are pleasantly surprised you are “in your office.” Here are some reasons for the call.

1. I’m still at work. The world might relax between the holidays, but the financial services world hasn’t played by those rules for many years. There are certain actions clients need to take by year end. Some clients wait to the very last minute. They expect their advisor to be by their phone, ready to help.
Conversation: It’s ideal if they say “You’re working! It’s the holidays.” You explain you need to be there for last minute requests from clients. They are impressed.

2. Year-end tax selling. That’s a big one. Clients can’t call in January, say “I meant to do this” and expect you to backdate the transaction. They’ve got to get the sale done in 2020 before the ball drops at Times Square.
Conversation: You look at their realized gains and losses for 2020. Any tax loss carry forwards? Do you have any suggestions for year-end tax selling?

3. Gifts to their children or grandchildren. They probably got this done on the holidays, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Your clients might want to take advantage of the $15,000 annual gift tax exclusion before the year ends.
Conversation: If they haven’t made the gifts yet or there’s a newborn in the family, the conversation could easily move from gift giving to 529 plans for college savings.

4. Gifts to charities. December is a big month for charity fundraising. Your client might have a stack of annual fund request letters they plan to look at during the holiday week. If they are thinking big gifts, sending some appreciated stock to the charity might make sense. The charity likely has an account for those transfers.
Conversation: Are there any charitable gifts they want to make before the end of the year? Do they know all their options?

5. Horses at the starting gate. Are they thinking of putting more money into the market? Adding a new money manager? Buying an ETF or mutual fund? One of the most popular performance measurements is year-to-date.  (YTD).  
Conversation: Lets get those new funds invested now. When we look at performance later in the year, we can match up that manager with the YTD performance of the relevant index. It’s more of an apples-to-apples comparison.

These are five suggested conversations. You can think of plenty more reasons to call.

Bryce Sanders is president of Perceptive Business Solutions Inc. He provides HNW client acquisition training for the financial services industry. His book, Captivating the Wealthy Investor can be found on Amazon.