In the words of Pam Beesly, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” Well, at least it feels that way. In reality, it has only been a year but it has been strange nonetheless. When we started Provisio Retirement Partners in March of 2020, we were ready to hit the ground running. But of course, our plans changed just like everyone else’s did with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic was a roadblock for many to say the least, it did push us to grow as individuals and advisors and transform our business in ways that we previously did not think were possible. Today, I would like to take a moment to go over a few ways that we have seen our business change in the last year and how it has benefited our clients.
Zoom or In-Person?
Prior to a global pandemic shutting down our entire economy and keeping everyone isolated and indoors, it was quite common for us to see new and existing clients face to face. It was thought that phone and video calls were less personal and somehow less effective. But when faced with the prospect of being unable to meet with clients, there was no other choice. But what seemed like a major disruption actually transformed the way in which we meet with clients. It made us more efficient and was more convenient and less time consuming for our clients. The adoption of Zoom calls has also given us the ability to meet virtually with new and existing clients from all over the country. Yet another thing that we did not have the means to do before. Even now with the guidelines for social distancing becoming less stringent we are still utilizing Zoom quite frequently. Some clients have even expressed that they prefer it to in person meetings because it is so much more convenient! We see virtual meetings playing a major role in the future growth and success of Provisio Retirement Partners.
Working “On” the Business
The addition of virtual meetings had another effect on our business as well. It gave us back more time to work on our partnership and better ourselves personally and professionally. One such development was the acquisition of new licenses and designations. Todd recently acquired the Series 7 Securities license, which allows us to implement new investment strategies that were previously not available to us. I studied for and attained the Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF) designation which focuses on the duties of a fiduciary acting solely in their client’s best interest with an emphasis on designing an in depth investment process. Both of these accomplishments put us in a better position to serve our clients now and into the future.
The additional time in the office also gave us the opportunity to further develop our investment portfolios, refine our process, and to work on providing a better online experience for our clients via our website and online account access. Being able to work on all of these things was not only extremely beneficial for us but more importantly for our clients.
Holding the Line
One question that I have heard frequently over the past year is how are our clients reacting to the turbulence in the market? Have we received many phone calls from concerned clients? Actually no, calls about market volatility have been few and far between. One would think that the opposite would be the case but in fact, our clients clearly understand their financial plan and held the line through the major market drops a year ago. We are quite thankful for this given that the market proceeded to recover in dramatic fashion at the end of 2020. While this shows that we have a very well educated and levelheaded clientele, it is also a testament to the relationships we have with our clients. We could not be more thankful for the trust that our clients place in us every day to make financial decisions that are in their best interests. Thank you all for bearing with us during a time of transition and turbulence. We appreciate you all and look forward to many successful years to come!
Now I think that I should probably acknowledge my radio silence over the past couple of weeks. After spending some time with my family in Arizona at the beginning of the month, it took me another week to dig out of the flood of emails! But no excuses, I am back and will continue to write these blogs once a week as promised! This week’s song of the week is a tribute to one of my favorite times of the year: March Madness. Enjoy!