Sharing the Burden

It’s been an extraordinary few weeks in which our working and personal lives have been turned on their heads as we face a challenge unlike anything the world has experienced since the Spanish Flu pandemic over 100 years ago.

Intuitively, we know that when dealing with significant challenges, how successfully we navigate them begins with how we think about them, and then moves to what we do about them. With that in mind, we thought it could be helpful to periodically share observations on how COVID-19, the market turmoil and the issues that flow from them may affect each of us as financial services businesses and as people. The idea is to publish these reflections as they come to us and hope they may contribute in some small way to your own response to the challenges ahead. Let’s begin!

The world has changed profoundly. Sharemarkets have fallen over 30%, unemployment has spiked massively, and for older Australians in particular, their very lives are at risk. There is credible talk of a deep recession, and the possibility of a depression. None of this was in contemplation 5 or 6 weeks ago! The response of the community, including the financial services industry, has been no less astonishing. City buildings are now empty as people work from home, parents are juggling home schooling with remote work, and all of us are acclimatising to the reality of no face to face contact with colleagues, clients and industry peers.

We are all dealing with extreme market conditions. Advisers have talked themselves hoarse communicating with clients, portfolio managers are working overtime to manage investors’ wealth, and portfolio administrators and platforms have been implementing a flurry of changes. This is not business as usual. For advisers in particular there is the stress of being expected to have all the answers, to be the ones to help ease the anxiety of others, when certainty is in short supply.

For all of us there is concern regarding the health of family and friends – particularly the elderly – anxiety about impacts on children’s schooling, and worry for the unemployed. Mary Shelley said, “Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change,” and it is inevitable that the scale and speed of the change we are experiencing now is creating a variety of anxieties in all of us, just as it is for our mutual clients. It may just be that many of us are too busy to deal with our own anxieties, at a time when we need to be as close to our best as we can be.

So, the reflection for this week is to take time out to consider your own situation and to listen to yourself as to what may be concerning you in this environment. Put an hour aside. List your concerns. Think about mitigating strategies. If you are not sure how to respond, talk with the people around you. Be willing to share the burden – you’ll be helping them with theirs. We are confident that in such difficult times people will be generous when asked for input, and there is the opportunity for all of us to be generous in kind when we see an opportunity to assist others.

The hope is that by taking time to achieve perspective on our own challenges, we can be fresher of mind and better equipped as industry professionals to serve the clients who depend on us all. As an additional bonus, we may also be better company at home at a time when household harmony could come under strain.

Have a good week.

Brett Sanders