Mr Roberts says: “Our job is to give reassurance, map out the future for clients and help them get through.
“For the day-to-day financial planner, Brexit is just another factor to talk about.
“This is where, as an industry, you have to strip back and understand the client you are dealing with.
“If you are sitting with the ultra-high net worth, and your income is delivered by yield, you are just sitting this through.”
William Stevens, financial planner at Killik & Co, says the conversation that financial advisers need to have with their clients should be around stressing the importance of long-term planning.
He says: “We make sure clients are setting aside enough cash so they can meet their requirements over the next couple of years.
“If you do lose 10 per cent of your portfolio because of any problem with Brexit, is that a problem?”
In terms of weathering the immediate storm and fallout of Brexit, Mr Roberts says: “I genuinely believe if you have a one-year or two-year need, most people now say the solution is cash.”
David Painter, chartered financial planner at AJ Gallagher, says there will be many short-term challenges for advisers as a result of Brexit and clients panicked by what they are seeing on the front pages of national newspapers or who have plans they do not want to change.
He says at the end of last year he had to sit down with a client who wanted to go into drawdown in April 2019, just days after the UK is supposed to finally exit the EU and another client who wanted to move a lot of their investments into cash.
Given the turmoil of recent years, Mr Painter says working with the client to explore their concerns and documenting why they may want to go down a certain route at this time will be key to making sure advice given in 2019 does not come back to haunt you.
Rise of the robos
Given that demand for advice has never been greater yet the supply of human advisers has failed to keep pace, it is unsurprising providers and advisers continue to turn to technology to bridge the gap.
Last year saw several providers looking to add a human element into robo-advice and BWD’s gathering of advisers revealed many were looking at technology to make their own services more accessible in 2019.
Mr Stevens says having the option of robo-advice to allow younger people in their 20s to engage with firms like his to set aside “a little and often” should help bring down the average age of clients speaking to human advisers.
