The wellbeing service contains tips to help advisers and their customers to stay physically and mentally healthy, while the hubs provide advisers with practical information and tools to help companies trade safely and look after their staff and customers through the pandemic.
Meanwhile, an online personal counselling service rolled out by Quilter in July has received more than 1,500 visits to the website and has more than 900 users.
The top searched-for subjects in the ‘ask a therapist’ service, launched in partnership with app-based Spill, are: anxiety, sleep, burnout, stress and relationships – while a live webcast for advisers on supporting mental health saw in excess of 100 attendees.
In an unprecedented year, advisers are not just dealing with anxious clients, but also their own fears over business challenges and mental and physical health.
The top searched-for subjects in the ‘ask a therapist’ service, are: anxiety, sleep, burnout, stress and relationshipsSo, how is the industry as a whole responding to take care of its own?
“Overall, the financial services industry has responded well to the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of adapting to home working and an appreciation of the pressures that many people face in juggling their home life and work commitments,” says Michele Golunska, chief executive of Sesame Bankhall Group.
Key points
- Both advisers and clients are dealing with pressures on their mental health
- Working remotely has not always been good for people's mental health
- Advisers have not always opened up about their mental health
But challenges vary widely, given age range and individual personal circumstances of a typical workforce.
Ms Golunska says product providers have told her the level of claims due to mental health issues have gone up, which is perhaps to be expected given the higher levels of stress people are suffering from in this period.
“Therefore, if more of our customers are dealing with mental health issues, then it’s likely that people working in our profession will be dealing with these same issues,” she adds.
“The simple reality is that anyone can go through a period of challenge with their mental health, particularly given the extraordinary events of this year.”
Financial advisers are just one business community among many in the UK, who have the same personal and business concerns as everyone else.
However, what sets advisers apart is that they are looking after their customers too through this challenging time.
More advisers have been working remotely due to the coronavirus crisis, which itself can pose challenges for how advice companies operate.
“Through the pandemic, financial advisers are facing increased demands and workload, while needing to remain calm to support their clients through major financial and life events,” says Jane Goodland (pictured), corporate affairs director at Quilter.
“There is concern among the adviser community over the impact of the current pandemic on the future sustainability of their businesses. These pressures have the real potential to amplify anxiety and stress. Unfortunately, as an industry we have not tackled the mental health problem straight on.
“While advisers must support people through what can be very challenging times, it is not often we hear about how they are taking care of themselves.”
Attitudes to mental health
Historically, in the advice sector there has been an attitude that being professional means having a stiff upper lip and negating all your emotions. This seems to be intensified throughout the financial services industry, which has had a macho culture.
The key part of the adviser role of being the calm and reassuring voice for clients in the face of turbulence perhaps also created a climate where IFAs have not always found it easy to open up about their own mental health challenges.
But Ms Goodland says the industry is beginning to change, “but only through continuing to open doors for people to talk will we see any shift”.
She adds: “The industry is certainly improving and we are seeing more larger businesses offering wellbeing materials, but there is still a long way to go.
“The industry is made up predominantly of small and medium-sized firms who may struggle to offer a wellbeing service.”
Sesame Bankhall’s Ms Golunska agrees attitudes have changed: mental health is viewed by many in the same way as a physical disability.
“And certainly not something that’s seen as a sign of weakness,” she adds.
“Coronavirus and the period we’re living through has brought all of this into sharper focus by heightening the issues that were already there.
“It’s very important to get the balance right to ensure advisers take care of themselves and their clients, as well as continuing to trade safely as a business.”
Sesame Bankhall also offers a ‘care first’ service, which provides members with access to confidential information and a team of professionally qualified counsellors.
Keith Richards, chief executive of the Personal Finance Society, said: “It is important that we consider the role mental ill-health plays both in our own lives and those of our clients.
“The interaction they have with the profession, right through the value chain of decision making, can affect customers in terms of the trust they have in our services, but also on their individual mental health. Therefore it is important that we continue to think about mental health as a component of our overall health.”
Roy McLoughlin, associate director at Cavendish Ware, says advisers at the moment are “quite rightly” worrying about clients, but adds the industry should also be a bit more inward looking.
“It has been obvious to me that certain advisers are struggling at this time,” Mr McLoughlin adds.
“[The adviser] is the gatekeeper. If you have the relationship with your client, they will probably come to you first. You get five phone calls in one day and they are five difficult conversations. It could be mental health, financial catastrophe; don’t tell me advisers are not human beings.
“It’s no secret a lot of marriages are under pressure at the moment. We often find out about this before anyone else and it is a story not told enough.”
Employer responsibilities
Mel Joseph, founder of Mente – a company dedicated to improving the way staff and employers think about mental health – is a former broker who left the City in 2014. She says from the work she does with advisers, one of the biggest issues she has seen in recent years is the emotional fatigue from not knowing how to help someone in distress.
“Firms need to remember their advisers are relationship-led and therefore they may come across clients who are struggling with their mental health,” Ms Joseph adds.
“Advisers are not equipped to deal with clients who are feeling vulnerable and so ensuring the adviser practices self-care is critical.
“There has been a huge movement in discussing mental health and the benefits of doing something. However, how much of that trickles down into individual organisations, I am not so sure.
“I think to truly get comfortable with mental health you need leadership buy-in, not only to communicate how they are working towards being a mentally healthy workspace, but also their commitment to stamp out bullying, excessive working or judgement of those who speak up if their health has deteriorated.”
Even though the industry is catching up in the way it helps address its own mental health issues, mental health will become a much bigger part of the conversation going forward – for everyone.
Ima Jackson-Obot is deputy features editor of Financial Adviser and FTAdviser
