Taking care of your client, and yourself

| 08 Feb 2022

After two years of having COVID-19 upend our lives and expending much time and energy dealing with the pandemic and the extra challenges it wrought on our lives, you may be feeling exhausted. But you are not alone - it is very likely that many of your clients are feeling the same way.

Mental health insurance

One of the most straightforward ways a financial adviser can help their clients is through the recommendation of insurance policies.

The pandemic has undoubtedly taken a toll on the mental health of many people and healthcare institutions have noticed a rise in the number of mental health cases over the last two years or so.

Some of your clients might be feeling the need for help in this area right now. Others, who might be okay for now, could very possibly feel the effects later down the line. Either way, this is possibly a good time for them to be looking at getting cover for mental health conditions.

As you check in with your clients, it might be prudent to see if they want to consider upgrading their health cover to a policy that covers mental illnesses. Over the years, some insurers have begun to include in certain policies cover for a broad range of mental health issues.

Self-care pointers

As advisers, many of you have more than likely given advice to clients beyond the financial domain, and chances are, as COVID fatigue sets in, they might be in need of some self-care pointers.

Here are some ways to prioritise self-care:

  1. Maintain your support network. Make time to connect regularly with family and friends and do things together that you all enjoy.
  2. Exercise regularly. Whatever works best for you, be it working out at a gym, yoga at home, going for a brisk walk around the estate, cycling longer distances – all forms of movement help to reduce stress and improve your health.
  3. Eat healthy. Keeping to a balanced diet with nutritious food keeps us energised and helps with managing stress.
  4. Ask for help when you need it. Asking for and accepting help when we need it is not a sign of weakness. It is about taking control of our own lives and drawing on available resources to be better equipped to get through challenging phases.
  5. Get good quality sleep. Some ways to ensure quality sleep includes switching off electronic devices before bedtime so that you can wind down and setting up your bedroom so that it’s conducive to rejuvenating sleep.

For more self-care pointers, check out the resources on the Singapore Health Promotion Board’s website.

Help yourself before helping others

At the end of the day, however, none of this would be useful if you are not in the right state of mind to be giving advice in the first place.

While it has been some time since most of us have been on a plane, we can probably recall the safety briefings by the flight attendants, in particular, “In the event of an emergency, please put on your oxygen mask before assisting others.”

It sounds like common sense but unfortunately, we often need to be reminded to take care of ourselves first to be in a better position to help others.

Getting yourself in the right frame of mind is also crucial to setting your personal targets for the year and coming up with a suitable gameplan for achieving those targets – whether it involves expanding your network, improving your follow up with potential clients, presenting yourself better, leveraging social media or a combination of all those.