Months of stock market turbulence have meant months of rising anxiety for clients, financial planners say.
As a result, some financial planners who are otherwise strong proponents of a buy-and-hold strategy are starting to make changes to the investment portfolios of some of their clients.
However, financial advisors say they are not necessarily trying to find a way to beat a tough market.
Rather, as they sell off some holdings and buy others, planners say their goal is to save clients from sleepless nights by realigning their portfolios to match their current level of risk tolerance.
And for some clients, tolerance for risk taking has gone down significantly with the downturn in a market that had always seemed to go up.
Even so, planners describe the changes as more tactical than anything else.
“With the market being up the last few years, people have tended to be more risky then they really are,” says Ken Nuttall, director of financial planning BlackDiamond Wealth Management in New York and a certified financial planner. “With the market shapeup, we have seen people become more risk averse.”
Read more: How Financial Planners Keep Anxious Clients on Track During Volatile Times