WHILE many businesses are suffering and people are living on a shoe-string budget, those who have done their financial planning at least two years ago are thriving during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Many investors are taking the opportunity to invest during the downturn, as they have put aside enough money for emergencies.
The Financial Association of Malaysia (FPAM) CEO Linnet Lee pointed out that during the early days of the movement control order (MCO), the share market was still going up, and smart investors were taking opportunity of it.
“Investors were picking quality shares at a bargain or to dollar-cost down their previous investments, which they bought for long term investment.
“This is heartening, as all the financial literacy interventions by both the government and public sectors have shown results,” she told FocusM.
“In the meantime, financial planners (FPs) will continue to review their clients’ goals and recommend any necessary adjustments to ensure that their life goals are on track.”
FA Advisory general manager Bryan Zeng concurred, adding that COVID-19 has been a challenge, however, their business has not been gravely affected all.
“It has been a year of reset for many businesses. But our business has shown profit, although we had to change our methods and approach.
“For a while we could not conduct meetings the same way, which took some getting used to. While online meetings are good for short and brief updates, it is not the same for long and deep conversations.
“A lot of information is lost without face to face meetings, such as non-verbal communication, body language, tonality and facial expression.
“Initial client meetings where we discuss goals and aspirations is best done face-to-face, of course.”
Zeng too believes that though there have been many restrictions, there is a change in client investment behaviour recently.
“Clients are investing more aggressively in the market due to low interest rate and a bullish stock market.
“We are now preparing ourselves for the eventual broader reopening of business and pick up in business activities that we expect to happen in 2021,” he said. – Dec 11, 2020
