The following article was posted in October 2008, during the severe days of the GFC aftermath. It preceded the public exposure of ‘the Storm debacle’. Continuum Financial Planners Pty Ltd has a consistent history of providing exceptional, proactive service to their ‘active’ clients. The article is occasionally updated to reflect subsequent circumstances. It is retained to reassure our clients that their best interest is uppermost in our business culture.
Ongoing Adviser Servicing valued by Margin Loan borrowers.
The service
Ongoing adviser servicing valued by clients comes in all forms – for Margin Loan borrowers in the aftermath of the GFC, the servicing was intense – and constant. From July (2008), the ContinuumFP team updated calculations on a spreadsheet of our own design. This was under guidance from our primary loan provider: St George Margin Lending (SGML).
This activity persisted until the share markets recovery was clearly under way, in late 2009.
We took that course of action to protect as many as possible of our clients with margin loans, from receiving an unwelcome ‘margin call’. Those calls came with very short notice to settle – sometimes hours, rather than days. The need was precipitated by the extreme volatility in equities and other investment markets.
The process
This process, including the consequential follow-up, took between three and six ‘man-hours’ every day (depending on the number of clients with whom follow-up action is required). ContinuumFP staff members (advisers and their support team) were pleased to be in a position to be of service to these clients during this time of need. We understood that, in a few cases, duress was being experienced. Our goal was to preserve the wealth of our clients, keeping their portfolios in tact if at all possible. We saw it as ‘part of the service’ – but keenly looked forward to the coming time when all would return to relative normality!
Examples of how this work we undertook helped clients, include the following:
- By requesting the client make a $50,000 payment into his margin loan account, a Margin Call in excess of $180,000 was averted;
- By negotiating with the SGML team we have been able to avert a near-$30,000 Call by transferring some previously unpledged equities to the Loan account; and
- A $5,000 ‘averting payment’, forestalled a $19,000 Margin Call.
The responses
In each of these cases, the client would have been forced to sell down managed funds and/or direct shares at the worst timing in the market. Having made these provisions, their portfolios are able to continue intact until the next significant move in the financial markets. An unfortunate side-effect of this process is that we have on occasions had to request additional deposits more than once from these clients. We recognised that our service standard in some areas is being impacted by this additional workload. We appreciated that all of our clients will understand our circumstances and showed us patience. It was encouraging that they accepted that our proactive philosophy attending to clients in dire need of our attention. They saw that when their time of need arises, we would also be there for them.
Then, our ongoing service continues..
In spite of all of this, we remained ready to accept new clients. We encouraged our clients to support our efforts – and they did so. If you have any questions, concerns or comments about this matter, please call or email. We will attend as promptly as possible. The experienced advisers at ContinuumFP have capacity to accept new clients. If you, or anybody you know, would like to explore the opportunity to engage with our service experience, based on our mantra that –
‘we listen, we understand; and we have solutions’
that we deliver in
personalised, professional wealth management advice
To make an appointment with one of our advice team –
- phone our office on 07-34213456, or
- at your convenience, use the linked Book A Meeting facility.]
(This article was originally posted by us in October 2008. We occasionally refresh/ update it, most recently in June 2025.)
