It’s that time of the year again: when most advisors try to round up their clients for annual meetings to revisit their financial plans and make sure that they are still on track. This year’s rocky market makes reviews that much more important; it may be necessary to make some adjustments to clients’ plans — and expectations.

Here are some tips to make the process go smoothly:

> Make Yearend Meetings A Standing Appointment. Jeanette Brox, a certified financial planner with Investors Group Inc. in Toronto, says the schedule of her annual client meetings repeats, to the day, each year unless a client specifies otherwise. The “Groundhog Day” strategy works, she says: “I kind of get them into a habit.”

> Make Optimal Use Of Time. Betty-Anne Howard, a CFP and chartered life underwriter with Independent Planning Group Inc. in Kingston, Ont., tries to spread her annual meetings throughout the year. A business coach once pointed out that Howard was spending too much time with high-maintenance clients and not enough time with more valuable ones. Howard recently started segmenting her client roster of 300, which has made it easier to determine how much time each client requires. So far, she has placed 20 client families in her top tier, and has hired a part-time assistant to create a second-tier list.

> Take The Dentist’s Approach. Brox, who prefers to meet with clients up to four times a year, does her best to ensure that she schedules next year’s appointment at the end of each meeting. “Clients, particularly the older ones, appreciate that,” she says. She has her assistant make reminder calls to clients, one week before and one day before each appointment.

> Motivate Clients. Howard sets concrete financial growth goals with each client every year and revisits the figure annually. “People love updating their net worth,” she says. “They want to come and see whether they’ve reached their goals.”

Howard compares these meetings to annual physicals, adding that if the gauge is going in the wrong direction, clients are eager to work to get back into “financial health.”

> Be Prepared To Make House Calls. Brox tries to make meetings convenient for busy clients, making house calls in about half of her cases. Her assistant schedules the visits in groups according to region. House calls offer a bonus, Brox says: clients are less likely to cancel. IE