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Are we feeling a bit stressed about the markets these days? I know how hard it is. Not only am I talking to my clients about how they are feeling about the day to day volatility, I'm feeling it myself with my own investments.

While I am far more comfortable with the sometimes manic market swings, due to my longer time horizon until retirement, I still need to remind myself of the same things that I am telling my clients - you own good quality investments and we need to hang on through this rough patch. We most certainly don't want to be buying high and selling low! One of the big questions that remains, however, is how long is this rough patch going to be. I keep saying that I am going to put a big crystal ball on display on my desk - to make the point I cannot tell the future.

My belief that things will improve is based on past performance of efficient (or non-efficient) economies over the past 50 to100 years. According to the 2007 Andex chart, $100 invested in the TSX Composite Return Index in 1950 was worth $37,800 by 2007, an average annual return of 10.9%. Did we have bad times in there? Most certainly - how about the market downturns in 1957, 1970, 1974, 1982, 1987 and 1990? And of course, the last 10 years with down markets in 1998, 2002 and this past year have had us all experiencing the painful side of investing. I do believe there is hope that we will come out of this - perhaps not totally unscathed, maybe a few bruises - but ultimately making money again.

This all being said, have to ask you, is your advisor in contact with you during this tumultuous time? In my opinion, these are the times that an advisor really earns their income, whichever way they happen to make it - commissions, salary etc. Anyone can give advice in the market upturns, the good times, when everybody can make money easily. It is the downturns that are the toughest and are the time when clients really need reassurance.

Maybe your portfolio needs some tweaking to minimize the downside risk, maybe nothing at all should be changed, but your advisor should be on the phone to you or in touch in some way to find a good time to meet to review your investments. If they are not in contact, perhaps it is time to find a new advisor. Yes, really. The idea of finding a new advisor is daunting, especially if you have been with your current one for some time, but when it comes to your hard-earned money, you deserve someone who is going to take care of you and your investments in good times and in bad. The advisor that contacts you more in the bad times than in the good ones is worth their weight in gold; I know that sounds clichéd but it is true. You need to hang on to that advisor and refer all your friends and family to them so they can have the same level of care that you are experiencing.

In the fifteen years I have been in the financial industry - on the full service brokerage side, on the wealth management side of two of Canada's largest banks and with an independent, I can honestly tell you that there are those advisors who really don't care about anyone except how much money they can make from a client Then there are those advisors who truly care and are not in it just for the money. They genuinely want to help their clients. You want one of the good ones. Go and find a good one if you're not happy - and most especially if no one is talking to you!