Cross border specialist highlights the emotions in this moment, even as he stays focused on rational responses
On the cold light of a Monday morning after US-Canadian trade negotiations broke down, most of Shiraz Ahmed’s clients are still processing what it all means for them. Ahmed is the Founder & CEO of Sartorial Wealth, a cross-border specialist practice based in the Greater Toronto Area. He says that most of his clients are still grappling with the uncertainties that the wider Canadian and US publics face. They’re asking whether this breakdown is a negotiating tactic, how long these new tariffs will last, and how big those impacts will be. At the moment, Ahmed cannot give them a concrete answer.
Despite these uncertainties, Ahmed is working to communicate proactively, address concerns, and highlight reasons not to despair. He notes the work he has already done to prepare clients financially and emotionally for shifts in the trading relationship between Canada and the United States. He emphasized, too, the risk for advisors if they don’t engage with clients about what could amount to pretty bad news.
“I think right now, advisors that are not addressing the purple elephant that this trade deal would be making a mistake,” Ahmed says. “I think people need to be having proactive conversations with their clients about this. Not that we have any ability to impact the outcome of them. But don’t stick your head in the sand. That sort of behaviour when there’s a lot of uncertainty to think, ‘I don’t have anything positive to say, so I’m not going to say anything at all,’ isn’t helpful. They’re going to consume the information. It’s just, are they going to get it from you or another source? Advisors, to the degree that we can, we want to be ideally front and center when a lot of these concerns and narratives are happening.”
Who Ahmed is reaching first, and what he’s saying
Ahmed notes that the first clients on his call sheet are the higher net worth clients with cross-border business interests. He acknowledges, though, that no cohort of Canadian clients is going to be untouched by this issue. He says he’s been working to prepare all his clients, addressing concerns they’ve raised since President Trump began his rhetoric around Canadian sovereignty in the first days of his administration. Throughout this period of uncertainty, Ahmed’s approach has been to focus on the pragmatic realities of his clients’ lives, rather than the macroeconomic picture. A wide divergence between market and economic performance has reinforced that approach, with strong equity returns a useful means of highlighting the fact that despite trade and economic uncertainty, his clients are on relatively strong financial ground.
Despite apocalyptic sounding headlines and rhetorical brinksmanship from US and Canadian political leaders, Ahmed also emphasizes that this latest round of tariffs should not be viewed in the same light as past economic crises like the 2008 crash. In that case, the foundations of the global financial system were rocked to their core. In this case, trade may be disrupted for a time, but the Trump Administration has little more than two years left in its tenure, and even if no deal arrives before then, Ahmed believes there should be a deal with whoever succeeds him.
There is also still the view that a deal can be reached, and that the current US position is a negotiating tactic. That the crossing of certain red lines alleged in coverage of the deal, such as the French language of Canada’s ability to make trade deals with other countries, should be eventually walked back. In the meantime, however, Ahmed says advisors can both offer reassurance to clients while acknowledging the emotional hardship that this uncertainty brings.
Managing client emotions as negotiations drag on
Whatever sources of reassurance there may be, Ahmed believes that it’s wise for advisors to acknowledge the fact that things aren’t going the way most people would have wanted. Acknowledging those emotions doesn’t mean abandoning allocations to US assets in a fit of patriotic rage, nor does it mean abandoning Canadian exposures or real estate holdings with a view that the economy will collapse. Laying out the situation clearly and focusing on what can be controlled can help prevent strong emotions from becoming meaningful portfolio risks.
“Everybody’s got their own method of coping and dealing with stressors in their lives. But I’d say you know, as advisors we can only do so much. We have to show them the door. They have to walk through it as clients ultimately,” Ahmed says. “We have to show them that this is what the future could look like. That there are a lot of uncertainties, but that we’re here with them holding their hand through the process. I think people just want to know that you’re present, that you’re willing to listen, that you’re there to hear them.”
