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Published on April 22, 2008

Bordin Unakul is executive vice president of Bangkok Bank

When the markets are volatile, it is very natural for people to be concerned about their portfolios, and worried about underperformance they may be tempted to start tinkering with them.

Rather than let emotions take over, the current period of volatility is an opportunity to refocus on the core principles of successful wealth management: quality financial advice, an investment plan and maintaining financial discipline.

For Thai investors, getting access to quality financial advice is more important than it has ever been, with direct and indirect market participation by retail investors at an all time high and the number of affluent and high-net-worth individuals increasing rapidly.

If you have not already done so, you could consider appointing a professional wealth manager. My advice is to look for a manager with a strategic mindset.

What do I mean by this? Traditional wealth management is tactical in that various types of specialists sell a narrowly defined suite of products, such as mutual funds or insurance.

Strategic wealth management, by contrast, takes a broader and more comprehensive client-centric approach.

It pulls together the full range of products and services essential to creating and sustaining wealth and links these together under an investment plan that sets goals that are matched to the stages of your life cycle.

Over the course of your lifetime, your financial situation will change, as will your goals.

With your plan in place, it is important to maintain discipline, in order to maximise your wealth.

In investment, people tend to have better discipline during the initial implementation phase of their plans but difficulty staying on course over the long term, which can result in lower investment returns.

Discipline is also important for rigorously reviewing your investment plan against its intended goals.

With that in mind, rather than allowing fear of the current market volatility lead you into investment decisions you may come to regret, now would be a good time to review your investment plan with your wealth manager and take steps to rebalance it if necessary.

If you do not have a wealth manager, the current invest-ment climate may be a good opportunity to consider appointing one.

At the very least, you should be able to sleep better at night.