As you can imagine, some of our content has changed given the status of our world lately. In light of this, I thought I would share some of my personal experiences during the pandemic.
Late last week, my roommate developed a cough.
In a normal world, both of us wouldn’t have thought much of it and wouldn’t have considered staying home from work. Additionally, my roommate does not have COVID-19 symptoms and hasn’t traveled internationally in over two years. However, given the current pandemic and out of respect to our co-workers’ and client’s welfare, we decided it was best we both self-quarantine until things got better. So, we’ve been working from home since Thursday, March 12th.
Working from home has unique challenges – the snack pantry can be pretty distracting at times – but thankfully in the wealth management industy, it can be done exceptionally well and basically without interruption. One thing I’ve learned since undergoing self-quarantine is that if we had to close our physical office and have all employees work from home, we would do it without question (safety comes first), and we would do it well. In the last week or so of working from home, I’ve been able to rebalance accounts, speak with clients, stay up-to-date with the office and many other duties all while working from the comfort of my home. I’m pretty proud of our firm’s efforts to be prepared for moments like these.
We know the security and accessibility of your accounts is important to you – it’s extrememly important to us too. So, here’s what I can tell you about Iowa Wealth’s security and preparation for national emergencies (without giving away too much information):
- Jon and I have full and complete access to our clients’ portfolios from home and can service accounts no differently than if we were at our physical office. If a client needs money from their account or wants to add money, we can do that securly.
- Our office phones can be transferred to Jon’s cell or mine if our physical office needed to close.
- All of our employees have laptops equipped to do their jobs from home. These laptops have encryption protection and we run security scans on these devices on the same schedule as our computers at our physical office.
- Most forms that we sign normally with paper and pen can be done electronically.
We can’t predict what will happen next with the COVID-19 pandemic, however we can be prepared. As a reminder, Jon and I are available anytime of the day or week to talk to you about your portfolios, your business, your families, etc. You can also expect to hear from us more in the coming weeks.
Above all, we hope you and your family are staying healthy and we are thinking of each of you during these uncertain times.
