At a conference I attended last week, Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBay, said that to get past the sense of paralysis among many consumers, business generally and the financial industry in particular needs to provide clear perspective on where we are, how we got here and the likely direction ahead of us.

In some recent conversations with investors, I heard from many struggling to understand the sequence of events underpinning today's difficulties. While the proverb "ignorance is bliss" may be true for a few, for most clients the sense of being uninformed and uncertain about what's going on adds greatly to their unease - that's especially the case when they wake up, as they did on Friday and again this morning, to hear radio reports of dramatic market drops in Asia and Europe with forecasts that North American markets will follow.

Many clients I talk to are looking to their financial advisors for guidance and insight on what's happening today - and sometimes report that conversations with advisors shed little light; in some instances they say they walked away from meetings more confused than they'd been going in.

To assist financial advisors in helping clients understand the background to where we find ourselves and where we are currently, a detailed chronology of the events leading up to today's situation has been developed, titled "The Subprime Crisis Explained"; this has been posted to the Client Commentaries section of the getkeepclients.com website, at the top of the right hand column.

"The Subprime Crisis Explained" was tested with investors to do two things:

1. Describe how we got to where we are today in clear, intelligible language that the average investor can understand

2. Have investors feel reassured and emerge feeling on balance more positive after reading it

This second point is especially critical.

Reassuring clients doesn't mean we should pretend there aren't challenges ahead of us - as providers of objective advice, we never want to be seen as "don't worry be happy" market cheerleaders. Given all the negative sentiment, though, it's essential that advisors help clients avoid being overwhelmed by current pessimism and to look past our immediate woes.

One useful perspective on how governments may work through today's situation appears in the current issue of Fortune Magazine:

Bernanke & Co. have plenty of options left - Oct. 13, 2008*

Whenever we've entered tough markets such as these in the past, some advisors have emerged as winners and some as losers. One quality that will define those who are winners this time will be a commitment to help educate clients about the important events affecting their portfolios.

In light of that, think about whether "The Subprime Crisis Explained" might be a valuable tool in helping clients maintain their peace of mind in this exceedingly turbulent period.