To those of you who are still in business: Congratulations!

You don't need to be told this, but you just survived what may have been the worst year ever for investing. Unfortunately, it is a year that never should have happened. But greed and a lack of regulatory oversight created this historic challenge for you. And if the emails I've received from financial advisors are any guide, many have learned some harsh lessons along the way.

"I am still hanging on by a thread," wrote one advisor in October. Much of his business was in stock trading and many of his clients lost chunks of their portfolios, along with their confidence in him. "I now have to rebuild my practice," he wrote. "Where do I start?"

There is no secret to building a successful practice. I had the formula drummed into my head more than 40 years ago, and it still works today. What surprises me is how few advisors follow it, even though those who do, seem to grow their practices regardless of market conditions.

Build strong client relationships based on mutual trust. The first step is to always be honest. I recommend that advisors learn to treat each client as a close friend or relative, because it takes that level of reliance to build necessary trust.

The second step is to develop a basically conservative portfolio, diversifying as much as possible. That doesn't mean a younger investor can't put more into riskier, small-cap stocks. But even that client should have some portion of the portfolio in fixed income that will generate consistent payments. And as the client ages and objectives change, the balance can be easily shifted to ever more conservative investments. After 2008, I don't think it will be too difficult to sell this concept to clients.

Because diversification is an important element of this step, using mutual funds and asset managers is always preferable to selecting individual stocks. As one advisor once told me: "I can always fire a fund or asset manager on behalf of my clients for poor performance and still be a valuable advisor to my clients. But if I'm selecting individual stocks and fail, I'll be the one that's fired."

Third, you need clients to see you as indispensable. The more they depend on you, the less likely they will leave you when a down market hits. Over the years, I have heard about many ways for advisors to make themselves essential to their clients. But, the common denominator is that they all offer some level of financial planning.

In order to create and maintain a financial plan for a client, an advisor must know everything possible about that customer. That information includes birthdays for family members (in order to anticipate needs for college costs and retirement) to assets maintained with other brokers, banks and insurance companies (so you can ensure true diversification in the portfolio).

Step four is to maintain regular communication, including at least one personal meeting a year and periodic phone contacts. You would be in regular contact with friends and relatives. Clients should be in that same group.

Finally, the practice should be linked to a creditable firm. "I never realized the power of guilt-by-association until my firm needed a government infusion," said an advisor. "A number of clients told me they were no longer comfortable dealing with my company."

Last year was one we would all rather forget. Yet the lessons learned could direct both advisors and clients on new roads to successful investing this year.

Larry Silver,former director of marketing at Raymond James Financial, writes about investment firm practices from Oldsmar, Fla. He can be reached at lsilvermarketing@yahoo.com.