Last month, we began a series of articles based on various trends that we see reshaping financial services. The first one was how a populist backlash is rising against the wealthy, spurred on by the failures on Wall Street. This month we focus on a second consequence of the financial collapse: The trust that you enjoyed from clients is broken, and consequently, the value you provide is compromised.

Make no mistake: Many clients' trust in their advisors has been shaken. In our discussions with advisors and firms earlier this year, we heard a litany of the following symptoms of that breakdown: Clients thought their advisors should have seen the big fall coming; clients thought their advisors didn't have the right answers at the right time; advisors failed to be responsive either in word or deed; and some clients were just mad about their losses and needed someone at which to lash out.

Many of the advisors I spoke to remarked that those clients emerged from 2008 fundamentally changed from the investors they were a year before. Hardened by experience, they had lost their unquestioned faith—in themselves and in their advisors. And then the Madoff and Stanford scandals occurred at precisely the wrong time—and further hurt confidence and hopefulness even more than the market's freefall.

And in the absence of faith and optimism, well, investors just weren't acting on anything.

Although fault lines were exposed in advisor-client relationships, some advisors feel they are making their way back. And to be sure, they can point to overcoming the bleak predictions by industry researchers who said that most clients are planning to fire their brokers. There is little evidence to support that in fact happened, although some firms have had client attrition consistent with broker defections. As with most endeavours, trends in investing take time to reveal themselves, but we don't see wholesale asset losses so far.

Cost is another matter. It's almost universal to find that when clients are not satisfied with the service being provided—in this or any other field—they question whether they are paying too much for it. Cost is an issue in the absence of value goes the old mantra. Indeed, worries about fees and all-in costs continue to concern clients and, consequently, their advisors and firms.

This is the time to re-establish the value you offer. There is a New Orleans term called lagniappe, which means giving something for nothing. You need to adopt it. How can you put the service back into full service?

Perhaps there is something you can offer your clients that they don't have to pay more for: a beneficiary review or a refreshed financial plan. This may be the time to broaden your relationship with your best clients, because investment-only relationships will always be subject to market activity beyond your control.

It may be a good time to sharpen the meaning and restate what you and your team stand for in your full-service relationships. More than ever, advisors have to prove to prospects, clients and others how they improve customers' lives by what they know and what they do.

Clients look to you to solve problems, share insights and show a methodology that they can understand and believe in. Clients on the road to regaining trust should be reminded of the concrete ways you affect them and other clients across the spectrum of financial issues they encounter.

If it has been a while since you've had more than a transactional conversation with a client, you may find him or her to be receptive to hearing what you would share with a prospect or a stranger about how you approach client relations.

This is a time to be visible and vigilant—and to be sure clients hear from you with profound and helpful advice.

GERRI LEDER is an industry marketing consultant and can be reached at leder@ledermark.com.