Over the next few weeks, you have a unique opportunity to communicate with your existing and potential clients before and after the Budget.

The widely predicted tax rises mean many of your clients will be feeling nervous about Rachel Reeves’ Budget on 26 November. No doubt some have already spoken with you; others will be (for various reasons) suffering in silence.

And it isn’t just your existing clients who are feeling this way.

Prospective clients (people who have previously enquired about working with you but haven’t yet engaged) will probably be even more anxious because they’ve not, so far at least, had the benefit of working with you.

At times like this, we need to remember three Hs: some of your clients and prospects will want help, others to be heard, and some need a hug of reassurance. In this definitive guide, you’ll learn the five things you can do over the next few weeks to provide your clients and prospects with what they need. At the same time, the additional touchpoints will enhance client advocacy, resulting in more referrals and recommendations.

1. Send a pre-Budget communication

We’ve been given plenty of notice for this year’s Budget. Unfortunately, that means more time for “predictions” on social media and in the press to raise anxiety levels among your clients and prospects, who probably fall into one of three groups:

• People who’ve already contacted you to discuss their concerns
• Those who are resigned to their fate or are so zen they’re not worried
• And finally, those suffering in silence because they don’t want to bother you, haven’t got around to contacting you, or worry their questions are “stupid”.

It’s the last group we need to think carefully about because they aren’t coming to you.

So you must go to them, and that’s why we recommend sending a sensitively worded communication before the Budget.

In it, you’re not making predictions of your own, and you’re certainly not giving advice. Instead, you’re providing reassurance, coaching them to stay calm and avoid knee-jerk reactions.

We recommend sending this email to all clients and prospects as soon as possible; the next few weeks will be full of speculation, so the sooner you can provide the reassurance that you’re there for them, the better. Advisers/planners who took this approach last year told us clients appreciated their proactive approach, and it gave some of their clients the confidence to voice concerns they might have otherwise kept to themselves.

How can we help?

If you take Yardstick Membership, our done-for-you blog, guide, and newsletter service, you’ll have already received an email from us explaining how we can help you communicate with your clients before the Budget.

If you’ve already made your selection, that’s great.

If you haven’t, click here to opt-in and place your order. The communication costs £150 plus VAT.

If you don’t take Yardstick Membership, we can still help. Prior to Budget day, we’ll be producing a compliant, professional summary of the expected events. This piece will be reassuring and calming, reminding your clients that you can’t make recommendations until after the announcements, and that you’re there for them no matter what. This costs £195 plus VAT and will be sent to you as a Word document, which means you can spend time distributing the content rather than writing it.

2. Offer pre-Budget drop-in sessions

This option allows you to address your clients’ and prospects’ specific concerns.

It’s simple to organise:

• Pick a day or two for your drop-in sessions
• Email your clients and prospects telling them you’ve “cleared your diary” (that specific language is important, because it sends a message that nothing is more important to you right now than making sure they get the help, hearing or hug that they need)
• Explain the slots are available on a first-come, first-served basis and how they can be booked, usually by emailing you or booking online using a system such as Calendly.

Making this offer will help some clients get over their concerns about contacting you. After all, it’s easier to be asked out on a date than to do the asking.

How can we help?

If you’re an On-Track Yardstick client, we’ll be talking to you at our monthly meetings in October about the pros and cons of this option. Then, if you want to go ahead, we’ll help you make the arrangements.

3. Update your clients on the day of the Budget

November’s Budget could be very painful for many people, including your existing and prospective clients.

They should hear about the changes directly from you on the day of the Budget.

Not the day after.

Not the following week.

But on the day of Rachel Reeves’ speech.

Sending your email summary of the key points on the same day gives people confidence that you’re “on the case” and also:

• Demonstrates your proactivity
• Positions you as the expert who will guide your readers through the Budget maze
• Opens up a communication channel because recipients can reply to your update directly.

And frankly, you’re their financial guide. It looks very strange if you’re not communicating with them about things that’ll directly affect their financial plan now and in the future.

Finally, on this, we’ve heard a few people dismiss the benefit of sending Budget summaries, saying:

• “No one reads them”
• “My inbox is full of Budget updates”
• “There’s no value to sending summaries unless they’re bespoke”.

These opinions are almost always offered without supporting data or evidence.

Let’s deal with them one by one.

“No one reads them”

Our data proves this isn’t true. In 2025, we sent over 300 Budget mailers to nearly 200,000 people, and the average open rate was 57%. Given that the average open rate for business and finance emails is 31.35%, it’s clear people valued the updates.

“My inbox is full of Budget updates”

Of course it is, you’re in financial services! But they aren’t, so their inboxes are bound to look very different to yours.

However, if their inbox is full of Budget updates, you damn well better be sure that one of them is from you, it’s better than the others, and it arrives before they do.

“There’s no value to sending summaries unless they’re bespoke”

The data above disproves this theory.

Speed and simplicity win on the day of the Budget. The later you leave it, though, the more your clients will expect a bespoke update.

How can we help?

Writing a lengthy Budget update on the afternoon of the speech isn’t everyone’s idea of fun. So, we’re here to help.

If you take Yardstick Membership, you will already have received an email from us offering to send a communication to your clients and prospects on the day of the budget.

The communication costs £150 plus VAT. Click here if you haven’t already opted in and would like to do so.

If you don’t take Yardstick Membership, we can still help. On Budget day, we can provide an article summarising the key points. This costs £195 plus VAT, which means you can spend time distributing the content rather than writing it.

Click here to place your order, and we’ll send the article to you in a Word document on the afternoon of the Budget speech. You can then:

• Add it to your website
• Post it on social media
• Turn it into a script for a post-Budget webinar
• Send it in an email to your clients and prospects
• Use it as a script for a short video explaining the main points.

4. Offer post-Budget drop-in sessions

In the space of an hour on 26 November, we’ll go from speculation to certainty – alright, more certainty; as Messrs Kwarteng and Osborne will tell you, Budgets can change!

Some people might be reassured, even relieved.

Others might be even more anxious than in the weeks leading up to the Budget.

So, consider more drop-in sessions. Here’s how it might work:

• Clear your diary for Thursday, 27 November
• Email your clients and prospects now, or a few days before the Budget, explaining that you’ve “cleared your diary” (again, this specific wording is important; it makes them feel like they’re your priority and nothing is more important) and that you’re offering free 30-minute sessions
• To book one of the slots, they should send a message back or use your online calendar.

Then, on Budget day, remind clients, perhaps in the communication we mentioned above, that you have available slots and explain how they can book one.

This approach guarantees clients and prospects get the time with you they crave after the Budget. And if no one books in, you have a free day to catch up on some work.

That sounds like a win-win to us.

How can we help?

If you’re an On-Track Yardstick client, we’ll be talking to you at our monthly meetings in October about the pros and cons of this option. Then, if you want to go ahead, we’ll help you make the arrangements.

5. Run a webinar

Webinars are a fantastic example of one-to-many communications because they’re efficient and cost-effective.

Following the 2024 Budget, we helped several Yardstick clients run webinars, which provided valuable information, reassurance, and confidence to the attendees.

The feedback was great too. Here’s what some of the people who attended webinars run by HarperLees Financial Planning (a Yardstick client) had to say:

• “Many thanks for yesterday’s excellent webinar presentation.”
• “Excellent webinar. Well-structured and addressed all relevant points, so thank you.”
• “It was really helpful to have such a clear and concise summary of key points in the Budget.”
• “The webinar was super interesting! It was a great idea to set it up in the first place, and then it was really clear!”

Last year’s Budget saw webinars break through to the mainstream, becoming a key method of communication. If the advisers/planners who ran them in 2024 repeat the exercise in future years, they’ll soon become known for their post-Budget webinars.

That can only be a good thing for them and their clients.

If you want to join them, use the following list of actions as a project plan.

Before the Budget, you should do the following things:

Write the email invitation and registration page

You’ll use the same words for the email invitation and registration page to explain what you’ll discuss, why people should attend, who it’s relevant for, when the webinar will take place, and how to book.

Build the email invitation and registration page

We recommend using Zoom and their webinar bolt-on, plus a bulk emailing system for this.

Write social posts

By promoting your webinar on social media, you’ll remind connections who received the email invitation to sign up, and show up. Furthermore, some people in your social network who aren’t in your email database might also register.

Send the invitations

You have two choices here.

You could send the invitation before the Budget. If you choose this option, we recommend sending it on Wednesday, 5 November, three weeks before the Budget.

Alternatively, you could send invitations out on the evening of the Budget or the morning after, announcing a “snap” or “flash” webinar.

Prepare your presentation

In our experience, most advisers/planners prefer to run webinars with a presentation. If you’re the same, you’ll need to prepare slides, which could be written from scratch or based on the Yardstick Budget summary mailer.

Practice the presentation

Everyone is different, but the Budget will probably contain significant changes that could be pretty complex, so it’s worth having a couple of run-throughs to ensure you’re as polished as possible.

After the webinar

You still have work to do after you’ve finished presenting, as you should send a follow-up email with a link to the recording and an invitation to a meeting.

This email should be sent to everyone who registered, regardless of whether they attended.

Extra jobs

If you haven’t run webinars before, you should also add the following tasks to your project plan:

• Upgrade your Zoom account with the webinar bolt-on
• Make sure you have a great set-up, including audio and visuals
• Decide who will host and present the webinar (they are two different roles)
• Run a technical rehearsal to ensure you’re fully prepared and know how everything works.

You can find more information about these tasks in our definitive guide to running great webinars. It’s free and available to read and download – we hope it helps!

How can Yardstick help?

If you’re an On-Track client, we’ll talk to you at our next meeting about the pros and cons of running a webinar. Then, if it’s something you want to do, we can write:

• The invite
• The registration page
• Your social media posts
• Follow-up emails after the session.

We can also help by:

• Designing your slides
• Advising you on what you should include in your presentation
• Running technical sessions to make sure nothing goes wrong on the day.

Stand up or slide under?

There are times when many of your clients will look to you for information, confidence, or reassurance.

November’s Budget will be one of those.

We believe you have two choices: step up and give them what they need, or slide under the table, put your fingers in your ears, and wait for the fallout from the Budget to pass.

If you’re one of the advisers and planners who decides to stand up, we hope this guide helps you understand the options available and how we can assist you.