Investment consultants manage clients after federal debt downgrade

Minnesota financial consultants fielded calls and emails from worried investors after Monday's market drop.

The drop is partly reaction to Friday's news that Standard & Poor's rating service downgraded the U.S. debt.

The offices at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Rochester have been helping clients understand how the rating downgrade could affect their own portfolios, said David Olson, branch manager.

"While the volatility is unprecedented, we're not seeing an unprecedented number of people walk in or anything like that," Olson said. "We've had some phone calls. Obviously people have questions.

Getting clients to understand their own portfolios is key to helping them overcome their lack of confidence in the economy, Olson said.

"There's so many things that we can't control, but we can control individual reaction, individual positions in their own portfolios," Olson said. "Making sure that their portfolios and their own economic conditions surrounding their accounts are consistent with what they're trying to accomplish personally rather than trying to figure out what the government is going to do."