Recent market woes have made many clients conversations difficult ones. And in light of the uncertain prospects for the immediate period ahead, we can't be confident that those conversations will be significantly easier any time soon.

That's why it's worth incorporating a "good news" topic unrelated to recent market events into your client meetings and phone calls. One obvious candidate is the Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) program that will be launched in the new year.

There are three benefits to raising TFSAs in client conversations.

1. One of the things that clients value in their financial advisor is that they be proactive - clients want to feel confident that their advisor can be counted on to come to them with relevant information, without having to be asked about this. Remember that you may be in a race with your largest clients' accountants to make clients aware of this program and to talk about the benefits that arise from it.

2. Even if the initial amounts that clients can set aside are fairly modest, bear in mind the concern among many affluent clients in helping children in their 20s and early 30s establish good savings habits. The TFSA program is particularly suitable for young adults in the early stages of their careers, who are not making a lot of money today and for whom RRSPs may not currently be the best solution as a result. The other group for whom TFSAs will be of particular interest are people in pension plans, with limited RRSP room.

3. Finally, after client conversations about portfolio performance that can be dispiriting to say the least, it's nice to end on at least one relatively upbeat note - every client likes to save taxes and every client likes to feel that their advisor is out there looking for ways to lessen their tax burden.

Even if you're sent out bulletins on the TFSA program or incorporated it into client newsletters, don't assume clients have read or understood the material they've received. Most clients will require a conversation to understand how this program works.

Your clients are going to be reading and hearing much more about the TFSA program in the next while. Don't think you can introduce this topic in the New Year once it's up and running or wait for clients to ask you about it - you will get much more credit and goodwill if clients see you as bringing this to their attention rather than feeling they've had to ask or hearing about it elsewhere first.