“We have nine checkpoints in a comprehensive plan,” Berry says. “It doesn’t make sense to go through everything in one meeting, so we break them up into meaningful pieces. In a series of conversations, the advisor and client set priorities. The advisor presents options to the clients, and then the clients chart their course. Then they begin implementation. The team helps walk the client through as an extension to the advisor’s office.”
The Advanced Planning team uses a web portal to help move clients through these steps.
In recent years, Berry says his team has fielded high-level questions surrounding trusts, health care and Social Security planning. The Advanced Planning program formalizes his team as a resource for advisors and representatives.
“We have a lot of offices with one or two people in them,” Halloran says. “They’re spread all over the country. They suggested they wanted to grow, but they were spending so much time meeting clients that they weren’t sure if they should add an advisor or an assistant to grow. By making Mike’s team available, we were able to instantly give scale to some of these smaller practices.”
The program is designed to complement the firm’s “white glove” service offering, which was launched in 2015 to assist advisors in streamlining their practices and adopting relationship-based business models.
Halloran says that Voya is responding to research that shows that end clients who work with an advisor take more steps to plan for their retirement.
“If you look at reps or advisors in particular, the best will do financial planning and build a stronger relationship with clients than others do,” Halloran says. “These advisors uncover assets hidden away. They uncover opportunities in the form of gaps in coverage or needs that aren’t being met.”
Those gaps might be filled by Voya’s products, Halloran notes.
“These plans hold together, are unique to the client, and deliver a better value proposition than a one-and-done plan,” Halloran says.