The key to winning new clients and retaining existing ones lies in your ability to understand the unique needs of every client and tailoring the planning process to suit their abilities and requirements. As a retirement or financial advisor, you need to make sure you’re providing the best portfolio of advice and solutions to all your clients.

Here are eight ways to improve the effectiveness of your retirement planning practice:

1. Define Sources Of Income – You need to know where clients expect to get money after they retire, and help them understand the options. Retirement income can come from a variety of financial sources, including self directed IRAs, 401(k) plans and other retirement accounts, Social Security, pensions, investments, annuities, assets, etc. Your client could even choose to set up a business or work after retirement for extra income.

2. Follow A Defined Process – Based on factors such as retirement goals, income sources, projected expenses and potential risk, define a retirement planning process to follow with each client. Collect as much information as possible, to have a clear picture of their hopes, expectations and abilities. And, rather than focusing on numbers alone while creating a strategy for your clients, understand what’s really important to them!

3. Review The Plan Regularly – It isn’t enough to just create a retirement strategy for each client and call it a day. You need to stay in touch with clients and review their financial plan on a regular basis. This helps you ensure they stay on track, and provide assistance with any obstacles they face along the way. If there are any changes in their goals or income, you can help them tweak the plan accordingly.

4. Focus On Paying Down Debt – Reducing debt is one of the most effective ways to help your clients achieve financial independence. Prioritize this aspect of retirement planning while creating a strategy, and encourage each client to start reducing their dependence on credit cards and other lines of credit. Consolidating debt with low-interest loans instead of paying heavy interest on revolving credit will also help their money grow.

5. Fully Leverage 401(k) Plans – If your client’s employer offers a 401(k), 403(b) or other defined-contribution plan, encourage them to use these to their advantage. The matching contributions in employer-sponsored plans are essentially free money, so your clients should put in as much as possible to be matched by the company. With the employer putting in money as well, plan contributions are doubled right away.

6. Be Clear About The Options – Make sure your clients understand the options available to them, especially if they aren’t convinced about the need for tax-deferred investment strategies. There are three other paths they can take. First, putting away more money for retirement during their working years. Second, putting off retirement and continuing to work for a few extra years, and third, lowering their expected retirement income.

7. Account For Social Security – For a majority of American retirees, Social Security benefits play a major role in their retirement planning, even though these are no longer enough to sustain their needs after retirement. Make sure your clients are fully aware of social security rules and the maximum payment they can expect, as well as the advantages of waiting to claim their benefits instead of taking distributions early in their retirement.

8. Encourage Balanced Investments – Each of your clients will have their own investing style, depending on how comfortable they are with risk. Some will throw caution to the wind in hopes of high returns, while others may be the complete opposite. Creating a diversified portfolio is key, since high-risk investments can provide larger returns and low-risk ones can help protect your client’s money against potential market fluctuations.

First « 1 2 » Next