A financial advisor can show his or her value by helping with retirement planning, the members of a panel convened by IRI say. Sixty-two percent of boomers prefer to meet with a financial professional in person. An equal amount says they are unlikely to use an automated, online solution.
The lesson that younger employees should take away from the IRI research is that more than half say they wish they had started saving sooner and saved more. However the number of Americans with retirement accounts and the number actively contributing is shrinking, says Rodney Branch, senior vice president of product and marketing at Prudential Annuities.
“Education is one of the areas where an advisor can really shine, especially in bumpy financial times,” says Bill Burrow, director of sales, Jackson National Life Distributors. The characteristics people value most in an advisor are humanistic ones, honesty and understanding, he says.