In the minds of many financial advisors and investors, the 2008-2009 financial crisis was not that long ago and that memory is shaping their feelings about risk today, according to Heather Kelly, senior vice president of advisory and strategic accounts at Allianz Life.
“Attitudes toward risk are evolving, and advisors are increasingly adopting risk management solutions into their planning process,” Kelly said in a recent interview. “The evolution has been speeded up by Covid-19, but people also remember the effects of the financial crisis.
“People are looking at retirement without a pension and with fixed income sources that only provide a minimum amount of income," she added. "It makes people view retirement differently.”
People in early retirement are more active and want to spend money differently from when they were working, but their perspectives are shifting, Kelly said. “The income to pay for that activity is finite and can be depleted. It is making people look at products such as annuities and buffered outcome ETFs, which provide some protection against downturns.”
In keeping with those evolving needs, Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America announced the creation of Allianz Advisory Solutions, an expanded suite of products and services built specifically for registered investment advisors to help enhance their risk management capabilities. These risk management strategies were built to help advisors more efficiently plan for longevity, address portfolio volatility and improve quantifiable financial outcomes for clients, Allianz said in a statement. These products include annuities, life insurance and AllianzIM Buffered Outcome ETFs.
The new platform also provides support and technology designed to help advisors address the uncertainties and risks associated with an increasingly challenging market environment, Allianz said. Services include model annuities, tax planning that takes into account new tax rules and legislation, Social Security and estate planning.
“We built Allianz Advisory Solutions to help advisors address some of the most important practice management challenges they are facing today, including the mitigation of risk associated with retirement planning,” said Kelly, adding that this new platform helps advisors demonstrate the value of risk management to their clients and enhance the value they deliver to clients.
“Advisors have to look at a client’s retirement holistically," Kelly said. She noted that sometimes there must be tradeoffs to assure income over the long term.
“More than half of pre-retirees are afraid of not having enough money for retirement," Kelly said. "Advisors are well versed at addressing the issue, which is part of the value an advisor brings to the situation.”