January Week 3: Identifying your top five retirement services

The challenge: This is week three of a four-week effort to get your business off to a solid start this year by focusing on retirement rollovers. To do that, you must not only have retirement expertise, your clients must perceive you as an expert in the area. In positioning yourself as a retirement expert, you must be specific in telling clients what you do that sets you apart from the competition. At the same time, you must be sure not to promise more than can be delivered. How do you do that?
The solution: Start by identifying your top five retirement services. These may include IRAs, Keogh plans, long term care insurance, retirement income reviews, referrals to estate planning attorneys, annuities and others.
Now ask yourself, do you really deliver these services? Do you have a written program that incorporates these products and services into your client meetings and communications? If you are not delivering these products and services to the degree you would like, what is preventing you from doing so?
Let’s look at how a group we’ll call Cornerstone identified its top five retirement services and developed a longer, comprehensive story about its services. Here’s the Cornerstone branding statement:

• Our team brings more than 120 years’ combined financial services experience to help clients meet their needs for sound financial plans and a secure retirement. Affiliated with one of the largest securities firms in the country, we specialize in working with active and retired military personnel across the country.
  Here’s how Cornerstone incorporated retirement into its expanded story, making it all about their clients:
• To help provide a well-planned and enjoyable retirement, our clients can count on us to provide the following retirement services: Retirement rollover planning, estate planning partners, retirement income reviews and tools, health care plans and options, and lifestyle resources, including information and referrals about relocation, retirement employment and nutrition.

If these are the retirement services you offer — or would like to offer — here’s how to follow through:
1. For retirement rollover planning, segment your 40-50 top clients into three categories: those who are retired and want to maximize income while being concerned about estate planning and health-related expenses; pre-retirees (50–60), who are interested in maximizing accumulations, while being concerned about rollovers and transitioning into retirement; and clients in their prime work years (30–50) who want to coordinate their plans for college saving and retirement.
For all segments, ask about their 401(k) and IRA assets, regardless of whether all are current held with you. Suggest allocation recommendations.
Even if clients don’t move all their retirement assets with you now, you will have identified their overall financial assets and added value. Be sure to provide semi-annual or annual reviews.
To demonstrate your expertise in this area, hold IRA and 401 (k) rollover check-up seminars and invite clients to bring a friend. This is a great opportunity to generate referrals.
2. Tax and estate planning partners. To provide assistance in this area, team with a respected local estate planning attorney, an accountant and a fee-only certified financial planner (if you aren’t one or don’t have one on your team).
Cement the informal team arrangement by asking these experts to take part in individual client annual reviews (with your client’s permission, of course) and by inviting them to speak at your client meetings and seminars. This will reinforce your value while giving your experts the opportunity to follow up with your clients. Also, having estate and tax experts as part of your team helps ensure that your clients are updating important tax and estate documents including wills and trusts.
3. Retirement income reviews and tools. Use retirement income software tools to conduct regular reviews. If you don’t have a planning tool, consider adding retirement income software. Morningstar has introduced a new web-based tool as has a new provider, LifeYield.
4. Health care plans and options. Keeping current with developments in the critical area of health care advice can be time consuming. If you don’t have someone on your staff to do this, consider using resources. One excellent outside resource is Goodcare.com, which offers information about long-term-care plans, retirement health care budgets and Medicare benefits. It’s a full-time resource that can act as your assistant.
5. Lifestyle resources, including information and referrals about relocation, retirement employment and nutrition. Providing information and guidance in these areas can help your clients ease the transition into pre-retirement and retirement. Your help can take the form of a combination of seminars, website content and newsletters.
With nutrition, for example, you could team with a local nutrition specialist and have seminars around healthy eating. Visit startmakingchoices.com for a healthy eating website.
Once you identify your top five retirement services, communicate their value to clients and prospects.

Next week: Promoting your practice with rollover seminars