Making your retirement advisory board work

Over the past four weeks, we have outlined the steps for building a retirement advisory board. Now comes the hard part — making it happen.

The challenge is being able to commit to a timeline that works for you. Let’s look at how two advisers set up workable and productive retirement advisory boards. Each used the same four-step process outlined below, but executed it in a different way. Tom had his board up and running in four weeks; Sue created a more detailed plan and did it in two months. Each timeline reflected their unique approach to their business. Let’s see how they did it.
Step 1: Identify the right blend of board members. Look at your current clients and identify the top eight or ten you would like on your board. Focus on clients close to or in retirement who are likely to have common interests.
In Tom’s case, he set the date for his first board meeting and then called his top eight candidates. All but one accepted. He then sent out the meeting’s details, using our sample invitation.
Sue mailed formal letters, followed up with calls and built her board. This took about a month.
As you can see, both styles worked.
Step 2: Develop an annual calendar of quarterly board meetings. No need to reinvent the wheel – just use our calendar, which represents the best practices of many advisers.
Both Tom and Sue used our calendar and our suggestions for meeting topics. They simply tailored these to their practices and printed it on their letterheads. They each produced a professional-looking product. Calendar topics and dates were planned for the upcoming year and each board got off to a very solid start. The planning and arranging took about two hours.
Step 3: Set the first meeting topic with a guest speaker. Make sure your quarterly advisory board meetings are memorable, enjoyable and have take-away value for board members — who are your most important clients. It is important to focus on topics of interest to them, such as how to enjoy the first year of retirement, preserving and transferring wealth or heart-healthy cooking. Don’t forget that meetings also should provide members with an opportunity to accomplish what they’re there for: sharing ideas that will help your business.
For their meetings, both Tom and Sue chose “meeting today’s new retirement income needs” as a topic, which is timely due to the turbulent markets and lower values. But since having fun is also part of retirement, both decided to incorporate that element into their meetings, albeit in different ways.
For many years, one of Sue’s board members had planned to move from Chicago to a private golf community in South Carolina. But since his retirement assets had shrunk by 25%, Sue addressed how it may still make sense to move South by moving to a community near great public golf courses rather than joining a private golf community. She invited a golf pro from a course in Florida to share a few strategies with her board via conference call and they loved it.
Tom took a different approach. He invited a friend who is a CPA and another who manages a local golf course to speak at his meeting. The accountant discussed ways to save on taxes and trim expenses, while the golf course manager suggested the possibility of working part-time as a starter at the golf club. He noted that many of those who retire without a plan quickly get bored, and that working as a golf starter can be fun.
Both advisers’ approaches were effective, just different.
Step 4: Execute a follow-up communications plan. There was very little difference between our advisers here. They both used our plan, which involves having your calendar completed early, e-mailing a follow-up right after the meeting and keeping your board involved.
Tom used our calendar plan and tailored the topics to his goals. By calling to invite board members and guest speakers, his first meeting took place in just four weeks. Since Sue wanted to position her board a certain way, she mailed the invitations. For that reason, her board took about two months to get started.
No matter how you do it, however, creating a retirement advisory board can be one of the most important steps you’ll take to becoming more productive and profitable, and building long-term relationships with your clients and strategic partners.
Next week: Because the turbulent markets have left advisers in need of specific strategies to run their practices more efficiently, we’re going to share the best practices of a number of top advisers over the next several weeks.