Financial advisers from the five states that haven't fully recovered from the 2008 recession have become experts at helping clients make lifestyle choices to save money, and they've had to talk some into staying at their jobs longer than expected.
Five states — Arizona, Connecticut, Mississippi, Nevada and Wyoming —
have not reached the level of gross domestic product attained before the financial crisis, even though the rest of the country hit that economic marker more than five years ago. These states also lag other parts of the country in personal income growth.
For planners in some of these states, helping clients plan for their financial futures can lead to a recommendation to relocate.
"Connecticut has become a very difficult place to retire in because of the cost," said Larry Kushner, president of
Cornerstone Wealth Management in Hartford. "When I'm doing retirement plans for clients, I'm looking at them retiring out of the state into more friendly tax environments like North Carolina, Florida or even New Hampshire."
Even for the millennials he works with, he counsels them to consider all their options when it comes to states in which to work and live.
Connecticut is facing a budget shortfall that's leading to various tax proposals that could lead to an increase in sales taxes, a surcharge on restaurant bills, and increases in healthcare costs, which is particularly a concern to the small businesses that Mr. Kushner counsels.
"There's a lot of uncertainty in the mood and attitude of the people I'm working with," he said.
(More:
Second-half outlook not as bad as you might think)
In Mississippi, the costs are low, but so too are the salaries and that limits how much clients can expect to put away for retirement.
Julius Ridgway, a partner at the
advisory firm of
Medley & Brown in Jackson, Miss., said he suspects the financial goals of most of his clients are more modest than in regions of the country that have experienced prosperity and may be worried about estate planning and passing on wealth to the next generation.
"Very few of our clients think of themselves as wealthy," he said. "They are just trying to make it through retirement without running out of money."
His average client has about $1.2 million invested with his firm.
He said Mississippi is in last or nearly last among the states by most economic metrics all the time. But that makes for some planning opportunities, he said.
First, the cost of living is at or near the bottom of the nation so clients can retire with much less in accumulated resources than in other parts of the country.
Second, Mississippi's housing market never took a giant hit.
Since housing values never went up the way they did in other parts of the country before the recession, its citizens only had to adjust from a very low level of price appreciation to zero price growth, he said.
"Statewide we have severe poverty in many counties in the state and we don't have the type of industry that provides employment in a good or a bad economy that would rectify the problems in our poor counties," he said. "Suffering is still evident in many parts of our state."
(More:
Advisers give more service without getting more fees: Schwab survey)
In Jackson Hole, Wyo.. Raymond James financial adviser
Judith Singleton had two clients who lost their homes during the recession and today are living differently than they expected.
Both negotiated short sales and now live in less expensive homes, Ms. Singleton said. They're also still working, a status that's she's had to tell some of her clients is their new financial reality.
"Sometimes life isn't what we pick and choose," Ms. Singleton said she reminds clients.
Her firm has needed to spend a lot of time holding hands and talking with people.
"Clients in their late 50s and early 60s are all having to work a little longer, that's the residual they're having to live with," she said.
