As the financial needs of baby boomers begin to shift from accumulating assets for retirement to post-retirement income planning, advisors surveyed for Investment Executive’s 2010 Dealers’ Report Card are looking to their firms to provide support materials and resources that will allow their clients to make a smooth transition into this next phase of their lives.
IE asked advisors about their firms’ support in the two-step process of asset accumulation and retirement-income planning for the first time this year. The responses given for the “support for helping clients accumulate assets for retirement” and “support for helping clients plan for post-retirement income” categories reveal how advisors feel about their firms’ readiness for dealing with the impending retirement of the large baby-boomer demographic.
The first challenge in retirement planning often lies in simply getting clients to talk about it. Advisors with Winnipeg-based Investors Group Inc. see their firm rising to the occasion in this area. “We have newsletters, quarterly emails and commentary from head office for us and for clients,” says an advisor in Ontario. “We’re very proactive.”
In fact, Investors Group has a retirement planning tool on its consumer website — the retirement readiness quiz — that aims to get clients thinking even before they visit their advisors, says Kevin Regan, the firm’s executive vice president of financial services.
“We’re actually reaching out to the clients themselves and saying, ‘Well, think about this: what about these aspects of retirement?'” says Regan, adding that the firm “facilitates that discussion and, in turn, it gets clients thinking about it and encourages dialogue with their [advisors].”
Once clients are talking and thinking about their retirement, advisors look for the tools and support systems to help their clients accumulate assets for retirement. Advisors with Mississauga, Ont.-based PFSL Investments Canada Ltd. are very pleased with the financial needs ana-lysis tool their firm provides. Says an advisor in British Columbia: “The FNA is a phenomenal tool. It makes it so easy for us.”
“[Advisors] are looking to find out what are the requirements clients need to continue their lifestyle in retirement, and they do that through the FNA,” says Jeff Dumanski, PFSL’s president and chief marketing officer. “We have a host of materials that advisors can use.”
A more exhaustive selection of resources is exactly what advisors with Toronto-based Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Ltd. are looking for from their firm. “The company is still too mutual fund-based,” says an advisor in Alberta. “And that’s just one element of retirement accumulation.”
Steve Donald, Assante’s presi-dent and CEO, says the firm offers support beyond products, through affiliated wealth-planning and insurance companies: “We have teams of lawyers and accountants in the field who are available. We have a team of insurance specialists that help our advisors in anything; but, typically, [advisors] will rely on them for more complex [issues], such as risk management, estate succession and business succession.”
@page_break@Although insurance support is available to all Assante advisors and clients, other aspects of wealth-management support are accessible only to clients with more than $500,000 in investible assets. Donald says Assante is looking to change this because of the growing number of people approaching retirement age: “We see that as the future. We see the increase in complexity, and our advisors’ ability to deal with that complexity, as how we are going to continue to differentiate ourselves.”
As the intricacies of retirement planning begin to shift from saving money to creating an income that lasts, advisors are most satisfied at firms that are already putting resources into this area.
“We try to make sure [advi-sors] have ready access to education,” says Regan. “We have Link & Learns — conference calls that facilitate one-hour, focus groups with our financial planning experts. The topic of retirement planning, in all its various nuances, has become a real focus in the past 18 months.”
By providing access to specialists and educational opportunities, Investors Group enables its advi-sors to offer clients choices for their post-retirement income strategies. Says an advisor in Alberta: “There’s certainly a variety of approaches. The firm seems to approach the issue from a number of different directions, and clients respond well to having those options.”
Meanwhile, many advisors with Burlington, Ont.-based Manulife Securities point to one area in their firm’s support for retirement income they would like to see improved. Says an advisor in Saskatchewan: “They need to provide some technology and some software support.”
Manulife provides a tool to help with retirement-income planning, says president and CEO Rick Annaert, who admits it is not without flaws: “We’ll probably have to make it better in 2010 and 2011.”
The product-allocation tool allows advisors to choose a “sustainable mix” of products to ensure clients do not outlive their income, says Annaert, adding Manulife will promote the tool to advisors more actively in the next two years.
IE