KEYNOTE ADDRESS: PSYCHOLOGY OF RESILIENCY OF ADVISORS AND CLIENTS

The biggest contributing factor to your success as an advisor is your belief that you can help clients achieve their financial goals by persevering in the face of current market challenges.  Your own well being and accomplishments hinge on an optimistic and resilient belief in yourself and in passing that along to forge deeper, longer-lasting and more meaningful relationships with your clients and colleagues. By linking these beliefs to a grounded, goal-focused investment plan, you can help your clients live out the goals their portfolios are designed to support.

• Learn how to focus on what you can control
• Determine how to focus the significant effort that leads to positive performance builds self-efficacy
• Understand that motivation comes from personal investment in the goal
• Pass along your resiliency to your clients

AVOIDANCE BEHAVIOR OF RETIREES: HOW TO BREAK THE ICE TO HELP RETIREES FOCUS ON THEIR FUTURE

Conversations about routine health care costs and long term care can be difficult when trying to engage clients in the retirement planning process.  Without effective planning for these expenses, an entire retirement plan will be in jeopardy. This session focuses on proven strategies to use in your practice to plan for and manage routine healthcare costs as well as techniques that broach the long term care risk planning conversation.

• Learn how to get retirement-aged investors to prioritize health care into their financial plan.
• 95% of people choose a plan that costs more than they need. Learn how advisors can provide guidance on a more affordable plan
• Deciding the best way to contain routine health care costs and choosing the right Long Term Care plan

PANEL DISCUSSION: CREATING RETIREMENT INCOME STREAMS

• Investment  alternatives to the 401(k) 
• Educate
• Using  a new Retirement Calculator that does not subscribe to the 3-6-9 philosophy of most financial planners.
• Helping  fee-only advisors access low cost, high quality retirement income products

REALLY KNOWING WHO YOUR CLIENTS ARE

Fundamental to your success is knowing your client. The startling reality is that many people in business, including financial advisors, know very little about their clients before they start presenting products and solutions. Of course, everyone thinks they know their client much better than they do. Learning about your clients takes time, but this can be accelerated with a well-tuned discovery process and greater self understanding.

Experience and research show that by objectively being able to know the DNA of your client you will be able to:

• Increase conversion of prospects to clients and learn best practices for retaining their business
• Improve planning and consulting capability to increase revenues
• Offer differentiated services and improve compliance
• Gain higher levels of team engagement and personally transform

UNDERSTANDING THE MOTIVATORS THAT DRIVE RETIREE BEHAVIOR

Turning prospects into loyal clients, and clients into advocates, is quicker and easier when you understand the motivators that drive their behavior.  In this session, we’ll examine how you can use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Development to better engage your clients in conversations that are more personally meaningful to them and create stronger, more loyal client relationships.  Specifically, we’ll examine: 

• How affluence impacts personal development
• How client’s motivators change based on their personal development
• How to tap into where they are on their personal journey
• How to initiate and conduct conversations that fully engage your client

LIFECYCLE OF A RETIREE: A CASE STUDY IN “WHAT IF?”

While each couple or individual is unique, there are some themes in the life cycle of a retiree.  We’ll examine some behavioral techniques that can help set clients on the right course, a few methods for defusing the inevitable bombs we encounter along the road, and a different way to look at the “efficient frontier” in regards to clients.

• Setting goals:  The science of goal theory
• Client isn’t saving enough:  The compounding effect of having tough conversations early and questions that lead to solutions.
• Insurance Talk:  Research in framing decisions
• Working Extra Years:  Liberating constraints and goal adjustment preferences
• Client officially retires:  Research on happiness and health factors in retirement and non-financial emergency fund
• The New Efficient Frontier:  A powerful new way to look at balancing risk and return

EXPANDING YOUR PRACTICE BY “SHRINKING” YOUR CLIENTS – EXPLORING THE PLANNER THERAPIST ALLIANCE

The evolution of life planning services has resulted with Financial Planners regularly bringing the role of a psychologist into their tool kit.  Rick Kahler, a pioneer of the planner-therapist alliance concept and an instructor of Golden Gate University’s "The Psychology of Money" course, provides new insight and practical information on how involving a psychologist in your planning process can add value to your clients.  You’ll receive step-by-step advice on how to decide when to bring in a therapist or coach and how to select and integrate them profitably into your practice.

• Understand the difference between financial coaching and therapy
• Tips on interviewing and selecting a financial therapist
• How to profitably integrate a therapist into your practice
• How to demystify and understand the therapeutic process
• How to use ‘The Decision Tree’ for when to bring in a coach or therapist

PANEL DISCUSSION: INNOVATIONS THAT MUST BE BROUGHT INTO YOUR RETIREMENT PRACTICE

Most financial planners aspire to have the bulk of their customer base comprised of high net worth clientele….clients who are often described as “oversold and underserved.”  But what about the largest demographic of clients today, those who are trying to plan for retirement on a modest salary?

Statistics indicate that moderate-to-low income investors are in an even worse position being both “undersold and underserved.”  Learn how you can build a successful practice serving the average investor by educating them and engaging their interest through better communication resources and new ideas that all financial advisory firms should embrace.

• How to build a financial planning practice in the community you want to serve
• Using Social Media when affiliated with an independent broker/dealer
• Delivering value for the fees you charge
• Education is the key to helping investors better understand retirement advice they receive from their company's 401(k) computer-based guidlines- One shoe doesn't fit all!  

BREAKFAST SPEAKER: THE TAX EFFICIENT FRONTIER: IMPROVEMENTS WITH THE POWER OF TAX DEFERRAL

Katharine Coppola Territory Manager, JEFFERSON NATIONAL

KEYNOTE ADDRESS/DAY TWO: DEVELOPING A NEW EFFICIENT FRAMEWORK TO MORE EFFECTIVELY EVALUATE RISK-REWARD TRADEOFFS OF RETIREMENT INCOME PATTERNS

Clients in the retirement-income phase seek advice from financial advisors who’ve traditionally developed optimal asset-allocation portfolios for various risk levels.  The advisor chooses the appropriate portfolio and deploys the client’s savings. And then, both advisor and client hope for the best.

Although this “MVO” method is widely accepted in academic and finance circles as the gold standard for building long-term wealth, its effectiveness in retirement-income planning is limited.  Now there’s a way to fully examine a portfolio's sustainable income levels and the risks of it coming up short. Discover new ways to evaluate the roles of various asset classes and investment strategies such as:

• Immediate fixed or variable annuities
• Principal-protected products such as equity-linked certificates of deposit (ELCD)
• Variable annuities with lifetime guarantee minimum withdrawal benefits (VA+GMWB)

HYPERBOLIC DISCOUNTING: THE IMPACT OF TIME ON ASSET ALLOCATION DECISIONS

Contrary to “rational thought” as defined in economic theory, real investors make different choices depending on the time horizon of their investments. They feel differently about money they need tomorrow and money they will need in 10 or 20 years.  Understanding clients’ preferences for different asset classes over different holding periods is key to building portfolios that balance their simultaneous desire for predictability and long-term returns. Helping retired clients navigate the tradeoffs between predictability and long-term returns leads to portfolios that clients find intuitive, they can stick to through turbulent markets and lead to a better chance of achieving their financial plans.  Find out:

·        Why clients tend to prefer smaller payoffs now over larger payoffs later

·        How hyperbolic discounting tends to impair retirement saving and portfolio construction

·        How you can frame investment strategies to fit your clients view of money through time

NEW IRI RESEARCH ON BOOMERS AND RETIREMENT INCOME

Learn what your clients are thinking about now from an exclusive Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) report which finds Boomers pessimistic toward retirement preparedness.  Six out of every 10 people expressed concern over outliving their savings and investments.  Seven out of 10 say they are “afraid” that their household is not saving enough to cover future needs. 

Nearly half of the all unretired Boomers surveyed stated they would put most of their assets in an investment that provides guaranteed income for life, even if it pays a low return, thus proving the need to solve the retirement income crisis has reached a critical point.

• Six of 10 Boomers within five years of retirement prefer to consult a specialist when making financial decisions
• Unretired Boomers cite retirement planning as the top financial advice they would like to receive in the next 12 months
• Clear preference for gaining information in a face-to-face exchange, rather than via online and electronic methods.

CLOSING KEYNOTE: WHAT INVESTORS REALLY WANT

We want more from our investments than low risk and high returns. We want to nurture hope for riches and banish fear of poverty.  We want to win, be #1, and beat the market. We want to feel pride when our investments bring gains and avoid regret when they inflict losses. We want to leave a legacy for our children when we are gone. And, we want to leave nothing for the tax man.  These beliefs are a part of new research results from the nation’s leading behavioral economist, Meir Statman.

It’s important to note that the wants of retirees are similar to those of non-retirees, but their circumstances are different and so are their challenges.  In particular, retirees face the challenge of the shift from accumulating to de-cumulating.  Mental accounting and self control helped retirees before they retired, but how does that help them after retirement and how does it get in their way?

"Don't dip into capital" was a rule that served retirees well before retirement. What replaces the rule in retirement?

• What are the psychological impediments to immediate annuities?
• What are the psychological attractions of equity participation notes and covered calls?
• How can retirees maintain hope for riches yet banish fear of poverty?