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Social media for financial advisors

6 Social Media Networks Financial Advisors Should Use in 2022

Why Social Media Marketing Works for Financial Advisors

According to LinkedIn, 92% of financial planners who use social media for business purposes report that it has helped them get new clients.

Wealth managers should consider developing social media and marketing strategies for financial advisors to help increase brand awareness and digitally connect with leads, clients, referrals, and other advisors.

Empower your teams to be active online and share updates about your firm, tax policies, trends in the market, etc.

More people go to social media to get news and information like this than ever before. And they expect you and your business to satiate their hunger for knowledge and financial literacy.

Social media for financial advisors is a great place to share simple financial planning concepts like The Bucket Plan® or The Money Cycle. Information sharing has become an established part of the sales process.

Each Social Network Requires a Different Approach

Before developing marketing strategies for financial advisors, the first thing to consider is SEC marketing compliance. Like all other forms of financial advisor client communications, social media for financial advisors must follow marketing compliance.

Those penalties start to add up quickly if you don’t carefully adhere to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and regulations. According to FINRA, the fine for misinformation in the financial services industry can be as much as $3.8M.

Strategies involving social media for financial advisors should not replace your existing marketing plan. Instead, look at if and how each individual platform will fit into the marketing strategies for financial advisors that you currently practice.

Digital marketing for financial advisors complements other advertising methods to enhance the overall client experience.

LinkedIn10 Digital Marketing Tips to Drive Business in 2023

Social media for financial advisors can be tricky to navigate. Sometimes users experience negative feelings if you’re trying to sell them something when they’re trying to scroll through cat photos. On LinkedIn, however, you don’t have to worry about that as much.

LinkedIn is an online professional networking platform that provides business-oriented services like job boards and resume builders to individuals and companies alike. Because it focuses more on the professional than the personal, there is more freedom to follow a hard sell approach on this platform than on others.

All digital marketing for financial advisors, including anything published on social media, should be approved by marketing compliance.

Facebook

Facebook is arguably the most well-known social media platform of all time, so all marketing strategies for financial advisors should incorporate it both organically and from a paid advertising perspective.

Twitter

Twitter is a text-based microblog; each tweet can only contain a maximum of 280 characters. This includes the text for your post and any emojis, hashtags, or links, so brevity is key.

Hashtags were born on Twitter. They’re essential to getting in on the conversation and reaching the right audiences. You should follow governmental organizations like the IRS and SEC and filter their content to be relevant to your audience and their needs.

Because it is so text-heavy, including images can really help your content stand out when users are mindlessly scrolling.

YouTube

Did you know YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine after Google? Imagine all the online traffic you’re missing out on if your firm doesn’t have a YouTube channel.

According to Hubspot, the amount of online video consumers watch has almost doubled since 2018, and 94% of marketers say video has helped increase user understanding of their product or service.

When you’re in as complicated an industry as ours, simplifying processes for your clients is priceless.

Instagram

Instagram is an image-based app owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta. The term social media influencer was coined on Instagram.

How can you position yourself as an influencer on social media for financial advisors?

TikTok

TikTok is a short-form video app. It has the youngest audience out of the platforms we’ve covered above. This means there is a wealth of opportunities to get in before the space becomes cluttered.

Social media for financial advisors sometimes means weeding through bad actors who offer advice but have no credentials or valid data to back up their claims.

Again, please ensure all digital marketing for financial advisors has been approved by marketing compliance before it goes live.

To learn more marketing strategies for financial advisors and how to incorporate digital media into your traditional marketing mix, download the Marketing 101 Guide!

Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

Best Referral Sources for Financial Advisors

4 Best Referral Sources for Financial Advisors

What are the best referral sources for financial advisors?

One of the best referral sources for financial advisors is mutually beneficial relationships. Referral programs are one of the best forms of marketing for financial advisors because they generate new leads and increase revenue.

The key is knowing who to ask and how to ask for the referral.

  1. Current Clients
  2. Lawyers & CPAs
  3. HR Consultants
  4. Recruiters

Can financial advisors pay for referral sources?

An SEC-registered investment adviser firm may pay cash referral fees to a third-party (non-employee) that solicits investment adviser clients on behalf of the registered investment adviser firm only if such a solicitor arrangement is in compliance with SEC Rule 206(4)-3 under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

So, the short answer is, yes. But why would you want to when there are so many free referral sources in your personal circle and your wider community?

  • Clients
  • CPAs
  • Doctors
  • Family
  • Friends
  • Head Hunters
  • Human Resources
  • Lawyers
  • Realtors

Earning Business Through these Referral Sources

How do financial advisors get referrals?

First and foremost, they ask for them.

If your clients trust you and believe you are building long-term wealth for their families, then they will be happy to share your knowledge and expertise with their friends and colleagues.

It never hurts to ask.

What sources can you draw on within your network to feed your sales funnel besides existing customers? Think of all the areas of holistic financial planning—taxes, insurance, health care planning, estate planning, etc. How can you partner with professionals and businesses to share referrals and recommendations?

Marketing for financial advisors includes networking and building mutually beneficial relationships with others both within the industry and on the fringes of the financial sector.

  • People are 400% more likely to become clients after their friend refers an advisor.
  • A customer who was referred has a 16% higher lifetime value than one who wasn’t.
  • 58% of wealthy investors met their wealth planner through a referral.
  • Less than 11% of financial planners ask for referrals.

1.     Your Own Customers

The best referral sources for financial advisors are their own happy customers. Asking for referrals helps clients feel closer to you as their financial planner and your business as a whole. They might feel connected to helping your firm succeed in addition to feeling a sense of ownership of the friends and family members to whom they recommended your services.

If you recommend a less experienced advisor, take on your client’s descendants, who are earlier in their life and career path, they will put trust in that because you have shown your value. Earn business for your junior/second chair advisor with the client’s family so that the clients will remain in-house for generations to come as the advisor progress through the career path.

2.     Working with Attorneys and Accountants

Is there an attorney or accountant you have previously worked with who would agree to trade contacts and lend their credibility to vouch for you to their customers? By partnering with a well-known and trusted professional in your area, you can offer holistic financial planning services to their clients at a special rate.

3.     Human Resources Consultants

People need the most assistance during major life changes and situations that have financial implications. This includes everything from a job change, marriage, divorce, inheritance, births, deaths, etc. HR representatives are one of the first lines of defense during these times.

If you can develop a rapport with them to refer people who are experiencing a crisis or transitionary period, you can find and help new clients during a particularly vulnerable time in their life. The best marketing for financial advisors is helping ease the burden during times of great stress and uncertainty.

HR consultants are also one of the first people to know when someone transitions into a new high-paying role, so it would be wise to build and nurture relationships with them.

4.     Executive Recruiters

Another group first to know about new well-playing jobs is executive recruiters. Don’t neglect a prospect just because they may be early in their career, it’s never too soon to start planning for early retirement.

Give them center stage during your first interaction. Ask about the types of clients and industries they work with. Once you understand that, let them know that you will keep an eye out for opportunities to send your clients to them. Present yourself as someone who adds value before you start making requests.

You could say something similar to:

“We seem to work with a similar high-net-worth clientele. Whenever any of my customers inevitably need a recruiter, I’ll make sure to send them your way.”

After you have sent them some business, you can start discussing reciprocity and arrangements.

The easiest way to get referrals is to earn them and then simply ask for them. Delight your existing customers, utilize the Family Estate Organizer to facilitate the transition between generations, and partner with other professionals in your area.

learn how C2P can become your all in referral source for new customers in your area.

To learn how C2P Enterprises can become your all-in referral for customers in your area, schedule a FREE 20-minute call.

Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

Early Retirement Tax Planning

Maximizing Your Client’s Tax Plan After Early Retirement

Early retirement tax planning requires significant preplanning, like contributing to tax-advantaged investments that don’t have early withdrawal fees. Tax planning for early retirement means the client will need to save more money earlier in their career path because they’ll need the funds earlier than ordinary retirees, and they’ll need it to last longer than most.

Does Your Client’s Financial Plan Have Room for Early Retirement?

Most people would love to retire early, but few have the means, financial advice, and tax planning strategies necessary to achieve early retirement. In order to actively save for early retirement, the client needs to diversify how and when their savings will be taxed. Doing so can successfully navigate the two major unknowns:

  1. How much of the client’s income will be taxable?
  2. What will the client’s tax rate be after they retire?

Holistic financial planning includes planning for early retirement if that’s the client’s goal. A lot of people incorrectly assume that when they retire, their money and taxes go into autopilot, but this will get them into trouble with Uncle Sam in the long run. A good financial advisor will be able to identify specific steps the client must take in order to minimize their tax burden and maximize their wealth in retirement.

Does Their Portfolio Permit for Early Retirement?

The client should fund their Roth IRA to the maximum for early retirement. Although they will be taxed on any gains withdrawn before turning 59 1/2, they can withdraw their contributions at any time without incurring penalties.

Clients should focus on early retirement tax planning if they:Click here to take your clients on the Tax Management Journey

  • Anticipate higher taxes in the future
  • Have excess room in their tax brackets
  • Could benefit from creating greater deductions now
  • Coordinate between their financial plan and tax plan
  • Want to eliminate avoidable taxes and penalties
  • Need tax distributions from retirement plans

Smart Planning is the Key to Success Early Retirement Tax Planning.

One way to maximize income in retirement is to invest in early retirement tax planning by taking advantage of accounts and investments that don’t have fees for withdrawing early or a tax on distributions from retirement plans.

For early retirement tax planning, you should consider an appropriate blend of tax-deferred and Roth accounts, depending on the client’s current tax bracket.

Looking for more resources and tax efficient strategies for your financial clients? Sign up for our on demand seminar: How to Win Business through Tax Planning.

For higher tax brackets, there’s a good chance that the client’s tax rate will be the same as it is today or lower during retirement. So it might be a good idea to maximize tax-deferred accounts. Think about dividing retirement savings between tax-deferred and Roth accounts for clients in a middle tax bracket and consider maxing out Roth accounts on clients in lower tax brackets.

Every Situation has its Own Set of Tax Traps

One of the most important parts of early retirement tax planning is having a game plan in place to address any tax traps that pop up as well as any tax advantages you can leverage to the client’s benefit.

  • Charitable Gifts
  • Healthcare Premiums & Deductions
  • Mortgage Changes
  • Property Taxes
  • Social Security Tax Torpedo

Early retirement tax planning follows the same principles as a traditional retirement plan—minimizing taxes and maximizing funds. Because early retirees will have fewer working years to accumulate wealth and a longer anticipated retirement than most, their plan requires an accelerated pace and scale.

To learn more about minimizing the tax on distributions from retirement plans, how to win business through tax planning, or the Tax Management Journey®, schedule a FREE 20-minute call today!

Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

Renting v. Building a Tax Practice

Renting vs. Building a Tax Practice

The most successful financial planners are always thinking about growth. They either want to find new prospects or increase their services available to existing clients. Without adding a lot of personal time and effort, you can accomplish both simultaneously by building a tax practice within your financial advisory firm.

You don’t need to have a tax background to be successful. When you build out your own tax practice, you can start by hiring an accountant or CPA for your in-house team.

Building Your Own Tax Practice

The goal of building a tax practice is to convert those clients to financial services clients eventually. Tax preparation allows you to get in front of customers once a year. This will enable you to review their taxes with them and provide an overview of how to include their tax planning strategy as part of a holistic financial plan.

The tax client might not be ready for your other services at first, but you’ll be there when they are.

There are several steps involved in starting a tax practice. First, you need to build the foundation before starting a tax practice. This includes everything from office space and software to pens and business cards.

Next, you should hire a tax professional to prepare returns and market the business to bring in new clients.

Finally, make sure you hire someone to assist with appointment setting and other practice management tasks.

  • In Stage 1, things will be modest. For the first year or two, you and two accountants will handle all the business at hand – between 100-400 returns.
  • During Stage 2, you should be processing 400-1000 returns, so you’ll need to hire an additional advisor and possibly a tax practice manager.
  • By the time you reach Stage 3, your office will have 1000-2000 tax clients, with the potential addition of another advisor and additional accountants.

Renting a Tax Practice vs.  Owning a Tax Practice

One way to find out if building a tax practice or buying a tax practice will work for your wealth management company is to partner with an existing tax firm.

You do this by offering tax services and holistic financial planning to their clients in exchange for their accounting services. You or one of your financial advisors will then meet with the clients to go over the return and lay out tax planning strategies for the coming year.

Develop a relationship with a CPA or tax firm in your community to borrow their clients. After you have nurtured and developed your bond with them and their customers, you can start to look for longer-term solutions, like purchasing a tax firm or building your own tax practice.

Set up a cost-sharing arrangement so that a percentage of any new business goes back to the host tax firm as part of the agreement.

This gives you an excellent platform from which to attract new clients to your wealth management firm.

Consider the Find, Mined, & Grind mindset:Click here to take clients on the Tax Management Journey

  • Find brings the client in.
  • Mined formulates recommendations and closes the sale.
  • Grind manages the financial services portion moving forward.

As with building a tax practice and buying a tax practice, there are also advantages and disadvantages to renting one:

Advantages to partnering with a tax firm:

  • You are approaching an audience that is already made up of tax clients.
  • Staffing is already managed, so you don’t have the expense of added accountants for tax season.
  • The tax firm can serve as your second office for meetings with potential financial services clients.
  • If the tax practice owner ever decides to sell or retire, you’re already ingrained as the next buyer.

Disadvantages to partnering with a tax firm:

  • Limited penetration in the surrounding area since you don’t control the marketing.
  • You have little to no say in the staff hired.

Why Successful Financial Advisors Choose to Offer Tax Planning

A proven way to grow your existing financial services business is to add a tax practice. Preparing taxes and providing tax advice is one of the most significant opportunities that wealth professionals have today.

Delivering ongoing advice (taxes aren’t a one-time thing) and deeper solutions to their tax concerns is a way to differentiate yourself as a unique, multi-solution financial advisor. It also showcases your firm’s capabilities to a new group of potential clients.

Now that you have tax clients, you can use their returns to find areas where you can save them money. This shows that you’re willing to go above and beyond to provide the additional retirement and legacy planning service.

By putting solutions and strategies in place to anticipate tax changes, you will differentiate yourself from other advisors and tax professionals, allowing you to charge more considerable financial planning fees.

Check out the Tax Management Journey live training to learn more about incorporating tax strategy into your clients’ overall holistic financial plan.

Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

Charging the Right Financial Planning Fees as an Advisor

Charging the Right Financial Planning Fees as an Advisor

It can be confusing to know how or why to charge financial planning fees. If you don’t understand the value of the wisdom you’re providing, how can you put a monetary value on your advice and expect the client to buy into it?

How can financial planners monetize their wisdom with financial planning fees?

Your clients aren’t just buying a wealth management plan. They’re paying for the time and expertise it takes to build and implement custom financial advisor strategies with specific recommendations. Dedicate an appropriate amount of time to your clients so they understand the plan and the financial advisor strategies you recommend.

Many wealth professionals hesitate to charge financial planning fees, fearing that it will deter prospects. But we have found that charging financial planning fees takes the pressure off the client and puts them in a more trusting mindset.

There are two compensation models for financial advisors. You can either monetize your time by charging financial planning fees or charge for helping clients with the implementation of their wealth management.
By viewing these compensation models as two different opportunities, you can begin to consider charging financial planning fees as selling the process rather than the product. Unbundling the process from the product in this way also benefits the client because it disarms them.

What is the right financial planning fee structure for your practice?

Fee only financial planning faces fewer conflicts of interest because there are no commissions earned for product sales. The financial planner is rewarded when the client does well: it’s a win-win situation.

Commission-based advisors earn income from selling investment products, regardless of how they perform for the client.

Some of our offices provide a free basic plan that sketches out the client’s assets in The Bucket Plan®. They do this by performing a Volatility Tolerance Analysis, investment audit, and a Social Security analysis. This is a quick process that focuses on moving assets without diving deep into fee only financial planning. It works well for the mass affluent who don’t have a lot of complexity and don’t feel like they need an advanced comprehensive financial plan.

For clients who need a more advanced plan, you would then pivot to a more customary fee only financial planning arrangement in which you are charging appropriately for things like estate or tax planning.

How to charge financial planning fees

Although it can seem counterintuitive at first, charging planning fees can establish more trust between clients and advisors. When we pay for something, we tend to value it more. When advisors charge planning fees for services, we’re signaling to our clients that we are trusted professionals.

There are several ways to charge planning fees fees for a comprehensive financial plan:Attend The Bucket Plan 2.0

  • Annual/Monthly Retainer
  • Flat Fee
  • Per Service Charge
  • Hourly Rate

The nice thing about a flat fee is that you can tell your clients exactly what you’re charging them for. Price your services so that your clients can utilize you anytime while you are proactively working behind the scenes to bring value to their situation.

It’s like an all you can eat buffet; the clock is never running when we are helping our clients navigate incredibly important decisions.” – Dave Alison, CFP®, EA, BPC

How should you sell your planning process to clients?

Remember, we are in the sales business. Until you make a sale, you can’t do any of your best behind-the-scenes work. Continue to sell fee only financial planning to plant seeds and uncover additional concerns and priorities throughout the process.

If your business model revolves around holistic financial planning, where you’re managing assets and executing strategies on your client’s behalf, you should consider a fee only financial planning process, where you charge a percentage based on the assets you manage.

One of the biggest challenges to fee only financial planning is there is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It comes down to what type of practice management you have and what kind of clients you serve. For example:

  • Are you building a lifestyle business, or are you trying to build enterprise value with critical mass?
  • Do you only need to feed yourself, or are you trying to feed multiple advisors and need more activity?
  • Are you willing to do some work for free to hopefully earn business, or do you want to guard your wisdom for only paying customers?
  • Are you working with simple clients or advanced clients who need time-consuming planning such as estate or tax planning.
  • Do the clients have a lot of investment experience and want to see every detail, or are they more high level?

Be upfront with your prospects; position your fees in their mind. Remind them what they receive in return for your practice management fees—education, advice, onboarding, planning, strategy development, and most importantly, time to get to know each other. They’re paying for your advice and experience just as they would any other professional: attorney, accountant, etc.

You can learn more about financial practice management and how to get paid for your advice by taking our Bucket Plan live trainings. Schedule a call below to find out if you qualify.


Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

Building a Comprehensive Financial Plan

Building a Comprehensive Financial Plan

A comprehensive financial plan can ease the client’s mind and decrease anxiety around their finances in both the short and long term. Studies show that people feel more secure when they have a documented holistic financial plan like The Bucket Plan® to rely on.

The solution to any individual’s economic puzzle is holistic financial planning. The wealth professional can develop a one-of-a-kind proposal to maximize their customer’s wealth, health, and happiness while minimizing any potential tax pitfalls and managing gaps in the market.

What Makes a Comprehensive Financial Plan?

A comprehensive financial plan takes an in-depth examination of the client’s current financial situation. The wealth professional develops a strategy that will allow the client to live the life they want based on their individual goals and abilities. It plans for and accommodates events that occur in the client’s life.

Whether you follow cash-flow based financial planning or another method, your goal is to create a holistic financial plan that sets the client up for success now and in the future.

Cash-flow based financial planning takes a client’s current financial position and uses predictions and forecasting to determine their cash flow plans for the present and future. Cash-flow based financial planning gives you more freedom to explore holistic financial planning solutions you might otherwise not consider.

A Comprehensive Financial Plan Includes these Elements

The Bucket Plan Process is different from other financial advisor strategies because it’s based on internal and external factors—including changes in the market, job loss, birth of a child, death of a spouse, change in marital status, etc. It considers how a customer’s investment goals will continue to change and works to ensure the best outcome at each phase of the client’s life: Now, Soon, and Later.

The Now Bucket is for liquid cash. This is where sufficient funds are set aside for a year’s worth of income, an emergency fund, and sufficient money for expected expenses.

The Soon Bucket is the more conservative capital that’s designed for the first ten or so years of retirement, plus an inflation hedge. It needs to be much less volatile but invested to outpace inflation without subjecting it to the fluctuations in the stock market.

The Later Bucket is the client’s long-term growth designated funds.

What is included in this plan?

A Comprehensive Financial Plan is Easy to Adjust

For the client, a good comprehensive financial plan should be as easy as going in for an annual physical. The patient (client) meets with their doctor (financial advisor) for a checkup where they discuss any new issues that have come up recently.

A doctor might make adjustments to the patient’s prescription dosage, suggests new products, or run additional tests. Likewise, the financial advisor will alter the financial plan to meet the new needs of the client, suggest new products, or run market simulations to optimize success.

At C2P Enterprises, we follow The Bucket Plan methodology for our comprehensive financial plans.

The Bucket Plan® Best Interest Process is an asset allocation system wealth professionals use to develop cash-flow based financial plans that their clients will understand. It has been defined, refined, and tested by our model offices. It includes a set of easily replicated, proven processes for your business, no matter the size or scale.

After completing The Bucket Plan live training, you will transform your business with simplified financial planning and an increased closing ratio. Download our FREE Bucket Plan eBook, OR schedule a 20-minute call to learn more!

Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

4 Steps for Financial Advisors to Help their Clients Avoid Income Gaps

4 Steps for Financial Advisors to Help their Clients Avoid Income Gaps

Understanding the Gaps in Your Client’s Future Income

What if there was a quick and easy documented way of assessing whether your clients will have an income gap or excess cash flow when they retire? With the Income Gap Assessment, you will be able to discuss the overall cash-flow based financial plan with your clients and determine ways to guarantee their income in retirement.

We created the Income Gap Assessment to cut down on time spent with each client. This resource will allow you to skip the long budgeting process and get right to the important stuff.

The Bucket Plan® Best Interest Process is an asset allocation system used to develop simple, cash-flow based financial planning methods that your clients will understand. The holistic financial planning process is full of valuable resources.

The Income Gap Assessment is just one piece in a series of turnkey tools and processes available through C2P.

There are four sections:

Income Gap Assessment

  1. Income Lost in Retirement
  2. Income Gained in Retirement
  3. Increased Expenses in Retirement
  4. Decreased Expenses in Retirement

How can financial advisors help their clients avoid income gaps during their retirement?

The first section is where you log the client’s net income after taxes.

This is the current amount being deposited into checking from salary, wages, and other sources of income pre-retirement. You want to determine the difference between their annual bring-home salary and their yearly living expenses.

After you calculate the annual net income, ask the client to choose which of the following scenarios most closely applies to them:

  1. Breaking even and consuming all your net income.
  2. Managing to save money by consuming less than your net income.
  3. Losing money and going into debt.

The second section focuses on income gained after retirement. Between Social Security and pensions, what will their fixed income be once they are no longer earning a paycheck?

For Social Security optimization, clients may delay one or both of their benefits. This will leave a larger gap income for a short period of time. In these cases, consider conducting multiple Income Gap Assessments for the different time periods to get an accurate picture of their cash-flow based financial planning strategy throughout retirement.

Another option is to do one Income Gap Assessment as if all fixed income sources are activated. Then, determine the amount of assets you would need to set aside to cover the bridge needed to make up for the delayed income.

Planning for the Impact of Taxes on Your Client’s Financial Plan to Avoid Income Gaps

You should list anything that might affect retirement income under the increases in expenses section.

Ask your clients about potential increases from income tax increases, health insurance premiums, increased travel expenses, etc.

Tax planning is one of the most significant opportunities wealth professionals have. Clients often view tax planning as their most daunting and confusing retirement expense. You can use their tax returns to find areas where you can save them money and avoid income gaps in the future.

“A competent financial planner can evaluate multiple years of prior 1040s and supporting documents to inform present tax planning decision and identify planning opportunities and areas of concern for the current and future periods.”

– Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards

Understanding the Accounts that Can be Drawn Against for Emergencies

Next, you should log all major expenses that will decrease after they retire. Will they pay off a loan or mortgage? How much do they have in their savings account?

With these three figures, you can derive the gap income that will need to be taken from liquid investable assets in retirement.

The Income Gap Assessment exercise aims to determine the gap between the net income a client is currently living on while working and the fixed income sources they will have after retirement.

It is based on a consumption methodology of budgeting and will provide an accurate amount that they will need to draw off their liquid investible assets once they retire. This assessment is particularly useful and efficient for clients and prospects who will be retiring in fewer than ten years.

Planning for Future Unplanned Expenses

Net Income Need – Fixed income – Adjustments = Total Income Gap     

Once you have the final number, you’ll know if the client has an annual surplus or deficit for their retirement. If there is an income surplus, they will have excess cash flow. Knowing this will allow you to act more strategically with their holistic financial plan or cash flow analysis.

The Income Gap Assessment is a viable tool to determine what kind of situation your client may find themselves in once they retire. If you determine the client has a gap income, you should ask them the following question.

“How much of this income gap do you want guaranteed in your financial plan?”

This will serve as a basis for their total income needed in retirement. It also creates an opportunity for you to show them how you can guarantee their income once they retire.

The Income Gap Assessment is just one tool in a series of resources and assets found in The Bucket Plan® Best Interest Process.

The Bucket Plan® Best Interest Process is a proven, turnkey holistic financial planning process for gathering data, documenting findings, and delivering asset-positioning strategies in your clients’ best interest. We have defined, refined, and tested it so businesses of any size can replicate it.

Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

C2P Enterprises animated family estate organizer

Optimizing Your Client’s Financial Plans with the Family Estate Organizer

The Family Estate Organizer (FEO) is a holistic financial planning tool that handles the process of settling an estate, as well as assisting the family and any professionals involved. The FEO streamlines and organizes all essential personal information and fi­nancial documentation into a single comprehensive binder.

There is typically one individual that handles the coordination and organization of the family’s ­financial life. If something happens to that family member, such as death or disability, the survivors are left unorganized and lost.

The Family Estate Organizer provides a centralized location for all crucial information and becomes a go-to resource for the client and their family. From legal documents to insurance policies to brokerage statements and more, it creates peace of mind for the client and their loved ones.

Having a customized FEO built can save a family a lot of time, energy, and heartbreak after an already devastating loss. An Estate Organizer can accompany the client to the funeral home or attorney’s office, etc.

Why Do Successful Advisors Use Estate Organizers?

We’ve all been there. Collecting and organizing an entire lifetime’s worth of documents is stressful and frustrating.

Introducing an Estate Organizer during your first meeting can help show your client the value of holistic financial planning tools and ensure everyone is on the same page.

The FEO covers everything, including:

Download our Advisor Guide to Simplify Financial Planning with The Bucket Plan Best Interest Process

  • Asset Sheet
  • Bank Accounts
  • Contact Information
  • Debt Statements
  • Final Arrangements
  • Income Tax Returns
  • Legal Documents
  • Life Insurance
  • Long-Term Care
  • Medical History
  • Pensions
  • Personal Documents
  • Post-Tax Investments
  • Prescription Information
  • Pre-Tax Investments
  • Property Records
  • Social Security
  • Survivor’s Checklist
  • Tax-Favored Accounts

Getting the Right Information at the Right Time

The FEO combines all the clutter and paper that arises during the resolution of an estate into a single easy-to-follow binder.

When a new couple comes into the office, they’re often overwhelmed by all the paper they’ve accumulated and don’t know where to start.

It’s common that only one of them has been handling the family finances, and the other is clueless.

So, the first step is getting them organized and on the same page so that everyone is speaking the same language. Ensure all parties understand their net worth, cash flow analysis, and basic concepts like the money cycle.

Click here to learn more about financial advisor client communications.

Utilizing the FEO in your first meeting with clients will put their minds at ease and educate them on The Bucket Plan® principles like the money cycle and planning for now, soon, and later.

Estate Planning Tools that Help in the Process

An Estate Organizer is much more than a simple financial or legal tool. It stores all important client information from investments and pensions to medical information and life insurance, as well as a family succession plan and Survivor’s Checklist that allows the survivors to better handle the estate upon a client’s passing.

The Family Estate Organizer helps wealth professionals to:

  • Build client relationships when building trust
  • Uncover hidden or forgotten client assets
  • Prepare for long-term care planning
  • Create something tangible for yearly reviews

This is an all-in-one tool that sets clients up for success and helps you develop rapport with your clients. Click here to schedule a FREE 20-minute call to learn more!

Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

The 3 Phases of Cash-Flow Based Financial Planning

The 3 Phases of Cash-Flow Based Financial Planning

Convert prospects to clients in 3 meetings or less with The Bucket Plan live TrainingWhy is cash-flow based financial planning the right strategy?

Cash-flow based financial planning is the right strategy because it uses a detailed approach by classifying income as earned or capital gains for tax projections.

When you combine holistic financial planning with cash-flow based financial planning, you get a 360-degree look at the client’s goals without even following a goals based financial plan.

Understanding the Difference Between Goals Based Financial Planning & Cash-Flow Based Financial Planning

Goals Based Financial Planning

Goals based planning establishes pivotal objectives that lead the financial planner down a strategic path to meet each objective. Many advisors choose this methodology because it is easy to use, and the process takes less time because it focuses on a limited number of high-level goals like the desired age they will retire and income during retirement.

This is not the ideal approach for clients who have various specific financial objectives.

Cash-Flow Based Financial Planning

Cash-flow based financial planning takes a client’s current financial position and uses predictions and forecasting to determine their cash flow plans for the short- and long-term future. It gives you more freedom to explore holistic financial planning solutions you might otherwise not consider.

Cash flow plans allow you to create suggestions that take multiple variables into consideration, whereas goals based financial planning makes it difficult to evaluate more complicated circumstances.

The 3 Phases of a Cash-Flow Based Financial Planning

At C2P Enterprises, we offer holistic financial planning services that address the client’s gaps and concerns, and we educate advisors on our way of doing things.

A big part of what we do is eliminate sequence of returns risk, but many clients have a hard time wrapping their minds around that. They get overwhelmed if you show them a bunch of technical charts and graphs. We teach them simple holistic financial planning services like the money cycle to simplify things.

Knowledge of the money cycle is critical understanding The Bucket Plan® and how it can set clients up for a secure future. The money cycle includes three distinct phases we all go through in life: accumulation, preservation, and distribution.

No matter what phase your client’s cash flow plans are in, The Bucket Plan® can help.

The Accumulation Phase

Accumulation usually starts when you’re a kid. You have a piggy bank or a junior checking account where you put our tooth fairy money, birthday cash, babysitting income, money from mowing the lawn, etc.

This accumulation phase of cash-flow based planning continues into adulthood and throughout our working years as you begin to build your life savings. Perhaps you open a retirement savings plan, and your employer contributes to it as well. Since you have a lengthy time horizon ahead before retirement, you can afford to take more risks with your money during this stage of life.

The Preservation Phase

As you get closer to retirement, you move into the preservation phase. At this point, you’re financially stable and looking forward to winding down your career, effectively ending the accumulation phase on a significant portion of your money. There’s less time to make mistakes or experience major volatility because you’re going to need this money sooner rather than later.

Remember: it’s not about how much money you make, but how much you keep. The preservation phase of cash flow plans is where you can strategically position a portion of your assets to keep them safe yet still, continue growing them to outpace inflation for the future.

The biggest most retirees make is skipping over the preservation phase of the money cycle and going directly from accumulation to distribution.

Most people never preserve a portion of their assets to draw from in that all-important first retirement phase. Instead, they continue to invest all their money as if they were a long way from retirement when in reality, it’s right around the corner. That’s how so many pre-retirees got into trouble back in 2000 and 2008 when the market took nosedives.

The preservation phase is essential for financial stability and peace of mind in retirement. When the market has extensive corrections—as it always does—and you’re forced to take distributions during that time, you are essentially selling your investments for income when the market is down, and you can never make that money back. This leaves you depleting your savings much faster than initially anticipated. You don’t want to risk running out of money later in life.

The Distribution Phase

Finally, the last phase in the money cycle is distribution. Distribution is when you begin to draw from what you’ve accumulated and preserved and start taking an income from your savings and investments. In cash-flow based financial planning, you distribute to yourself in retirement and to your loved ones upon your passing.

At C2P Enterprises, we utilize The Bucket Plan® to help advisors simplify the planning process, money cycle and more.

The Now Bucket is for the client’s safe and liquid money. This is where you set aside sufficient funds for a year’s worth of income if they’re about to go into retirement, an emergency fund, and sufficient money for upcoming planned expenses.

The Soon Bucket is the more conservative money that’s designed for the first ten or so years of retirement, plus an inflation hedge. It needs to be much less volatile but invested so that it outpaces inflation without subjecting it to the direct ups and downs of the stock market.

The Later Bucket is the client’s long-term growth money.

To learn more about the money cycle and how to convert more leads to clients in 3 meetings or fewer, see if you qualify to attend The Bucket Plan® live training.

Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

Insurance Marketing Lead Conversion

What Insurance Marketing Professionals Can Do to Convert Leads to Prospects

Insurance marketing lead conversion is one of the most challenging tasks to master. How do you generate consistent new business that will continuously flow through the sales funnel while maintaining SEC marketing compliance?

How Insurance Advisors Use Marketing to Convert More Leads

To increase your insurance marketing lead conversion rates, you must first look at your investment advisor marketing efforts.

The goal of marketing strategies for financial advisors should be to guide each prospect smoothly through the funnel from prospect to client.

The first step is to create valuable content to entice online visitors to give you their contact information in order to access the gated content. Be sure to include an SEC marketing compliance review in your content workflow.

Leads continue to move through the buyer’s journey as both the marketing and sales teams qualify them. You continue to provide them with valuable content until they schedule a call or meeting.

Finally, you hand them off to the sales team and let the closers work their magic.

Analytics are critical to understanding what worked well and what can be improved. You can measure your efforts to see your insurance marketing lead conversion results, so you don’t waste your advertising dollars on marketing strategies for financial advisors that don’t provide results.

Using Marketing Strategies to Build a Better Rapport with Clients

Are you looking for a growth-minded approach to getting new client references and referrals?

You can target prospects, convert more leads, and turn existing customers into insurance marketing lead conversion sources with the right investment advisor marketing plan.

We’re in the relationship-building business. Successful marketing strategies for financial advisors cultivate more business by delighting existing customers and soliciting referrals from them.

Build strong relationships, but maintain SEC marketing compliance throughout all of your financial advisor client communications.

Getting the Right Information to Your Clients at the Right TimeNew SEC Marketing Rule

One way to increase your insurance marketing lead conversion rates is to invest in innovative tech services that will encourage better financial advisor client communications. Technology makes digital marketing possible. It’s important to use social media as a means of sharing information with your audience at the right time, but be mindful of SEC marketing compliance rules.

Develop a responsive lead nurturing email campaign in your customer relationship management (CRM) program. This allows you to deliver customized messaging to your prospects when they need it most. Tailor the messaging and offer to the prospect’s past behavior and interactions with your financial practice.

Most SAAS companies offer free informational resources to their clients. Take advantage of those to get more out of your systems. If you’re unhappy with the technology you’re using, research other software companies and CRMs to see if there’s a better product for you.

Clarity Insurance Marketing is an insurance marketing organization (IMO) that facilitates advanced product screening, selection, and support for all lines of fixed insurance products.

At Clarity Insurance Marketing, we are dedicated to implementing best interest practices that mitigate risks effectively. Clarity Insurance Marketing helps institutions, wealth professionals, and ultimately families nationwide.

To learn more about Clarity Insurance Marketing, lead conversion, and maintaining SEC marketing complianceClick here for a FREE consultation.

Financial Professional Use Only

The information provided in this presentation is not intended as investment advice or legal advice. The information provided is for informational and training purposes only. The information in this presentation was accurate as of the time of the material was created. Tax laws and rulings can frequently change. Please discuss the client’s current situation with an accountant or tax advisor.

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