At C2P, we’re always looking to improve our process to help you and, ultimately, American families. Traditionally, some advisors, agents, reps and planners have used an outdated version of the Bucket Plan — a powerful financial planning strategy — to sell products.
Wealth professionals would make a pitch about how their product or service solves specific financial concerns, like discretionary spending or legacy planning. This approach may not take the time to figure out what’s best for your individual client.
We’ve developed and refined our proven process with field testing from advisors around the country.
The Bucket Plan® is a holistic financial planning device developed by Jason L Smith, C2P’s CEO and founder. The Bucket Plan works to incorporate all the client’s assets into one comprehensive financial plan. This plan addresses distinct needs by categorizing assets based on income, time horizon and tax qualifications:
The key to a successful bucket plan is strategically positioning and then protecting a portion of your client’s assets. You buy them a time horizon that allows them to invest the remainder for long-term growth. And you use three buckets to do so: Now, Soon and Later.
Now BucketThis is the client’s safe and liquid money that they keep at a bank in a checking, savings or money market account. The Now Bucket has three primary purposes:
The Now Bucket contains easily accessible funds for planned and unexpected expenses in the first few years of retirement. This bucket achieves minimal returns that likely won’t keep pace with inflation, so don’t overfill it.
The Soon Bucket contains the money your client will use sooner rather than later. If they’re younger, this is any money they could access penalty-free if they needed to draw from the Now Bucket. If they’re retired or getting ready to retire, this is the money necessary to fund their first retirement phase:
The Soon Bucket should include an inflationary hedge. Enough funds exist to increase the income to keep pace with inflation when drawing from this bucket during the first phase of retirement.
The Soon Bucket is for the first 10 years of retirement, plus a hedge for inflation. Your client will need this money sooner rather than later — invest it conservatively to offset their increased cost of living in retirement. This mitigates the risk of withdrawing at a market low because you shouldn’t expose this account to extreme market fluctuations.
Your client has purchased a time horizon with the money in the Now and Soon Buckets. Now it’s time to review the Later Bucket. This is the money they won’t need to draw from until the later years of retirement, so you can confidently invest it in more long-term, growth-oriented investments:
As the client spends the money in their Soon Bucket over time, the Later Bucket replenishes it. In addition to growth and income, educate them on long-term care, disability and legacy planning in the Later Bucket. It’s a critical step!
We designed the Later Bucket to house investments for long-term growth in the later stages of retirement. Long-term investments are more aggressive because your client has more time to cover any potential losses.
Are You Ready To Grow As a Financial Advisor?
Successful advisors need a reliable process that’s both efficient and helps you build better holistic plans for your clients in an easily replicable way.
The Bucket Plan holistic financial process is a proven turnkey financial planning process:
The Bucket Planning approach offers you many different tools that you can deploy during the financial planning process. With them, you help educate your clients on how to structure their future financial goals properly.
These tools include books, videos and even recognized certification courses you can use to increase your practice’s profitability. Meanwhile, you create a more holistic planning service for your clients.
The Bucket Plan BookAuthored by C2P CEO and Founder Jason L. Smith, The Bucket Plan Book is a tool that Bucket Plan Certified Advisors can use to build client confidence.
What does success mean to you? Is it growing your client base? Is it expanding your firm’s reach?
Through our training courses, we provide a broad selection of live, on-demand and virtual training resources. They cover everything from proven and repeatable turnkey planning processes for best-interest financial planning and documentation to operational strategies that help increase client conversion and retention.
Are you an advisor dedicated to offering your clients a holistic financial plan? Are you looking for proven processes to help you simplify financial advisor strategies so your clients can easily understand and accept them?
During the Bucket Plan 1.0 training, you learn how to navigate market volatility, taxes, inflation and increasing life expectancies that challenge your clients’ financial goals. This two-day training addresses these challenges by providing a proven process to effectively segment clients’ assets, accounting for vital factors:
This process provides everything you need to document and implement the bucket plan process in your own office:
Demonstrate your commitment to professional education and holistic planning.
Expanding upon The Bucket Plan process, this process teaches you how to monetize your wisdom. You provide a competitive breadth of service to your clients in all areas of their financial well-being:
This step-by-step process for providing holistic planning simplifies the service you can provide, all while focusing on your clients’ best interest. During the event, you learn how to take crucial steps:
Take the next step to becoming a top financial advisor.
“Time well spent to learn Bucket Plan training. The 2 days flew by. I have immediate take-aways to incorporate into my practice that will significantly impact my deliverable and overall client experience. The processes and tools you utilize and share spikes my confidence as an advisor. Thank you.”
—Betty J. Albitz, CLU®, ChFC®
“The Bucket Plan training will motivate you to build an even more successful business. I’ve learned from Jason Smith and Dave Alison that you just can’t wing it. They provide a simple process that will turn the challenges of a crowded marketplace into an opportunity to stand out from your competition. When you cross paths with them, seize the opportunity!”
—Charles Welde, CFP®, CPA
Following The Bucket Plan training, you have the opportunity to increase your credibility by earning the BPC designation and CE credits.
The BPC designation is a FINRA-recognized professional designation, which indicates to clients that you’ve elevated your skill set. You’re a truly holistic advisor, delivering a best-interest planning process and a comprehensive financial plan.
To become BPC, you must have a bachelor’s degree or at least two years of industry experience and a life insurance license.
You must also hold at least one of the following:
You must also undertake other tasks:
The BPC designation is active for one year. You must have equivalent requirements combined with additional coursework to maintain the designation.
We teach BPC advisors to use a set of planning tools that ensure a holistic financial planning process for your client. Because an informed client makes better decisions, The Bucket Plan emphasizes how to educate them on key concepts, such as the money cycle and sequence of returns risk.
The resulting plan accounts for your client’s income needs, time horizon, volatility tolerance and tax situation. The outcome is a personalized and product-agnostic financial plan.
