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December 18, 2003 at 07:00 PM
The Kind Of Planning Expertise That Boomers Want
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With the advent of the Internet, online investing and daily management of 401(k) accounts, baby boomers have become more knowledgeable than any other generation when it comes to securities and investments, says Terrance Kral, a partner with Kral, Goodenough & Kral, Inverness, Ill.
And it was because of all this knowledge that many boomers came to the conclusion they could do financial planning on their own, adds Daniel Childress, president of Financial Management Group Inc., Mt. Pleasant, S.C.
This strategy worked well for a while during the run up in the market, he says, but a lot of boomers 401(k) balances got hit when the market went south. “It really brought home the lesson to many boomers that they needed professional planning,” he says.
Now boomers are more demandingthey want more service and they want to work with planners who are specialists. “Theyre looking for a lot more; theyre looking for really knowledgeable people who can help them.”
But some feel boomers appear to be more demanding because theyre running out of time to save for retirement. “Boomers are trying to make up for lost time,” says C. Robert Brown Sr., president of UCL Financial Group, Memphis, Tenn.
Brown says boomers were taught when they were younger that a dollar today is not worth as much as a dollar tomorrowtaking inflation into consideration. As a result, they spent their money instead of saving it. “They were the poster children for consumption,” he says.
Since boomers today are trying to maximize their savings for a nearing retirement date, theres less room for error in their investments, which is adding to their anxiety and tensionresulting in a more demanding client, he says.
