Eecutive%3A Boomers Need Financial Coaching

Keith Millner says financial advisors have to do more to push baby boomers to the next planning level.[@@]

Millner, a senior vice president at Nationwide Financial Services Inc., Columbus, Ohio, spoke here at the annual meeting of the National Association for Variable Annuities, Falls Church, Va.

About 25 financial advisor designations start with the letter “C,” but none of designations includes the word “coach, Millner said.

Today, “consumers need trained professionals to act like coaches instead of commissioned sales people,” Millner argued. “People are in denial, particularly the baby boomer generation. They are not engaged in behavioral change, and they need help.”

Many advisors focus on the consumers who have the most money, but “what about the rest of the population?” Millner asked.