Tailor-Made Retirement Plans

Retirement is one of the most critical phases of our lives. While many of your clients may still be in their accumulation years, it is crucial for them to begin to consider planning for their retirement. As advisors, we need to urge our clients to start planning in order to avoid financial risks. It is never too early to educate them on the importance of developing goals and establishing what they want to achieve in life now, to live comfortably in their future.

A secure retirement plan will vary from client to client, but your guidance and recommendations should always stay consistent. When developing a retirement plan you not only have to learn everything you can about a client’s finances, but you must also get a good gauge of their feelings and mindset. There needs to be clear and complete understanding of their wants and needs.

It is important to remember that there is no “cookie cutter” financial plan that will meet the needs of all your clients. Each plan should be tailor-made. A common retirement planning mistake is to mimic someone else’s plan and rely on non-expert advice, instead of sitting down with a financial advisor and building an individual retirement plan. In many cases, people are listening more to their barber or their banker, instead of going to an advisor for personal advice and direction.

You can prevent this by not only involving your client in the planning process, but also educating them on why the direction you chose is necessary for their unique situation. It is important to continually monitor the plan’s progress, so your client feels confident and secure with their retirement plan.

The importance of retirement planning cannot be overstated. One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in the course of my career is how to develop a tailor-made plan for my clients to achieve financial security.