April in Minnesota. There’s nothing else like it.
It’s warm – well, warm enough to no longer be cold.
For me, springtime has always meant a chance to try new business-building ideas in retirement planning-–some of which I’ll highlight here.
Adopt a ___
When I was out for a walk after work last week, I passed one of the many beautiful city parks that surround my neighborhood. Suddenly, I saw the same sign in the same local park that I must have passed by a million times before—and that gave me a marketing idea.
In suburban Minneapolis, several smaller cities have Adopt-a-Park programs. For this program, volunteers work all year to keep the local parks beautiful.
How about adopting a company-based retirement plan in your area instead? It’s a new way to gather assets and open a new investment-advisory relationship in 2013.
I believe it makes a great deal of asset-gathering and business-building sense. You’d probably be the only advisor in your local market with such a program.
I’m sure the many of your best clients who are still working have good-sized company retirement-plan accounts. After all, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans and 457(b) plans make up a large part of many investors’ asset base.
Most company retirement-plan menus frustrate many clients (and even financial-services professionals) who participate in company, non-profit and other organization’s retirement plans.
With the stock market levels at multi-year highs, now is a great time to ask those same clients about their interest in an independent, third-party analysis of the investment options in their individual company retirement plan accounts.
Steps to Business Building
First, ask your best clients for a copy of the default menu of mutual fund options.
Second, ask them for the most recent copy of their individual company retirement plan account statement.
Third, put those mutual fund ticker symbols onto two lists and use whatever investment-management software program you have.