RetireReady Solutions Blog

A few years ago, while my oldest daughter was studying abroad in France, my wife went to visit her during spring break. Soon after arriving, they traveled to Africa to visit some family friends. They got very little sleep during their return red-eye flight, but when they landed they picked up their rental car and headed out to see France. Their...

Trying to engage Americans in retirement readiness has never been easy. Pop culture provides plenty of evidence of that, from cartoons poking fun at boring meetings with financial advisors, to Super Bowl “This Is Getting Old” commercials from E-Trade about Americans working well past the normal retirement age. And COVID-19 restrictions have...

Since COVID lockdowns began about six months ago, interacting with customers has become more interesting than ever. I have been listening intently, wanting to know what has helped some advisors continue to succeed. What are they doing differently that helps them achieve success, often beyond what they achieved prior to COVID?

I often speak with advisors, particularly in the 401(k) market, who pass over small accounts because they don’t believe they have enough profit potential. PLANADVISER’s 2019 Micro Plans Survey presents insights based on data gathered from 4,000 plans. One-third of these defined contribution plans have less than five million dollars in assets...

In this first installment of our bucket strategy series, we explore what the bucket strategy is and why it is worth your time as an advisor. Understanding the fundamentals of the bucket strategy and the value it provides to clients will lead into two more segments: “Who Wants the Bucket Strategy and How to Win Their Business” (Part 2) and...

Given the countless variables involved in assessing risks, needs, and strategies for retirement readiness, turning to averages provides a false sense of security and control. However, No One is Average, a report from J.P. Morgan, warns that “averages can be distorting because, in fact, no one is average.”

A 2018 study by J.P. Morgan shows that automatic enrollment increases the number of Americans saving for retirement. This is an important step in the right direction, but are they saving enough? The 401(K) market space has significant room for higher AUM and participant engagement. Ready! Fire! Aim? 2018, a J.P. Morgan report correlates current...

Questions hold a special power of engagement which can help build rapport and trust between people. I think most people get this instinctively and, as we wrote recently, there are studies which reveal the unique strengths of asking questions. However, for many of us, being a good question asker does not come naturally and it is a skill that we...

How would your business grow if you could deepen your relationships with clients? If your clients were more engaged in the financial planning process, how would that improve the outcome for them and for you? What might be the impact if potential clients found you more likeable and easier to relate to?

What retirement plan trends are evident in the healthcare industry? This is the question explored by Transamerica in their recently released study “The Path to Wealth Starts with Health: 2017 Retirement Plan Trends in Today’s Healthcare Market”. As healthcare organizations move away from offering defined benefit plans and seek to find...

Financial wellness is one of the key buzzwords in our industry right now. While many are talking about it, what trends do we see on the ground? Is there a uniform understanding of what financial wellness is? Do plan sponsors want it and is it making a difference to participants?

Advising plan sponsors and participants is a rewarding job but, in the changing qualified plan landscape, it can be increasingly difficult to win news plans. On one side, plan sponsors are feeling the heat from recent litigation focusing on fiduciary duties, fees, fund choices and other factors. On the other side, more advisors are looking to...

How would you like to increase your AUM without finding new clients or adding new plans? You can dramatically increase your AUM just by helping your current participants find their accounts from previous employers and roll them into the plan. This strategy is great because it piggy-backs on the participant education you are already providing,...

Many advisors do not realize that their expertise can be an effective marketing tool for further engaging with clients and generating leads for new business. Content marketing strategies can be an effective way to grow your business through education.

Are you looking for new clients? How would you like to tap into an underserved group of over 23 million people? Your next client may be someone you already know: your mail carrier, your local fire fighter, or your child’s teacher. Public-sector employees are one of the largest groups of American workers underserved by financial advisors. A...

Playwright George Bernard Shaw said that “the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” As a playwright, Shaw knew the importance of really communicating with the audience, making sure that the concepts, emotions and thoughts you want to impart are what the audience actually receives.

A recent Nationwide commercial struck a chord with many viewers who would rather clean the gutters, wash the cat or learn Snapchat than talk about their retirement plan. The ad is very funny and while we may laugh at the lengths the couple in the ad goes to avoid talking about their retirement plan, this is also a commentary on the retirement...

Feel like your 2016 Q4 tanked? Feel like retirement planning is just not working like it used to with your clients (or plan participants)? You are not alone! Looking back at the last quarter of 2016, you may be wondering why you saw a decrease in client meetings, sales and other business activities. Take a page from the NFL playbook blame the...

Research shows that the cost of long-term care continues to rise with significant consequences for expenses in retirement. Yet how many consumers would consider these costs without the prompting of a financial advisor?

Nationwide Financial recently asked retired and non-retired consumers about Social Security.  The study revealed that most of the non-retirees did not know or understand their future benefits or how they would fit into their broader retirement plans.  Few had received advice on Social Security from a financial advisor—but nearly all of those...

Do you think that millennials are not interested in your retirement planning services? Think again! A recent study has found that millennials have a keen desire to meet face-to-face with a financial advisor and that they want to understand the retirement planning process. More surprisingly, for a generation that has grown up in the digital...

Retire Ready Solutions strives to create the ultimate retirement planning tools that allow financial advisors to win new clients and support exiting clients. That's our reason for being, our premise of existence. We do not build software for lay-people or DIY consumers, we build best in class software tools specifically for financial advisors....