Several insurers and investment managers, including Hartford Financial Services Group Inc, Jackson National Life Insurance Co., and Columbia Management Group Inc., have introduced retirement education programs for financial advisers to help them capture rollover assets.
Hartford announced its Retirement Solutions Group last Thursday — a team of retirement experts who are to provide assistance and coaching on financial planning concepts for the company’s adviser clients. It said it decided to start the program, which offers retirement plan and compliance education for advisers, to differentiate itself in the growing retirement market as longevity planning becomes crucial for many investors.
Columbia Management, the Boston-based primary investment arm of Bank of America Corp., last month introduced a program called Columbia Retirement Learning Center in conjunction with Retirement Learning Center LLC, a Brainerd, Minn., retirement education provider.
The program, which features keynote speakers, printed and electronic materials, and education and training for wholesalers and Columbia’s internal sales staff, is intended to help associate the Columbia brand with the retirement market, said Donald Froude, the head of intermediary distribution at Columbia.
“We wanted to create something besides good asset management that we were going to be known for,” he said. “We needed to put something together that would help each financial adviser build their practice. You watch what baby boomers have done to this market, and it became clear to me that the industry was starting to migrate from wealth accumulation to wealth harvesting.”
The program covers topics like IRA distribution planning, lump-sum distributions from defined benefit plans, and income strategies and rollovers from 403(b) and 457 plans. It also includes seminars.
“In the financial services industry, retirement has got to be at the top of your mind,” said John Diehl, Hartford’s vice president of advanced markets. “About two years ago, we started to take a look at the marketplace and say, ‘What really makes us different?’ ”
As baby boomers approach retirement, their focus is shifting from accumulating assets to generating an adequate income stream for as along as they may live, Mr. Diehl said. Advisers can take advantage of this shift in outlook by directing their clients to investments that can create income, he said.
“We’ve seen a dramatic shift in the past year toward the utilization of income-producing products,” he said. “The market moved from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, and now we’re in the process of trying to understand how to convert back. That’s something that doesn’t come easy for people.”
Clients often come to advisers seeking guidance on how to avoid outliving their retirement assets, Mr. Diehl said. Advisers must be able to address complex issues such as small-business planning and wealth transfer, he said.
“People who are doing nothing but taking systematic withdrawals have chosen to self-insure their retirement income,” he said. “Advisers can show them how to diversify between income and non-income sources.” Hartford’s Retirement Solutions Group includes 15 consultants — one for every 15 of the insurer’s annuity wholesalers — who are responsible for educating wholesalers on retirement topics.
The Jackson National unit of England’s Prudential PLC has also started an educational initiative for advisers that targets the retirement rollover market. Its “Choose Your Direction” program, which was announced Monday, features a questionnaire and brochure that advisers can use to help their clients understand the risks and benefits connected with distribution options in their employer-sponsored retirement plans.
The program also includes a team of retirement specialists that can answer adviser inquiries via a toll-free number, as well as seminar experts who can help advisers deliver group educational presentations on retirement planning.
