Careful and thorough retirement income projections go a long way toward safeguarding the future, but life is full of so many twists and turns that every retirement plan is subject to change. Being able to incorporate those changes into a plan, to work with the "what if" situations that life throws up, and to find the right investment products to fund the plan is the essence of a successful approach to retirement income generation, says Jim Graves, managing director in charge of marketing for Boston-based FundQuest, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas which provides a range of managed account services through broker/dealers, custodians, and directly to RIAs.
"The issues surrounding the planning of retirement income distribution are different from those that have to do with the asset accumulation," Graves says. "An advisor has to take a comprehensive view of a person's life, taking into account changes along the way and also coming up with products that can suit different situations, because planning and implementation to achieve sustainable income are more difficult than asset accumulation."
Indeed, even the best of retirement plans cannot fare well if an advisor does not have access to a well-defined retirement income process and an integrated platform specifically designed for income distribution, Graves says. Advisors who wish to do their job need a total solution that allows for thorough planning; provides a retirement income technology platform and a diverse set of investment products, and this is exactly what Graves says FundQuest offers through its Retirement Management Services Platform.
