Mitch Slater, The Slater-Trainor Group, Senior Vice President – Wealth Management, Smith Barney, Florham Park, N.J., shares his views on retirement income and retirement planning.
1. Which retirement issue has hit you or your client out of left field, and how did you resolve it?Slater: The S&P 500 standing virtually still for the last 10 years has affected our clients' psyches and their retirement income goals. Most were used to the typical 8 to 10 percent average returns, and their previous advisors were factoring in those numbers and doing linear planning.
We've introduced them to Monte Carlo simulation, which computes the probability of an outcome, such as the value of your nest egg at retirement. We believe that way of thinking gives clients a more realistic glimpse of the future and what it will take to get there.
2. Which prospecting methods have been most successful for you in attracting retirement-planning clients?Education has been our best prospecting tool. We conduct monthly conference calls to educate clients and prospects on a variety of important issue, mostly retirement planning. Topics range from long-term care to Social Security to understanding Medicare. For example, we just did a conference call for human resource directors explaining IRA rollovers.
