Five Questions for the Retirement Advisor

4. What challenges do you face when modeling clients' retirement incomes and cash flows, and how do you resolve these challenges? Clients have a hard time developing a budget and staying with a budget. Many clients see a lump sum amount becoming liquid at retirement and go on a spending spree. We use retirement cash flow spreadsheets to illustrate the need to have the lump sums to generate current income. You don't want to kill the goose to get the golden egg.

5. What mix of products and solutions do you use most often and why? I have had a lot of success with tried-and-true staples including municipal bonds, high dividend stocks, preferred stocks, annuities, and mutual funds. Recently, our asset-management department developed a retirement income strategy that uses mutual funds or exchange traded funds to deliver consistent income for early, mid, and senior retirement models. Using these managed accounts allows me to focus on all the many other issues clients have, like grandchildren education funding, long-term care needs, estate, and tax planning.