Retirement Income Symposium: Reynolds on Policy; Birke on Communication

Reynolds reiterated his call for a national insurance charter and creation of a federal Lifetime Income Security Agency—LISA—that would vet lifetime income products, including annuities. Such an agency, he predicted, "would have the same impact on retirement planning that creation of the FDIC had on banks during the Depression."

The second session in the day-and-a-half RIS, a production of Summit Business Media's Investment Advisory Group (which includes AdvisorOne) featured two client behavioral specialists from Commonwealth Financial Network—Kol Birke and David Juliano. Their talk focused on how advisors can efficiently coach clients through key retirement decisions, and presented a four-step process for helping clients discuss and then deal with some of the more unpleasant but necessary options that might arise in retirement planning.

To help clients address fears in areas such as market volatility that are outside their control, Birke suggested picturing the most helpful approach in this way:

When a client is sitting at the edge of a cliff and all before them looks bleak, the advisor should first sit next to them to appreciate what they see before he or she can point them toward the good parts of their lives. The creation of such "positive emotions," he said, helps expand people's view of the world, allowing them to see all their options and then take the most rewarding action that meets their needs.