The Implementation Meeting

For example, if the clients are really concerned about protecting their money from taxes, inflation and the high cost of long-term care, your recommendations should include solutions to those concerns. Your clients may also want to begin college education plans for their grandchildren.

The "Why" slide should outline how your IRA recommendations may help them hedge against inflation and maintain tax deferral. Consider inserting pictures that stimulate emotion. Consider putting their whole estate on the PowerPoint slide that shows where their money is today and where they need to transfer it to secure their goals, needs and wishes.

The What? Show clients your menu of services and how they can help fulfill what's missing in their lives. This page is the list of things that you recommend for them. For the case study, a hypothetical recommendations page could include:

1. Consult with an estate planning attorney to have your documents reviewed and updated.
2. Invest six months of your expenses in an interest-bearing money market account.
3. Move your excess savings into a tax-deferred investment grade life insurance policy that can leverage your money 150% to 300%. This tax-deferred contract provides approximately 300% leveraging for long-term care expenses and 150% tax-free leveraging in a death benefit. The policy typically avoids probate and strives to keep together what you worked so hard to put together.
4. Transfer your IRA into a combination of guaranteed accounts, separate accounts with income guarantees and actively managed accounts.
5. Open up a 529 plan for each grandchild.

The How? The "how" is a graphically clear picture of what details are needed to begin implementation. We call this our implementation process. You may want to list their current assets in boxes on the left side of the page with arrows pointing to boxes on the right side of the page labeled as the new investments. On the arrows, we list the nature of the transfer. For example, if the new client is moving an IRA to a new IRA, we will label it "IRA direct transfer." When we are taking the client through this page, we will contrast an IRA rollover with an IRA transfer. We may label another arrow "1035 exchange" or "401(k) transfer." If the 401(k) plan is moving to several new accounts, we'll branch the arrows into several boxes on the right side with their respective titles.

These are the steps needed to implement their plan; the paperwork, the meetings, the people and the process. Call this page the timeline. Going back to the recommendations page that explains the what, you should take the recommendations page and assign who is responsible for each task, what paperwork needs to be signed and what the timeline is of the transaction. This will clearly outline who is responsible for implementing the prospect's plan and setting expectations as to when it will be done.

Brent Welch, CFP, ChFC, CLU, is founder and managing member of Welshire Capital LLC. Reach him at www.welshirecapital.com.