Michael Finke Teams With Life Insurer on Income Planning Program

A life insurer is working with Michael Finke — a financial services researcher and ThinkAdvisor contributor — to create a goals-based income planning program.

The insurer, Protective, said the program will provide strategies financial professionals can use to analyze clients' income needs and risks and to come up with strategies to meet clients' retirement and estate planning goals.

James Wagner, chief distribution officer for Protective's retirement division, said in the program announcement that the company hopes to tailor income strategies to meet clients' needs based on a holistic view of how the clients want to live in retirement.

In some cases, Finke noted, those strategies could include annuities.

What It Means

Financial services companies are racing to give life insurance agents the big-picture analysis skills they need to operate under the Securities and Exchange Commission's Regulation Best Interest, and to give clients the advice and services they need to live comfortably after they retire.

"Income planning is a crucial part of retirement planning," Finke said.

The Players

Finke is professor of wealth management and Frank M. Engle Distinguished Chair in Economic Security at The American College of Financial Services. He earned a doctorate in consumer economics from The Ohio State University in 1998 and in finance from the University of Missouri in 2011. He is the head of the O. Alfred Granum Center for Financial Security at The American College.