How to use technology to help your clients buy into planning for a more comfortable retirement

By AdviceBridge

All financial advice is important but planning for a more comfortable retirement is helpful for us all.

The introduction of Pension Freedoms has changed the way people access their pension funds at retirement. And it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking funding life in retirement can be done without professional advice.

Retirement advice is complicated:

  • Multiple pension options and retirement solutions
  • Involves longer-term planning than other areas of advice
  • Clients may have complex needs and goals when they retire.

And it often involves multiple factors and solutions:

  • Educating clients about their options and the key issues
  • Encouraging them to think about their longer-term objectives
  • Equipping them with the tools to compare and contrast the options presented to them.

Get clients to play an active role in decision-making

Retirement planning begins with conversations about desired lifestyle. The act of getting clients to share their hopes and aspirations leads to the nitty-gritty reality of how much this is likely to cost.

Once you and the client have a clear idea of how much money they will need for the retirement they aspire to, you can sit down together and work out how to achieve it.

This is where technology really helps.

Taking into account the money they have now, the money they can afford to save for their retirement, how long they have before they retire and what they might expect to receive in State Pension is a lot for someone to take in.

Key takeaway: Technology can break things down and make information easier to digest. An intuitive visual aid makes the story more engaging.

Use technology to sell the story

The AdviceBridge platform enables you to share a vision of a retirement financial plan and engages clients with its simple and meaningful interface.

Once you have all the numbers to hand, use AdviceBridge to provide a single figure showing what clients can afford to spend on a monthly basis now and in retirement.

While talking with your client, you can use the tool to highlight how altering their finances will affect their financial situation.

Illustrating how the change can influence the money they have available to spend, now and in retirement, can help increase awareness of how small changes can create big differences.

If there’s a need to save more to afford the retirement your client is hoping for, you can use the tool to show this and help the client understand the gap they need to fill.

Key takeaway: Using a visual interface can help increase awareness of a client’s financial situation and highlight the impact small changes can make over the long-term.

Increase engagement and improve awareness

Making retirement planning information visual helps improve awareness and can encourage people to take action to improve their situation.

AdviceBridge allows clients to interact with their pension savings, which can lead to the surprising advantage of achieving better results.

A recent Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) report on current accounts found that “annual interest statements have virtually no effect on consumer actions. But given immediately actionable information – text alerts and internet banking – overdraft charges can be reduced by consumers by almost 25%”.

Providing your advice clients with a similar actionable opportunity is likely to have a similar impact on behaviour towards long-term savings and pension plans.

AdviceBridge enables clients to access and update information 24/7. As their adviser, you’ll receive an alert about the changes in their finances, allowing you to step in and give appropriate and timely advice.

Key takeaway: Providing immediate actionable information can lead to better results, for you and your client.

Technology can help make financial advice more accessible

Technology can help provide guidance through advice, helping lightly automate through full robo for retirement planning based on factors such as client goals, attitude to risk, and how much they have saved. This can help make financial advice more accessible – especially for those with smaller pension pots.

It can also prove to be useful for personalising pension communications and reports.

Timing is crucial to engagement and it can be helpful to segment your clients so you can communicate the right message at the right time.

Key takeaway: The right technology solution can help make financial advice more accessible.

Improve engagement and achieve better results with AdviceBridge

AdviceBridge is easy to implement within your business, integrating with existing software and significantly improving your business. Advisers and clients get their own separate dashboard along with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

It saves you time and helps your clients feel more engaged in their financial future.

Find out more about our service and how we can help you by emailing us at hello@advicebridge.com or calling us on 020 3925 3850.