Today’s retirees and soon-to-be retirees are focused on getting the maximum value from their retirement planning. Not only does a retirement income stream need to be maximized, it also needs to have successful longevity for the retiree as well as a spouse or significant other for their lifetime. There are thousands of possible solutions available from banks, insurance companies, Wall Street firms, or the government. How does someone know which program will provide the greatest benefits for their situation?
One industry veteran has created a powerful strategy to help solve that problem. It is designed to educate and empower a retiree with the experiences of successful retirees who have navigated the financial challenges of retirement successfully.
Meet Bruce Smith III. He is a financial professional with a unique resume spanning more than 30 years in the industry. He is the CEO and founder of Get MORE Retirement, LLC, based in Mt. Union, PA. It is an off shoot of WealthKare.com, Inc., a registered investment advisory firm that Smith founded and currently serves as president for. He previously served as vice chairman for a national securities brokerage and has served on numerous advisory boards in both the investment and insurance industries. He also hosts a daily financial radio show. In an odd twist that on the surface would seem insignificant to a financial services resume, Smith served aboard submarines in the Nuclear Engineering department while in the US Navy. This duty gave him ample opportunity to study his blooming investment hobby and relationships with folks that would become his initial clients when he first hung his own shingle.
His focus today, however, lies in education.
“It is all about education for us. Teaching our clients really is the most important aspect of our relationship with them” Smith said. “When you ask someone what they truly understand about their retirement planning- you often get a puzzled and frightened look.”
Bruce believes that the greatest underserved need for retirees today is financial education. He has a lofty goal of changing the way Americans look at their retirement finances. To achieve that goal, Get MORE Retirement™ is launching a revolutionary e-Learning platform to help teach both consumers and advisors across America a simple strategy for maximizing retirement benefits. The program is called Your Retirement 101 ™.
With retirement income needs being met less and less with guaranteed pensions from workplace retirements, retirees have a greater responsibility to properly manage their retirement assets. Whether they are a do-it-yourself manager or using a professional advisor, they need to ask the right questions to help understand if their plan suits their retirement lifestyle needs. Today’s Retirees want to cut thru the complex marketing and hype of the financial industry and find out what is truly best for their situation.
Your Retirement 101™ is the result of over 30 year of interviews with successful retirees and advisors. That research has been condensed down into 10 simple steps that every retiree can follow to help maximize their lifetime benefits. The proprietary Get MORE Retirement™ strategy contains pin-pointed questions for retirees to ask themselves and their financial advisor to gain valuable insight for their retirement funding and economic security.
At the core of the strategy and the training is one simple question posed in the form of the acronym: WWASRD™- What would a successful retiree do? As a consumer driven training- each step of the program is evaluated on how a successful retiree might deal with the topic presented.
It is critical to ask the right questions as today’s retiree finds him or herself in a fast paced, time consuming world. One of the key elements missing from most retirement planning is keeping the consumer engaged in the process. There are so many distractions, and people have become disconnected from their money with the use of smart devices and electronic statements. The first step of Your Retirement 101 ™ is to help get people involved and reconnected with their money. Once that happens, they can begin asking the right questions to ensure their money is in sync with their lifestyle.
“Many retirees are unaware of what actually happens to their money over their retirement lifetime”, Smith said. “Quite often they avoid even looking at their accounts because they don’t understand them or believe that money management is too complex.”
“This can lead to financial disaster if left unchecked,” Smith emphasized.
His system, Your Retirement 101™, helps educate clients and shows them how easy it is to become involved and stay involved. It is much easier to learn about the impact of risk, fees, taxes, and income on their accounts when viewed from the experiences of successful retirees. It allows them to see a path that has been followed by others and may be suitable for them.
Your Retirement 101™ also offers training for professional advisors who want to use the strategy within their own practices. The increasing use of so-called online “Robo Advisors” programs is pushing “living and breathing” advisors out of the process, Smith said. “Real” advisors must find a way to show a greater value of their services to clients. That is where the Your Retirement 101™ program for advisors can help.
“It is able to create a more compliant business strategy where the advisor becomes less of a sales professional and more of an educator,” Smith explains. “The ten step process provides a common outline for both the advisor and the consumer to follow, resulting in clearer communications and a true partnership toward the retirees goals.”
For more information, please visit: www.wealthkare.com and www.getmoreretirement.com