As a financial advisor you know that Social Security likely won’t cut it in the future. The political situation around the long-standing pool of money is anything but stable and the cost of living and healthcare keeps going up. This likely is a very real, very stressful aspect of retirement that your clients are facing— even for the affluent.

The most imposing part of this challenge is that most people who are approaching retirement age who have a retirement plan think they’re set up for their lifestyle into their retirement years. But one question that continues to go unanswered for many is, “how will I create lasting, sustainable income in retirement?”

Starting the Conversation

If you’re an advisor, you may recognize this but have clients who are convinced they will be ok and they don’t want to talk about it any further— especially when it involves their health.

One solution that many retirees have found is that they can take a part-time job or only partially retire to supplement their income. If your clients think they’ll be able to continue to work, it’s important to have the conversation about their health early, because chronic illness can derail otherwise solid planning.

What is Sustainable Income?

In an interview with Barrons, Nobel-prize winning economist William Sharpe tried to give some insight into what sustainable retirement income would look like. One of the more interesting strategies he illuminates is “buckets” of annuities and investment for each year of retirement instead of drawing a fixed percent from a single large investment.

However, he does warn that navigating a complex situation like retirement income might be more than the average retiree is willing to handle. This, obviously, is where you come in. There is no right or wrong way to handle the flow of money in retirement, except to make sure that there is enough to align with the desires of your clients.

Annuities and investments can be overwhelming even to financial advisors at times. Helping to create income retirement that your clients can count on is what they’re relying on you to do. Likewise, it’s what can make the difference between (hopefully) a relaxing and joyful retirement and a stressful, penny-pinching one.

It’s important to keep in mind that not every client will keep you on indefinitely either. They may seek your services only to help create their plan and then manage it on their own. While it’s never fun to lose a client, these people can help hone your skill set of creating lasting retirement income for future advisees.

Beyond Income

Discussing sustainable retirement income with clients can’t happen without a discussion about long-term care and health care costs. Michael Valdez, CFP®, AIF, CLU, from Synergy Wealth Alliance says that a conversation with clients about “wealth preservation is also about who they are and what they want to do with their life— their big-picture purpose.”

Valdez also believes that wealth preservation and retirement income comes down to early planning and leveraging available tax-advantaged funds. Rather than pulling from planned income to pay for long-term care or other health care expenses, early planning and asset reviews can ensure clients have a steady income for the entirety of their remaining lifespan.

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world today, markets that go up must come down and any time your clients are reliant on government programs for income could spell trouble. Be aware of those clients that are approaching their retirement years and be sure to have a real, transparent conversation about how they plan to fund their retirement regardless of the uncertainties.

The media has been tireless in reporting on the new state of retail in the United States. Some call it a “retail apocalypse” others see it as an evolution of traditional brick and mortar. Whatever the hot take of the day is, one thing is for sure: retail is changing.

What does retail have to do with financial advising?

As an advisor, you should be focused on creating an engaging client experience. To that end, it’s good to ask yourself “what can I learn from the changing landscape of retail?” While retail and financial advisors work in very different segments, that doesn’t mean there’s no overlap. Retail successfully generates billions of dollars in sales every year and cements customer loyalty along the way. In the same way, building trust and loyalty with your clients is incredibly important.

The new push in the retail arena is “retail experience.” It’s no longer good enough to just set your wares out on a shelf and hope passing customers jump at the deals, they need to be invested in the shopping experience itself as soon as they set foot in the store.

The same thing rings true with your firm. What are you doing to make sure that your advisees have a great experience when talking about their financial future? You probably won’t be able to invest the same type of resources that a retail giant would, but you can scale appropriately.

Easy steps to building a great customer experience

Simple gestures like offering beverages or snacks to clients that sit down in your office go a long way. Likewise, taking clients out for lunch now and again (especially if they have sizeable investments with you) is a no-brainer. Even simply calling up and checking in on clients to see how they’re doing, allowing them to talk to you about their financial lives, can go a long way.

Allowing your clients to interact with you and their money in a way that they feel comfortable is a must. Whether that’s face-to-face, more or less digital, or somewhere in between, making sure that your clients feel heard and accommodated will build trust and give them the ultimate financial advising experience.

Try brainstorming some ideas to improve your customer experience, you’ll be happy you did and it might just be the investment you needed to take your firm to the next level.