There’s no question about it: people are living longer than ever before. Longer lives are a wonder of modern medicine and a true testament to the advancement of society. As we’ve mentioned before, however, this longevity doesn’t come free.

Many industry leaders now see outlining longevity as a critical component to retirement planning. For decades, longevity planning has simply been pulling some data together from disparate sources and largely guessing how long any given client would live. Because this strategy is often off the mark and generic, many advisors are simply avoiding it. 

Why tech matters for advisors

It’s not just how long you’ll live either. It’s the type of life that you’re clients will be living in those last years where planning is crucial. Certain ailments might make their golden years a financial nightmare if unplanned for. Imagine expecting a relaxing retirement and instead finding themselves wondering how they will pay their medical bills. The problem many firms face is that attempting to calculate medical expenses into the future takes a lot of data and research, something most client advisors don’t have time or resources for. 

Longevity planning with HALO

Genivity’s HALO assessment is looking to change all of this. Easy-to-use interfaces with powerful behind the scenes technology makes planning for your clients’ future a breeze. This tech is disrupting billions of dollars worth of financial planning and investors are taking note.

Investment News outlined Genivity as one of the companies that is working to change the financial planning world as we know it. We’re happy to be highlighted as a company changing the game by looking at how heredity and lifestyle factors will affect retirement and subsequently, how much money your clients may need to do it. 

Make no mistake, the future of the financial planning industry is going to be centered around longevity planning. In the past, we could make guesses based on certain criteria that would help retirees get a ballpark of how long their retirement funds would last. This still left plenty of retirees high, dry, and potentially bankrupt because certain factors weren’t taken into account in planning for their retirement. Today, we can do better and Genivity is doing better. No system is perfect, but utilizing modern data and algorithmic computing, we are the closest we’ve ever been to projecting retirement costs and the medical expenses associated with it for individual clients. 

We’re proud to be part of this new frontier and know that millions of retirees lives will be enhanced by the work of those innovating in this space at this moment. 

Over the last few months, our Founder and CEO, Heather Holmes, has been broadening her knowledge of the financial tech industry at the prestigious FIS Fintech Accelerator in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Who is FIS?

FIS serves the largest players in the financial world, processing 27 billion transactions and $9 trillion annually. Out of 30 fintech startups, only 10 leaders are asked to participate in this exclusive accelerator. During their 12 week stay, they learn from the best, brightest and most influential people in the fintech sector. Corporate partners such as Google, AWS and Hubspot are investing in the next generation of financial technology. We’re proud to be among them. 

How Genivity is excelling at the accelerator

Genivity started as a platform to use family health history, environmental factors, and behavioral information to project future medical expenses of any given individual. Today, after attending the FIS Accelerator, Heather is convinced we can do that and so much more. The price of medical care shows no signs of decreasing. Giving people solutions to help them plan how much they will need and when has the potential to open up billions of dollars in savings and push the envelope on future financial planning.

Heather and the entire Genivity team were honored that she was invited to this accelerator. It not only validates that Genivity is on to something groundbreaking, but that our technology and vision have the potential to disrupt the financial industry globally. More importantly, however, help people live healthy, happy lives in retirement. 

To read more about Heather’s time at the accelerator and the backstory of Genivity, check out this interview from FIS. 

Orion Advisor Services and Genivity are excited to announce the release of the Genivity HALO integration into the Orion Advisors solutions dashboard. This integration enhances the client portal experience and means that if you use Orion, you’ll now have quick access to the HALO Planner so you can deliver personalized longevity and healthcare expense planning to your clients even easier than before.

How your clients benefit from HALO

Health and eldercare expenses are the biggest unknown in financial planning.  Most advisors base their estimate on the average person, but your clients are not average.

And it’s no secret that longevity is a hot topic of conversation for advisors. With clients living longer than ever before, financial and retirement planning is getting more and more complex. Add to it increased longevity and the uncertainty of out-of-pocket health and elder care expenses and things can get complicated quickly.

The HALO Planner enables you and your clients to see personalized longevity projections along with how to think about retirement in terms of active healthy years and later elder care years and the related health expenses at each phase along the way.  The data-driven algorithm behind HALO accounts for family health history and lifestyle factors to provide personalized projections for individual clients.

As client lifestyles and histories change, the HALO Planner continues to refine their projections, which is why Genivity recommends clients update their HALO assessment at least once a year.

The nature of the assessment also opens the door for you as the advisor to start having better conversations around health and how it can affect client wealth and planning.  With personalized longevity and health care expense projections in hand, you can help your clients better plan for retirement and elder care as they age and prepare for their next stage in life.

How the integration works

If you’re an Orion advisor customer already, you’ll be able to add HALO by Genvity to your clients’ dashboards as soon as you purchase your HALO subscription.

Image 1: Orion Client Portal with Genivity Access

Once your clients login to their portal, all they need to do is click the Genivity tab in the top Tools navigation menu and the HALO assessment will open directly in the portal. Directing them to the assessment is a great way to prepare for a client meeting, as it will allow you to have all of the data prior to them coming to your office.

Image 2: HALO Assessment in the Client Portal

The client can take the assessment directly in the portal. After a client has taken the HALO assessment, you’ll be able to see all of your stored client data in the secure HALO advisor dashboard, using a single sign-on, which you can access from your Orion integrations dashboard.

Image 3: Genivity Advisor Dashboard Launch Button on the Orion Advisor Dashboard

Once in your HALO advisor portal, you can see usage stats as well as individual client results and reports. You can use the reports as a starting point for your client discussions and help provide a more robust, engaging, and personalized client experience.

Image 4: Example Advisor Dashboard with HALO Usage Stats

Enhance your HALO experience

When you begin using HALO, you can take your experience even further by embedding the HALO Planner assessment directly on your advisor website. You can leverage the HALO Planner to drive lead generation and business development by directing prospective clients directly to your site to take the assessment.

Once they take the assessment, you can access the lead information within your HALO dashboard via your Orion advisor portal.

Ready to get started?

If you’re ready to start the health and wealth conversation and provide a more personalized client experience, schedule a consultation today. Once you subscribe to an annual HALO plan, you’ll be able to add it to your workflow directly within your Orion advisor portal.

Not an Orion user yet? Be sure to learn more about Orion and their many integrations here.