Last week, we discussed the value of conducting a beneficiary review plan, targeting your top clients. The aim is not to disrupt any relationships your clients now have with attorneys and accountants, but rather to make sure that all of their important investments and documents — IRAs, pension plans, insurance policies, wills — have up-to-date beneficiary information.
Updated beneficiary details are so important and so often ignored that you will be providing an extremely valuable — and much appreciated — service by bringing this matter to your clients' attention.
The challenge: To create an actionable schedule that keeps you focused.
The solution:Start by e-mailing or calling your top 30 or 40 clients and scheduling in-person reviews. Use a summer intern or assistant to help. The reviews will provide an opportunity to discuss your clients' financial plans, enabling you to identify any future rollover possibilities. Send a reminder agenda with the meeting confirmation e-mail listing the documents you would like them to bring, including their will and all insurance policies and retirement plan statements. For a more in-depth client review checklist, visit
connectedadvisor.com.
Here are some scheduling suggestions:
Set aside six weeks for the beneficiary updates and block out three to four hours on Tuesday through Friday mornings, or whichever days work best with clients' schedules.
Next, alternate the days. Schedule three to four reviews on Tuesday and block the same time on Wednesday to complete any follow-up work. Financial advisers always tell me that one of their biggest challenges with any review process is the follow-up. By alternating “doing” and “follow-up” days, you prevent backlogs from occurring.
The process also will result in you completing six to eight reviews each week. This translates into completed beneficiary updates for your 40 top clients by mid-September. Between now and then, therefore, you will have focused on clients you can't afford to lose while really adding value to the relationship.
Beneficiary update checklist: Before you conduct your reviews, make sure you have the names and contact information for your clients' CPAs, estate planning attorneys and insurance agents. Also make sure to have information about their families, including address, phone numbers and birthdays/anniversaries, as well as updates on any life-changing events such as marriages, divorces, births, deaths, illnesses and employment changes.
In your reviews, make sure to look at wills, insurance policies and past and current retirement plans. To determine whether your clients may be prospects for rollovers, review current 401(k) plans for asset allocations and discuss possible future layoffs at their jobs.
Sample review invitation letter:
Date
Dear Mrs. Smith,
In order to provide the highest level of service to my most valued clients, I am meeting with each one to review their beneficiaries and make sure all documents have been updated. If your schedule permits, I would like to schedule your review on Tuesday or Thursday of next week between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Please e-mail us with the time that works best for you — or a better alternative.
Since this has been a challenging year for many of our clients, our review will provide an opportunity to discuss any changes in your personal and financial situation and make sure all policies and plans include up-to-date beneficiaries. Of course, we recommend that you don't may any changes until you contact your tax adviser and estate-planning attorney.
To get ready for our meeting, please take a few minutes to identify all insurance policies and retirement plans, especially old ones you may have forgotten about, so we can ensure all documents have current information. One client recently found her will hadn't been updated in five years and made important changes.
I value you as one of my most important clients and look forward to meeting with you for our beneficiary update.
Best regards,
(Signature)
Your name
Title
Now that you have the blueprint, start scheduling your client beneficiary updates this week. This checklist approach works. One top adviser we helped went through his top 40 clients, did a complete beneficiary update and uncovered new investment or insurance needs with many clients.
Next week: Developing a turnkey follow-up plan and asking for a referral from each top client.
