2007 FPA Financial Planners' Attitudes and Perceptions About
Retirement Income Distribution
Sponsored by Fidelity Investments and
Produced by The Diversified Services Group, Inc.

A quantitative study of Financial Planners' attitudes and perceptions regarding retirement distribution planning, and retirement income and asset management

Retiring Americans are faced with increasingly complex financial options and decisions. Large numbers turn to "financial advisors" for help to manage their retirement finances. These financial advisors are the gatekeepers who determine what financial strategies to employ for retirement income and asset management before, at, and after the retirement inflexion point.

The Financial Planning Association (FPA) and the Diversified Services Group (DSG) have co-produced a quantitative study focused specifically on the Financial Planner Channel and retirement income and planning issues.

This recent 2007 quantitative study, which was sponsored by Fidelity Investments, has been expanded considerably over last year's inaugural study and builds on the FPA's increased focus on the retirement income market and DSG's ongoing syndicated research series on the retirement management market, the RM²Reports Series.

The Project Background:

To achieve research objectives, 10,000 members of FPA were selected at random and invited to participate in this online research study. The Diversified Services Group (DSG) fielded the survey in June 2007. A total of 753 surveys (7.5 percent of the sample) were completed between June 5 and June 15 and are reflected in this report with a +/-3 percent margin of error.

The overwhelming majority of the respondents have had more than five years' experience in providing advice and services to retired, or nearly retired, clients. Additionally, more than ten percent of either their assets under management or compensation is derived directly from retirement income distribution plans.

Topics Covered:

This unique study quantifies attitudes and perceptions of financial planners (FA's); how they have modified the advice they are giving their older clients, and what type of retirement planning processes and retirement income products and services they are using. Issues covered include:

• here advisers expect 25% of their revenue growth to come from and will need the most support in terms of tools/resources.
• Which marketing methods are most effective for advisers and what methods they are interested in, but need assistance in utilization.
• How advisers engage the client in a retirement planning discussion and significantly increase the amount of client assets they manage.
• Which "pitfalls" clients encounter and what tools advisers need to help clients navigate through the retirement process.
• Which resources advisers value the most.
• What type of training/education advisers would like to pursue.

Several dominant themes that emerged from the study include:

• FA's will benefit from becoming expert in "IRA rollovers" as increasing numbers of Americans "retire" and seek advice regarding retirement income planning.
• A significant portion of financial planners' clients are already retired, and these advisers expect that to accelerate over the next five years. This shift will significantly impact advisers' time and resources as clients start to focus on income distribution and adequacy over accumulation and total return, which may in turn accelerate the trend toward a "fee for service" based model.
• FA's understand the potential of retirement income planning for their businesses. In fact, almost half of the respondents (47 percent) expect between 10 and 30 percent of their growth will come from serving retirement income and planning needs.
• FA's are considering a selective expansion of their professional networks, such as tax and legal professionals who can generate referrals as well as supplement their expertise--allowing them to focus their efforts on building their client relationships without increasing their overhead.
• This study provides benchmarks to assess the attitudes and perceptions of the Financial Planner Channel (commissioned and fee based) regarding key aspects of the retirement management market, what drives increased interest in it, what they want from their partners, and what they believe their clients want from them.

Note: Financial Planning Association (FPA) member firms and DSG clients, including Retirement Management Executive Forum (RMEF) member firms, can obtain a copy of the entire Report for a reduced fee.

Prospectus:

Please click here to submit a request.

Table of Contents:

Pricing:

Please contact Borden Ayers at 610-989-1710 ext. 21 or bordena@dsg-network.com to learn more about this project and its special pricing options.

MORE INFORMATION

©2008 The Diversified Services Group, Inc., All rights reserved