For independent agents, growing an annuity business doesn’t always mean finding a completely new group of potential clients. Your best annuity prospects may already be clients. And as those clients approach retirement, change jobs, accumulate assets, or rethink how they want to use their savings, new annuity opportunities may naturally become part of the conversation. The key is knowing what to look for and taking the time to understand what your client needs before discussing a specific solution.
Start With What’s Changing for Your Client
A client’s financial picture rarely stays the same year after year, and regular client reviews give you an opportunity to revise those goals. Has your client’s expected retirement date changed? Do they want to discuss creating income from their savings? Has their comfort with market risk shifted as retirement gets closer? Have there been changes to their family, employment, or other financial circumstances? These conversations can help you identify which areas may deserve a closer look, along with any updated information to determine which options may or may not fit your client’s needs.
Know When It’s Time to Revisit a Conversation
Certain financial events can create a natural reason to reconnect with a client. For example, a CD approaching maturity may prompt a conversation about what your client plans to do with those funds next. A job change or retirement can also require new discussions and decisions about assets, like an employer-sponsored retirement plan. While these moments don’t automatically mean an annuity is the right answer, they can lead to more opportunity to talk through your client’s goals and review the choices available to them. Phase One Financial Group can help you evaluate these situations before moving toward a recommendation.
Listen for Retirement Income Questions
As retirement gets closer, conversations with your clients may begin to change. Instead of focusing primarily on building their savings, they may start asking how long that money needs to last or how different portions of their retirement assets should be used. So, when your client’s needs for retirement income change, an annuity may be one of several strategies worth considering. Different types of annuities also come with different features, costs, restrictions, and risks, so your client’s larger financial picture matters. Understanding what your client is trying to accomplish gives you a much stronger foundation for comparing options.
Build Annuity Opportunities into Your Review Process
Finding annuity opportunities in an existing book of business shouldn’t require guessing which clients might be interested in a particular product. Working through a consistent review process can help you identify opportunities within client relationships you’ve already invested years in building, instead of relying entirely on prospective new clients to grow your annuity business.
Build relevant questions into your regular review process. Look at upcoming retirement dates, job changes, maturing assets, rollover discussions, income needs, liquidity needs, risk tolerance, and other changes that may affect a client’s financial goals. From there, you can decide whether an annuity may be a good fit and, if so, which options best suit your client’s needs.
That is also where the right annuity IMO relationship can make a big difference. Phase One Financial Group works with you to provide hands-on, personal service for independent agents. That way, you have someone to help you work through the details instead of navigating the process on your own.
Look to the Relationships You’ve Already Built
Growing your annuity business can start by taking a closer look at the clients who already know and trust you. Help clients explore suitable options while strengthening your existing relationships. As your clients’ circumstances evolve, thoughtful reviews can help you recognize when a conversation about retirement income or an annuity makes sense. And when you need another perspective on a potential case, Phase One is here to help make complex annuity cases easier to navigate. Connect with us on our website, email Brian at [email protected], or call today at (800) 849-5520.