5 ways to protect your business

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• How to make the leap from RRSPs to investment growth, retirement income and legacy planning
• Making retirement saving easier for your clients
• How to keep emotions out of investing — especially during RRSP season

In spite of your efforts to get clients investing in RRSPs year-round, too many wait until the last minute to make their contribution. The result: you’re crazy busy right now. But on the plus side, you have an ideal opportunity to check in with your clients. Here’s what to keep in mind to ensure you’re adding maximum value to the relationship:

• Tap into your clients’ emotions. A successful retirement is about more than just money. This mozoblog article by Nikhil Sreedhar looks at goals-based investing: the idea that clients are more apt to buy into an investment strategy if they’re able to take aim at specific retirement goals, creating investment “envelopes” for each, so they know what they’re working toward.
• Know what they don’t know. Jason Heath’s article in the Financial Post hones in on some of the misconceptions that can hamper your relationship with clients, from over-estimating clients’ financial know-how and risk tolerance, to checking in on them only during RRSP season.
• Offer solutions to their problems. Although Harper’s family income splitting is off the table, this CBC article with files from Tom McFeat focuses on other income-splitting measures to keep money in the pockets of families.
• Do some hand-holding. This Kiplinger article by Anne Kates Smith offers a recipe for how to deal productively with stock market volatility in retired clients’ accounts.
• Stay abreast of the competition. U.S. companies have begun to urge clients to keep their nest eggs in the corporate 401(k) plan when they change jobs or retire, according to Sarah Krouse and Timothy W. Martin, writing for the Wall Street Journal. The impetus: as the Boomers retire in droves, companies worry that they’ll have less leverage to negotiate lower fees with outside money managers. Can it be long until Canadian employers follow suit? And while you’re at it, read Andrew Osterland’s thoughtful CNBC article on the future of robo-advisors.