People may know what they want to retire from, but not what they want to retire to. There's the rub, as Bill Shakespeare would say.

As an advisor, you may take well to helping people sort through their thoughts and feelings on what they want and figure how, as a couple, they can achieve the harmony that is due in retirement.

Case in Point

Amy dreams of retirement starting at 60…in a home that is mortgage-free (or almost) with a big tub, big closets and a big kitchen…and a room dedicated to massage. She has visions of helping diabetic women with therapeutic massage, feeding them dishes she concocts with what she learned in culinary classes. All this in between travels with Jeff to events they would very much like to see, such as the Kentucky Derby and the running of the bulls in Spain. They both want a loft in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.

Jeff wants to remain active in retirement, but settled in a place with four pleasant seasons, like the Oregon coast or a small town in New England. And Jeff would like to work through retirement, returning to school to reinvent himself, perhaps in archeology. Jeff sees travel as a must, but does not want the touristy things Amy dreams of. They both agree that they'd like to spend one month twice a year working with children in developing nations. They absolutely agree on the loft in Vancouver.

This scenario is real. It came about when Amy and Jeff took some time and each completed a dream sheet of desires, then compared notes. They are not retired yet, so they still have a ways to go. They are agreed on not wanting to suffer the nursing home route Jeff's dad did. They agree on the amount of money they need to put away to secure this vision. They understand that life can interrupt their plans whenever it decides to bury its smile in the sand and rear its ugly head. Such is life.

But Amy and Jeff are smart. They plan…and work their plan without flinching. Jeff says, "…for me, failing to prepare means preparing to fail." He's right, of course, but Amy and Jeff are a financial advisor's dream client. Would that it were so with the rest of the population.

The remaining hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. and Canada occupy themselves so insistently on the present that they can only dream of the future and, seeing it and guessing—yes guessing—what they must do to prepare to achieve their cloudy vision, freak out. The last thing you want is new clients who are already stressed about failing for retirement, eh? What's an advisor to do?

Last Things First

What's the last thing you want to do or can afford to do in your financial advisory? Hint: It takes time and is not immediately productive. If you guessed "do three to five hours of fact-finding and prioritizing for retirement with a couple who has talked very little about this" then you are right. It should be the last thing you want to do. If you do not do this, however, you may feel guilty and professionally negligent. If you actually do this, you are incredibly inefficient and infinitesimally patient. Either way, you suffer. There is a better way.

ELP

Enhanced Lifestyle Planner—ELP takes all that work that you cannot afford to take the time to do and, using state of the art online technology, does it for you. "It" is fact finding and prioritizing prior to meeting and working on a comprehensive retirement plan. 540+ questions take about 30 minutes to complete. Individuals or couples can do it.

There are two questionnaires, depending on the age and circumstances of the client.

Version One — Pre-retirement Planning is used with clients who are 45+ and not retired.

Version Two — Life Balance is used with clients of all ages including retirees .

A report of 16-22 pages is generated for you, the advisor. You control the feedback loop. You can lead the client with it or mail it to those you do not want to spend time with. Imagine—a pre-qualifier for clients. Amazing.

Another amazing fact is that the price for certification is relatively inexpensive ($295. but a price raise is being considered) which includes your first 10 questionnaires. Additional questionnaires cost $6 - $10 each, based on the number purchased. It is easy to see that ELP is inexpensive to obtain. It is also at the price range where charging $10. - $25. a head or more for a workshop would pay for the tests and perhaps defray some workshop expenses as well.

Sample Scenario

You advertise your preretirement workshop around Enhanced Lifestyle Planning. You receive the MSPowerPoint™ slide show with you certification training. You state that the ELP questionnaire can be taken, scored and the personal report given to each participant for a fee of $25. Your administrative assistant supplies participants with the code to take the questionnaire and makes sure they will come to the workshop. You conduct the 60-90 minute workshop on life balance and give each participant his report. Latecomers can take the questionnaire by hand (although this later requires inputting the answers into the computer and I recommend against it). You concentrate on the participants that seem like potential clients for you and give the others to associates. Easy. Cost-effective.

ELP helps clients quantify and prioritize their goals for retirement, however diverse they may be, and do it gradually.

A client of mine introduced to me to ELP in its infancy. In a recent email he confirmed, "As an update we just yesterday moved to our own building. As well, I have added staff and won a national contract with the Canadian Chamber of Commerce to provide retirement plans for 350 chambers across Canada for 170,000 businesses. We are busy.… we are using the ELP for our workshop program that we are marketing to HR departments of large corporations. We did a Retirement workshop for a large organization based in Washington at their annual meeting in Quebec City. Good response with an invitation to present in Arizona."

Still skeptical, I did my due diligence. I got excited. I talked with 10 or so ELP users and discussed the marketing implications for ELP. I became ELP certified myself. Then, I took a step I had refused to take for 24 years and decided to sell ELP to advisors and add value to it by helping them with their marketing when they get their ELP certification through me. (See my advertisement in Broker World or go to www.melchinger.com and click on the Enhanced Lifestyle Planning tab.)

All Online

Enrollment process:
1. Go to www.melchinger.com and click the Enhanced Lifestyle Planning tab
2. Scroll down to the blue bar that says ELP Introduction and click
3. Click the Financial Planners link
4. Scroll down and read this page. When you get to ELP Registration Agreement, click and the agreement will appear in a separate window.
5. At the bottom of the agreement, you may click I Agree and a form will appear for you to complete and pay. It is self-explanatory.

There is a complete money back guarantee in the first ten days. We want you to complete the first session of training and really know that ELP is for you before going forward.

Training is online audio. At the completion of training, there is an exam to pass for your certification. Then your account is credited with your first ten questionnaires, you are given your codes, and the rest of your future history with ELP is yours to write.

Golden Opportunity

Now there are more people looking for more advice than ever, and fewer advisors who are actually qualified to give it.

If you need to differentiate (and you do)
if you need a brand (and you do)
if you could use some excitement in your professional career

ELP—Enhanced Lifestyle Planning may be just what the doctor ordered.

It's about marketing.

Questions? Email jhmco@melchinger.com

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