Briggs Matsko About Briggs Matsko
Briggs A. Matsko, CFP®, CRPC® is a registered representative of Lincoln Financial Advisors. Through his process-driven approach to Retirement Income Distribution, Briggs examines this transitionary period from a psychological, as well as financial perspective. Briggs is a founding board member of The Resource Group, a group of top planners within Lincoln Financial Advisors, and has been a member of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) since 1987, qualifying for “Top of the Table” every year since.

MDRT Top of the Table Tips, A Retirement Planning Guide

A one-size-fits-all approach is no longer the standard in today’s society. To be a successful financial advisor, you need to be driven by an effective process in order to best serve your clients, rather than being focused on the products you are offering.

Boomers are now beginning to retire and they will need tailored guidance to help them transition into retirement. Part of my success has come from my desire to make the financial planning process customized, comprehensive, easy to understand and appealing to my clients. Consequently I’ve developed a system called “EASE” to help me best reach these advising goals. This system has worked well for me, as I’ve achieved Top of the Table status at the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) for nearly 20 years, but most importantly, it’s helped my clients achieve their greatest financial potential.

Engage Your Client in the Process

I begin by fully committing myself to my client. I prepare myself with an objective customized approach and method  prior to our discussion so I am ready  to work through the entire process. We sit down as a team and I engage my client by sharing our concepts on how to categorize expenses in retirement and link them to their income sources and assets. I use a retirement income matrix to visually present this information to help them understand exactly how their financial structure should work.

Analyze Their Options

Clients tend to worry if they have enough money to enjoy retirement or even survive. However, they find the task of thinking about it overwhelming, due to all the risk variables.  I feel most people relate to images and graphics versus spreadsheets and narrative.  Consequently I use a robust software program inputting all their data and then analyzing the output which solves for investment, inflation, longevity  and other “risk” factors in retirement. This is all done interactively and allows us to perform numerous “what-if” scenarios on the fly so clients can stake out their best options or see the various effects of multiple strategies.

Solutions (both Product and Non Product)

Once the proper analysis is completed and we have helped the client define their course, we suggest various product solutions, such as annuities, managed money, life and long-term-care insurance. We also may suggest non-product solutions such as having the client work a few more years or rethinking their budgets in retirement. By developing several comprehensive strategies for clients to choose from,  it is less likely they will feel as though they are being pushed into any one decision.  Clients are confident they have been presented all viable options and will be less likely to seek a second opinion, which increases the chances of a successful sale.

Again, I like to develop visuals to enhance the presentation of solutions, using images and graphs to illustrate how each product would affect their retirement. For instance, I will create a model for how long-term-care insurance benefits would factor into income generation over the length of retirement versus the risk of self-insuring.  I would do the same to demonstrate the potential positive effects of an annuity on a client’s income, and so on.

Evaluate Results

After providing plans for your client, be sure to give them a thorough evaluation of possible solutions. While no plan is perfect, evaluating the results of the client’s choice prior to putting a plan in place offers a greater chance of financial success. In general, both you and your client will know what to expect over the course of their retirement, giving the client not only a sense of security in their financial plan for retirement, but confidence in you as their trusted financial advisor.

Finally, staying organized is crucial to my process and success. I developed a system allowing me to track all of my client programs. I list my client’s name, the date I engaged them in our planning process and all relevant due dates for materials and meetings. I keep notes about which steps will be next in our planning, when the next meeting needs to be scheduled and what the final plan looks like. Attention to detail makes a great difference when advising a high volume of clients, or when clients have unique financial needs.

Success doesn’t necessarily depend on how much money you make or how many clients you have. Success depends on your attitude toward your duties as an advisor and your relationships with your clients. Being product-driven pushes clients away because they know you are looking to make a sale. Instead, being objectively and genuinely engaged in the journey of planning for retirement by helping clients define their future conveys you are truly concerned about their well-being. This ultimately results in a higher level of trust and confidence which translates into greater client satisfaction and better business for you.

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