With recession fears constantly looming, inflation soaring, and new regulations, including the SECURE 2.0 Act, clients frequently name retirement security as their top financial priority – putting the onus on advisors to be prepared for these important conversations. 

Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) Program Director Eric Ludwig, CFP® hosted the panel discussion on retirement planning along with four members of The College’s FinServe Network who work primarily with clients in this area. Subjects ranged from inflation and taxation to shifts in banking systems, financial literacy, and more. 

Preparation Means Greater Security

Ludwig started off the conversation by noting the two biggest disruptors for retirement planning today – recession fears and inflation – and how these combined worries can cause anxiety about retirement security for many clients. 

FinServe Network advisors said that while they have seen an increase in concern from clients, they also see current turbulence as an opportunity to encourage clients to engage more with them. “I think fear typically comes from not knowing, so if you’ve talked with clients beforehand and prepared for different situations, you can create momentum like in football planning,” said Padric Scott, AEP®, CFP®, CAP®, ChFC®, CLU®, WMCP®, CCFC, President and CEO of Crossroad Capital Partners. “Seeing the excitement in them to get to planning and stick with the plan all comes from setting expectations early on.” 

Jason Austell, CFP®, MSFS, ChFC®, CLU®, CASL®, RICP®, AEP®, CAP®, a financial planner at MassMutual Carolinas, agreed, saying that advisors need to equip themselves with a toolbox of knowledge and strategies and be prepared to alter their planning depending on shifts in the financial landscape. “What we use today may not be exactly what we need next week, next year, and so forth,” he said. “It helps to have a baseline of confidence in a portion of a client’s money and know they’re not going to lose that, so they can take more but appropriate risks with what they have left and try to build up assets that will support their needs long-term.” 

Keeping Clients in the Loop

Ludwig also noted that since the stock market crash of 2008, various types of assets and planning strategies have experienced ups and downs in effectiveness that have forced advisors to rethink how they approach retirement planning – including the relatively recent end to a long period of low interest rates due to rising inflation. Several of the advisors present shared stories of clients they’d worked with who were caught by surprise when unexpected situations disrupted their planning and emphasized the value of preparing for any eventuality – and educating clients while doing it. 

“One of my clients and her husband are in their late 70s and believed they didn’t need any help with their retirement planning,” said Nancy Du, MBA RICP®, CFP®, a financial advisor at Ashford Advisors. “But then in 2022 the stock market tanked and her husband was diagnosed with dementia. She panicked and sold everything they owned in the market, thinking it was the right thing to do, before coming to me for help. Since then we’ve ensured they have a good portfolio, pension plan, and annuities to support their retirement lifestyle and care, but it reinforces the idea that people need to be aware of their situation and their goals.” 

The power of working with informed clients was a recurring theme and one that Terry Parham, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, RICP®, WMCP®, a financial planner and co-founder of Innovative Wealth Building, elaborated on, pointing out the power of resources like RISA profiles and retirement styles. “It’s a natural human tendency to see people going a certain direction from social media or the news and go that direction too,” he said. “It’s like Costco on a Saturday: long lines everywhere, and as soon as a new one opens, everyone jumps in that line and makes it long again. We need to look at the specifics of each client’s situation and help them realize that we live in a dynamic world where truths about money are always changing.” 

Getting Ahead of Retirement Planning

Overall, the panel of advisors agreed that one of the keys to sound retirement planning is to work more closely with clients and form a relationship founded on both business and personal levels. The panelists repeatedly returned to the themes of proper planning made well in advance of crisis situations to help reduce the risk of running out of money in retirement and being proactive rather than reactive. 

“I always ask people, would you rather be punching someone in the mouth or getting punched in the mouth?” said Scott. “Allowing your money to be wasted with unnecessary taxes when you could have planned against it is like allowing Uncle Sam to punch you in the mouth. Why not get ahead of all that? If you’re delaying Social Security for a lower income base, front-run some of those dollars so you can then think long-term. If you end up in a situation where you have a lot of extra income, you’re not going to be using it anyway, and you’re setting yourself up for failure. It’s so important to get the lay of the land, find the mines you need to navigate with your clients and adjust accordingly.”

These included the challenges independent advisors face in maintaining stability and consistent organic growth during times of market volatility. According to a 2022 benchmarking study by Charles Schwab, many RIAs’ target of 4% growth in 2021 failed to account for rising inflation, leaving many firms at a net negative and starving for organic growth. 

Wealth Management Certified Professional® (WMCP®) Program Director Michael Finke, PhD, CFP® hosted one such discussion: a panel focused on Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firms. Along with four members of The College’s FinServe Network from thriving RIAs, Finke led a meaningful conversation that ranged from what to do when markets go south to managing charitable giving, helping clients plan for their eventual retirement, and more. 

Steady Hands Amid Shaky Markets

One of the primary subjects involved recent changes in interest rates and market declines, which have put many clients on edge. Finke and the panelists acknowledged that it would be objectively foolish to believe markets would only go up, but also that many younger investors who may not have experienced high-interest rate environments or market volatility don’t always properly understand the risks of investing. 

“There's a lot of anxiety,” said Scott Winslow, MSFS, ChFC®, CLU®, RICP®, AEP®, CCFC, managing partner at Nabell Winslow Investments & Wealth Management. “We’re getting a lot of calls from people who thought every advisor was doing a great job until we suddenly hit this market turbulence, and they want to know what went wrong. We focus mainly on educating clients upfront on possible outcomes so that when downturns happen, they’re prepared for them.” 

Chief Wealth Coach at Alchemist Wealth Andrew Tudor, CFP®, CAP®, agreed that advisors must better convey to clients that risk is an accepted part of the game when investing. “Like Mike Tyson once said, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,’” he said. “A lot of people got punched in the face this year, and I think we’ve gotten into a space where people in our industry want to sell certainty. We need to be more upfront that certainty isn't a given. Positive charts and graphs are great, but we need to uncover what their fears are, see the questions behind the questions, and make sure we give investors a feeling of control over their outcomes while still steering them toward the best ones.” 

Angela Ribuffo, CFP®, RICP®, ChFC®, CDFA, CLTC, WMCP®, president and financial advisor at Raion Financial Strategies LLC, added that one way of protecting against client panic in market downturns is to talk about the potential downsides to investing first. “A lot of advisors focus on the gains so that when the losses come, they have to walk things back a little,” she said. “My philosophy is that if we protect against the downside, the upside will come eventually – that’s natural market recovery. So let’s focus on the downside: what are you willing to give up? What are you willing to do differently? What’s your Plan B? That way, when the downside comes, there’s no fear factor with clients because they can sit back and say, ‘We planned for this; we’re going to be okay.’” 

Turning Lemons into Lemonade

Turning away from the pure downside aspects of the current market, Finke encouraged panelists to talk about what opportunities might exist in a high-interest rate, high-yield environment. Several of the panelists spoke about how there could be hidden benefits in the form of new planning strategies. 

Heather Welsh, CFP®, AEP®, MSFS, vice president of wealth planning at Sequoia Financial Group, brought up how to reduce the pain of taxation through Roth conversions. “Down markets can really be an opportune time to do those conversions and then capture the appreciation in a tax-free environment on the upside,” she said. “You can turn that low into an opportunity for somebody to continue progressing toward their goals. At its core, financial planning is about establishing that pathway to financial success for clients regardless of the variables outside our control.” 

Finke and Winslow had a discussion about how many advisors who stretched investment strategies for yield in the low-interest environment of the past 10 years were punished, along with their clients, when rates shot up in 2022. Winslow said it had forced his firm to rethink how they approach working with high-net-worth clients. 

“We were really trying to use some hedging strategies before, but now that you can build a portfolio of treasuries or less risky assets in the short term, we can get back to old, academic portfolio management,” he said. “What I’ve been doing more now than I have in almost my entire career is buying up a lot of three-month to two-year treasuries just to fund short-term needs.” 

Tudor added that there are now also increased opportunities in the charitable giving space. “A lot of our financially-savvy and income-based clients are still often the charitable ones in their communities,” he said. “We have our definitions of high-income and high-net-worth, but they aren’t always the same inside a community. I’ve found that at certain levels they’re still giving at a higher percentage, so we can approach charitable giving in a really impactful way. $10,000 may not seem like a big deal to some, but if it’s from one of the largest donors in a local church, for example, it can be. And there are many strategies we can use to offset taxes or increase their yields to give them a nice experience around safe money.” 

Assets to Clients in Need

Finke also asked the group whether asset location, rather than asset selection, might be the primary value proposition of a financial advisor. The group generally agreed that products and asset types are not the end-all, be-all of an advisor’s role with clients. 

“Working with clients is an education process, not just an action process,” Ribuffo said. “It’s not us telling them what to do but helping them understand the why of it. If they understand the why of it, they’re more likely to execute it and keep on the path versus getting distracted by outside noise. This is the perfect opportunity for advisors to say to clients, ‘This is why you have me.’” 

Winslow said this collaboration with clients and across the profession has become even more important with new SECURE 2.0 Act regulations on the books. “We’re using this opportunity to go out and talk to CPAs and attorneys, particularly in the qualified plan market, on the changes that are coming up,” he said. “There's a lot of unique little provisions in there, and decisions have to be made. So we spend more time with clients and go out to the other centers of influence to discuss those things.” 

The group also reflected on changing attitudes between generations to money management: they noted that while the post-World War II generation was driven by a desire to leave their children better off than they were in their lifetime, the later Baby Boomers are simply trying to navigate not running out of money in retirement. But many, they said, are still looking to give back to their communities with what they have left. 

“Conversations start to shift toward ‘I would really like to see my impact while I’m still alive. How can I start giving these dollars away now?’” said Tudor. “People want to know how they can be an active member of their community with their money and not just leave it behind, hoping their kids will take care of it.”

Juneteenth is a time to celebrate our progress in advancing racial equity and harmony while also being mindful of the work that still needs to be done to eradicate systemic inequities in America.

Here, at The American College of Financial Services, we recognize the impact of economic inequality on communities and are working to narrow the wealth gap by championing diversity in financial services. This August, we will host the 17th annual Conference of African American Financial Professionals (CAAFP), with this year's theme being "Reclaiming Black Wealth." With the passing of the 13th amendment in 1865, African Americans achieved political freedom. Yet, financial freedom remains unobtainable for many Black families leaving nearly 3.5 million Black households with negative net worth and 4.3 million more with a net worth under $10,000.¹ 

The racial wealth gap in America has not continuously widened. In the decades immediately following the end of slavery, the wealth gap was diminishing rapidly.² In the early 20th century, Black communities were thriving across the country, including the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Harlem, New York, the "Sweet Auburn" District of Atlanta, and the neighborhood of Christian Street and Black Doctors Row in Philadelphia, which was home to the largest percentage of Black professionals in Pennsylvania.³ However, since the 1980s, the racial wealth gap in America has continued to expand due to unequal pay, limited access to capital, and other discriminatory laws and practices.⁴ 

Reclaiming Black wealth in America calls for our Black communities to redefine what "wealth" means holistically, in terms of financial prosperity and beyond, and provide new avenues of access to achieve this wealth. Recognizing the need for relatable, digestible financial education, we launched Know Yourself, Grow Your Wealth® a little over a year ago. Since then, our empowering financial e-learning platform has been instituted at 36 HBCU campuses and enrolled over 3,000 people. Here's a summary of our impact to date: 

• 95% of learners are Black and African American, with 70% of completers being Black and African American women under the age of 30 
• 90% of participants reported a significant increase in their subjective financial knowledge 
• 63% demonstrated an increase in financial skills based on questions in the pre- and post-survey 
• 53.8% said they had saved more since starting Know Yourself, Grow Your Wealth® 

On Monday, we will celebrate the thousands of people who have increased their financial wellness with Know Yourself, Grow Your Wealth®, the 1,000+ attendees who will be joining us in Chicago at the upcoming CAAFP, the 64 fellows who have graduated from our Black Executive Leadership Program, the 330 advisors of color who have graduated from our Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® (CAP®) Program, the new strategic partners who are supporting our mission to diversify the profession, and our community which continues to grow in initiative and impact. 

Together, this Juneteenth, let's celebrate progress marching on!

¹CBS News. 3.5 Million Black American Households Have A Negative Net Worth, New Study Finds. June 2021. 

^2,4National Bureau of Economic Research. Exploring 160 Years of the Black-White Wealth Gap. August 2022 

³NBC News. Philadelphia designates the city’s first Black historic district after yearlong push. July 2022.

Ludwig is a financial planner, researcher, and educator with a Master of Science in finance and a PhD in personal financial planning. He also has a wide array of professional experience in the financial services industry, including as a wealth management advisor for U.S. Bank, a researcher at the Investor Behavior Lab, and a peer review board member for the Journal of Financial Planning and the Financial Planning Association (FPA), as well as teaching at various institutions in several capacities. 

We asked Ludwig five questions about his career, his path to the financial services profession, and what he hopes to accomplish as a faculty member at The College. 

How did you decide on financial services as your career path, particularly retirement planning education and research? 

When I was growing up, my dad, who was the CFO of a company, had a hobby of personal investing, and I thought it was normal for parents to talk about the Wall Street Journal with their kids. I also had crazy timing with my career journey. I was halfway through flight training when 9/11 happened. After that, I worked as an airline pilot from 2003 to 2007, but the industry was struggling then, and the pay and schedules were pretty bad. During that period, I loved reading everything and anything about personal finance, and I enjoyed helping people as a flight instructor. Eventually, I realized there was a job that combined both those passions – becoming a financial advisor. 

In September of 2007, I made the switch – right before the Great Recession. The market dropped 50% during my first 18 months on the job, greatly impacting me. Despite my best efforts, some clients bailed to preserve their cash during the crisis and didn't get back in until several years later, negatively impacting their retirement plans. That experience sparked my interest in learning more about how to apply the psychology of retirement planning, eventually leading to my pursuit of a PhD specializing in that area of research. Because of my practical experience as a client-facing advisor, I view research through the lens of how advisors can use this information to improve client outcomes. 

How has retirement planning changed since the Covid-19 pandemic, and what are the next big disruptions professionals must look out for? 

One of the most noticeable changes in the financial planning industry is the shift in how services are delivered to clients. In-person meetings at the advisor's office have been augmented, if not replaced, by a significant increase in online platforms such as Zoom. This has opened various new opportunities for advisors to serve their clients online, such as sharing timely information through blogs and podcasts and utilizing online financial planning tools. 

Another trend that has gained momentum is using artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool for advisors to serve clients; however, AI is not expected to replace advisors but rather complement their services. The industry will likely see further advancements in AI, which will continue to enhance how advisors serve their clients. 

What are the most important questions consumers need to be asked—or be asking themselves—about retirement in today’s environment? 

Planning for retirement, and in retirement, is complex and stressful for many people. Pension programs continue to be phased out, and the responsibility is being shifted to individuals to save for their own retirement. Tax laws also change, and, let's face it, the economy is in constant flux. Individuals should ask themselves to what extent they have the knowledge, interest, and time to do it on their own or whether they would benefit from the help of a well-educated advisor. 

Results from previous retirement income literacy surveys show general overconfidence regarding what people think they know about retirement planning versus how much they actually know. The results of The College’s 2023 survey will highlight areas where advisors can help clients with their financial outcomes, retirement income planning, and how to help increase their retirement confidence. 

What do you think The College’s Retirement Income Certified Professional® (RICP®) Program program does well, and how will it have to evolve? 

I may be biased, but I think the RICP® program should be the go-to choice for advisors specializing in retirement planning. RICP® goes deep into the weeds with three advanced courses that provide specialized training. One of the program's key advantages is its ability to bring in leading subject matter experts from the retirement planning world, such as Michael Kitces and David Blanchett, PhD, MSFS, CFA, CLU®, ChFC®, CFP®. These experts provide cutting-edge, modernized education not found in other financial planning programs. Additionally, the RICP® program focuses on the behavioral side of retirement planning, giving its graduates the technical and soft skills necessary to help clients navigate the complexities of retirement with confidence. 

For advisors who are serious about specializing in retirement planning and providing the best possible service to their clients, the RICP® program is an excellent choice. 

Do you have any pieces of advice for today’s up-and-coming financial professionals? 

I think it goes back to what I’ve been saying throughout this conversation: being a financial professional requires both technical skills and interpersonal skills. 

Take something like building a retirement portfolio and distribution plan for a client that aligns with their wants and needs. That obviously requires a certain amount of technical skill. Now think about what happens during a market downturn or an unexpected health issue pops up. The advisor will also need soft skills like empathy and active listening. 

Ultimately it comes down to the Golden Rule: treat your clients how you would want to be treated.

Learn more about our extensive, intensive retirement incoming planning education with the RICP® Program.

Also observed in May is Military Spouse Appreciation Day, celebrated the Friday before Mother's Day, and Armed Forces Day, which honors all those actively serving each year on the third Saturday of May. 

As we go about our pursuits and enjoy our liberties, nearly 1.4 million active duty service members and their spouses stand sentry to ensure our country is ready at a minute's notice. Like our health, our military community, including our guard and reserve service members, is often taken for granted daily. More often than not, when we hear of an overseas conflict, become alerted to a national threat, or require disaster recovery assistance, we acknowledge and admire just how critical they are to our security, safety, and well-being. 

At The College, our military community, veterans and their spouses are a daily priority. Helping them pursue new careers in financial services as they transition to civilian life is part of our mission instituted through our Center for Military and Veterans Affairs. 

I was beyond proud to see a picture of our Center for Military and Veterans Affairs Executive Director Jim Roy, PMP, appear on my screen while watching a segment before Armed Forces Day on the CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell last Thursday. O'Donnell discussed the rank of Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, the highest enlisted rank in the United States Air Force and a position only held by 19 people to date. Jim is the 16th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. 

I appreciate Jim immensely every day as I do all of our faculty, staff, leadership volunteers, students, and alumni who have served and all the women and men who are serving today for their sacrifices in service to our country. I hope you enjoy this Memorial Day with those you love, doing what you love in remembrance and honor of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be free.