Tools to Build Lasting Income Streams

Retirement investment services provider Franklin Templeton Investments launched a new program that supplies plan advisers with tools and support to help clients develop long-lasting income streams.

Franklin Templeton Investments calls the new support program “Income for What’s Next,” and says the service is designed to address the complexities and changing reality of retirement savings in the current economic environment. The firm says its new service for advisers takes into account the lengthening life expectancies, rising health care expenses and other investing concerns currently challenging retirees.

Michael Doshier, vice president of retirement marketing for Franklin Templeton Investments, explains the new services is contrasted with the bulk of retirement planning efforts, which have historically been focused solely on accumulation.

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“However, as demographics and economic trends evolve, retirement income is coming more to the forefront as an essential function for advisers,” Doshier says. “They must help clients turn their savings into income—income that pays for their mortgage, their health care and even their vacations—and that must last longer and longer.”

Doshier says advisers can play a vital role in guiding their clients as the more detached logic of accumulation is replaced by the very real emotions and choices of preparing to live in retirement. He says that, for many of today’s retiring workers, retirement is less about slowing down and more about “being able to do what’s next.” That means investors want to work with an adviser that has the tools and expertise to help in defining goals, top concerns, and the right investment and annuitization strategies.

The firm also released a complementary income guide that provides advice on using tactical tools to set retirement goals and identify concerns—using input to suggest potential income sources to fund fixed, rising and discretionary expense needs.

Financial advisers are encouraged to visit Franklin Templeton’s online retirement center at franklintempleton.com/retirement, which includes interactive features, education content and other resources for financial professionals serving employers and plan sponsors, as well as individual investors.

Pensionmark Expands California Footprint

Retirement plan services provider Pensionmark Retirement Group added a new partner and branch office to cover Bakersfield, California, and the San Joaquin Valley.

Tom Ming will serve as managing director at the new location, which is being established in coordination with the local firm Tower Rock Advisors. Pensionmark says the partnership offers Ming, previously president of Tower Rock Advisors, and his firm the ability to maintain an independent business model, which incorporates retirement plan advisory and wealth management services while leveraging infrastructure and support from Pensionmark.   

Troy Hammond, Pensionmark’s president and CEO, says his firm is looking to add 10 to 12 partners during the remainder of 2014.

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Ming’s background includes experience developing and implementing investment management strategies for fiduciaries and closely-held businesses since 2004, Pensionmark says, and he has also developed comprehensive educational and investment programs focusing on employee retirement readiness and fiduciary due diligence for a list of companies in the San Joaquin Valley.

Pensionmark is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, and operates 27 regional locations across the U.S. The firm is recognized as a top performer in The PLANADVISER Top 100 Advisers, an annual listing of the retirement plan advisers and adviser teams that stand out in the industry in terms of a series of quantitative measures.

More information is available at http://www.pensionmark.com/.

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