There are generally two conflicting worlds in the financial planning industry today in the area of Retirement Income planning. There are financial advisors who subscribe to the traditional “pie chart” planning, probability of success approach and there are those that adhere to a liability-driven, time-segmented or buckets approach. I am on a mission to help millions of American families with their retirement by bringing together a nationwide community of financial advisors that do the latter for their clients. I call them, Bucketizers. But being a Bucketizer is more than identifying yourself by the type of financial software used in designing retirement strategies for your clients. It’s about the impact we bring to our clients as a result of our advice.
As Bucketizers, weaim to help our clientele retire comfortably through our commitment in providing evidence-based, strategic wealth building strategies resulting in the increased likelihood our clients will realize positive financial outcomes. An extremely important and often overlooked byproduct of this achievement is the fact that economically successful individuals live longer, healthier and happier lives!
According to the Beatles, money can’t buy you love, but studies have shown it can indeed buy, longevity, health, and life satisfaction. The ancient Roman poet, Virgil, said it best, “The Greatest Health is Wealth.”
Bucketizers may have a far greater impact on their clients beyond financial…
Our advice helps ensure clients have the financial resources to take better care of one’s self, cover the cost of expensive health and long-term care, help family members in need, and make charitable contributions, etc., This is good for both physical and mental health. Thus, Bucketizers may have a far greater impact on their clients lives than just financial.
A recent study in the Journal of Gerontology, analyzed data from 10,754 and 14, 803 adults aged 50 and over from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSA) and the US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) respectively. The authors found that “at age 50 the wealthiest men lived around an additional 31 ‘healthy’ years compared to 22-23 for those with the poorest wealth groups…” “…Women from the wealthiest groups from the US and England lived around an additional 33 ‘healthy’ years compared to 24.6 and 24 years from the poorest wealth groups in England and the US respectively.”
Often times when presented with The Bucket Strategy® for the first time, clients can visualize exactly how their portfolio is working for them. Their newfound financial clarity provides the confidence that they have the capital to meet their retirement and legacy goals, even if they live well beyond normal life expectancy. The strategy creates a feeling of wealth regardless of the actual values of their accounts because they can see exactly how their goals are being met today and into the future. And because our Bucketizers are the ones creating this experience for their client, it builds trust, resulting in winning more clients.
The Bucketizer Community Portal
Throughout my career I have accomplished many things. I have been a part of large offices where resources are plentiful and also started several offices from scratch where I spent many days working solo in an office. I know the value of collaboration and over the years I watched my colleagues and myself grow professionally through sharing of ideas and client scenarios in real time. It has made me a better financial advisor, in fact I was honored as the top financial advisor at my firm in 2011.
That’s why I’ve created the Bucketizer Community portal. It’s a place where financial advisors can collaborate with each other in real time on a variety of topics including financial and tax planning strategies, investments, practice management, technology support and much more. We offer weekly office hours and periodic presentations where Bucketizers can simply click to join a live video cast providing the opportunity ask questions of our presenters and their fellow Bucketizers. No financial advisor or practice is too small or too large to take advantage of the Bucketizer community. I want this community to help you grow your practice and create successful outcomes for your clients.
Join me and our growing community of Bucketizers and lets change the world together!
Ray Lucia Jr., CPA/PFS
CEO
