PLANADVISER - May/June 2018 - 38

sales champion
If an adviser or staffer carries the CPA designation and
has a limited pool of clients, he can provide direct guidance
on how they can file their taxes each year to maximize
the amount of income they keep. Non-CPA advisers, on the
other hand, or those with a large base of DC plan participants
to serve, can partner with a third party.
This is where firms offering automated tax management
solutions have come into the picture-one being Covisum,
with its product Tax Clarity. As Joe Elsasser, Covisum president,
describes it, Tax Clarity " focuses on the interaction
between different types of income, allowing advisers to
make the most effective recommendations to mass affluent
clients. " The solution " gives a consumer a landscape view of
retirement income taxation. "
The tool asks users to input a broad range of factors
when generating a client's tax outlook. It weighs anticipated
IRA and defined contribution plan distributions, the passing
through of capital gains, Social Security income, pension
payments, tax-free interest and other income sources.
Given the strength of both individual investor and plan
sponsor client demand, another emerging ancillary benefit
beyond traditional retirement advice that growing firms
may decide to explore is payroll-integrated student loan
debt repayment support.
The total amount of U.S. student loan debt has topped
$1.4 trillion, including nearly $75 billion in " parent PLUS
loans " taken out by individuals on behalf of their kids,
the panelists said. Fully 72% of workers say they have
outstanding student loans or had successfully finished
repaying loans while working. Nearly three in five (59%) of
those ages 22 through 44 currently carry student debt, as do
21% of workers 45 and older.
In early May, student loan education, repayment and refinancing
specialist CommonBond hosted a panel discussion
about this " missing benefit. " All panelists agreed that both
employers and employees will gain from greater uptake of
student loan repayment benefits.
" The numbers show that student loan debt repayment
is a universal work force challenge, " Heather Coughlin, U.S.
solutions leader for financial wellness at Mercer in Boston,
stressed, citing her own statistics from within the Mercer
book of business. " It's not just an issue for Millennials. We
believe this will soon become a table stakes benefit for
employers. "
" For workers ages 22 to 34, student debt significantly
outranks retirement as the top financial concern, " says
Leigh Gross, CommonBond vice president of partnerships,
in New York City. " Those without student debt had a much
different perspective. Retirement and health care were cited
as their biggest financial stresses-as they should be. "
-John Manganaro
KEY TAKEAWAYS
* Social Security and retirement tax optimization are
two of the hottest topics among IRA savers and plan
sponsors alike and offer various opportunities for
advisory firm growth and differentiation.
* Payroll-integrated student loan debt repayment
support is another emerging area through which
advisers can differentiate their practice and boost
client outcomes.
Social Media and Practice Growth
B
eyond expanding partnerships
and standard services, advisers
of all specialties are pursuing
more nontraditional paths to growth.
For example, financial advisers
almost universally report that the
use of social media has changed how
they communicate with and win new
clients, according to Putnam Investments'
2018 Social Advisor Study. The
research brings together the responses
of more than 1,000 U.S. financial
advice professionals who engage with
social media platforms as part of their
branding and marketing efforts.
Discussing the research results
with PLANADVISER, before their publication,
Mark McKenna, head of global
marketing, in Boston, highlighted the
fact that the vast majority (86%) of
advisers using social media for business
report it has helped them gain
clients, up from 80% in 2016. Beyond
this, the clear majority of those who
gained clients (88%) report that their
use of social media has changed the
nature of their client relationships a
" great deal " and in a number of ways.
As McKenna laid out, fully twothirds
(67%) of advisers today " find that
it is easier to share information with
clients thanks to social media. " Related
to this, nearly six in 10 (59%) report
having more frequent communication
with clients overall, although 38% say
they connect less frequently by phone
or in person. Interestingly, the drop in
phone and in-person conversations does
not seem to be affecting the perceived
quality of adviser-client relationships:
More than half (54%) of advisers say
they have a better professional relationship
with their clients today than
in the past, while 47% report a better
personal relationship with their clients.
Similarly, half (50%) report that decisionmaking
is faster and easier thanks
to social media connections.
McKenna emphasized that the
benchmark for successful use of social
media as a business tool has clearly
gone up in recent years. As he noted,
if advisers are using the same social
media strategy this year that they did
last year, they have already started
to fall behind their more progressive
peers. -JM
38 | planadviser.com may-june 2018
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