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Encouraging financial literacy to help build client confidence

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While most Americans feel confident about their financial capabilities, research suggests there’s room for improvement. Financial literacy is tied to the success of many financial outcomes, from planning for retirement to being able to meet emergency expenses. Your role in helping build your clients’ overall financial capabilities can make a significant impact on their ability to manage their financial lives with confidence.

Understand behavioral bias

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Keep it simple

One way to help your clients become more confident about their personal finances is to address financial topics in simpler terms. Breaking down the language into less complicated terms and focusing on a client’s emotional priorities may help clients feel more open to the discussion and choices available to them. Use these three tips to help simplify the conversation.

  1. Remove industry jargon and use relatable examples to help clients understand the concept and the benefits. For example, when discussing annuities, show how these retirement solutions provide insurance against the risk of outliving their money after they retire and protection from potential market downturns in the future. If an income rider is elected, clearly show what the guaranteed monthly withdrawal amount could be for the rest of their lives.
  2. Use infographics or other visual aids to help make annuities more relatable. Check out the Sales and Service Tools tab on Athene Connect. You’ll find sales toolkits, client worksheets and illustrations that can help you engage clients and demonstrate value on a variety of topics. Use this infographic to demonstrate steps to help ease client anxiety about future income.
  3. Use real-world scenarios to help improve your clients’ understanding and retention, especially when your examples are customized to their personal objectives. While you never want to betray another client’s confidence or discuss their situation in detail, you can share success stories related to smart financial decisions others have made. For example, you could use hypothetical client case studies on relevant topics. Or for a fun approach, do an internet search on “celebrities and financial issues.” You can find examples to demonstrate the results of different choices while generating interest and retention.

Effective communication can help cultivate trust and increase willingness to consider new ideas. Clients who can count on you to speak their language may feel more comfortable returning to you as their needs change. By empowering your clients to build their financial literacy, you help boost their retirement readiness and equip them with valuable financial skills to use for a lifetime.

Simple language can affect the decisions clients make. See what the research says:

Understand the behavioral bias

The tendency for people to feel more subjectively knowledgeable about investments that are described more simply is known as “fluency bias.”

Fluency bias is one of the 10 biases that can create roadblocks to smarter financial decision-making. For more insight, Athene commissioned a review of biases from two industry leaders in judgment and decision making from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. They uncovered important behavioral tendencies and provided solutions to help overcome them available for you to download in an exclusive white paper.

 

Insights on Athene Connect. Tips, tools and resources to grow your business by helping clients retire with confidence.