Whitepaper Explores Retirement Income Communication

The company, which provides Web-based communications technology, says the future success of advisers in the retirement income space depends upon both effective investing and communication strategies.

According to the whitepaper, “Embracing a New Retirement & Communications Framework,” the retirement income marketplace is in a transformational period driven by several factors: the loss of confidence following the economic downturn, the increasing importance of Web-based research in consumer decision-making, the inadequacy of popular income-generation approaches, and advisers’ sub-optimal marketing and communication strategies.

“Advisers should consider that the market disaster didn’t happen in a vacuum,” said David Macchia, Founder & CEO of Wealth2k, Inc. “It occurred over a period when consumers had become more Web savvy, more reliant upon Web search, and more demanding in terms of their expectations of Web site experience. I believe that advisers can no longer ignore the Web as a critical component of meeting retirement clients’ needs and expectations. This implies the need for new tools, new types of Web sites, and new strategies to project them forward.”

Because advisers’ best retirement income prospects are active online, Wealth2k asserts that advisers should begin to promote their online presence by leveraging social networking.

Meanwhile, it is also critically important for advisers to find a new strategic approach for retirement income investing that is sensitive to multiple risks facing investors in retirement, Macchia said. “The new retirement framework must also be transparent, monitorable, and elastic enough to meet the needs of any investor seeking retirement income. It must offer not only economic benefits but also psychological and behavioral advantages that are reflected in the investor’s ability to remain consistent with the strategy through periods of turbulent markets.”