While retirement planning is usually associated with financial planning, lifestyle factors are getting more attention.sorbetto/iStockPhoto / Getty Images
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Every advisor with retired clients knows that having their finances in order is only the first hurdle to having a meaningful post-work life. Some clients may have health-care questions or want help with downsizing, while others may have a hard time adapting psychologically to all the free time.
That’s what Ryan Donovan noticed during his time as a product manager with the McClelland Financial Group at Assante Capital Management Ltd. in Thornhill, Ont. Now the co-founder and chief executive officer of RetireMint, a free retirement planning platform, his hub helps retirees find resources and professional help. Users can take a retirement assessment covering various aspects of retired life – from estates to volunteering – and find content on those topics.
Recognizing that certain elements of retirement planning are best left to professionals, RetireMint also has a section in which advisors and others (from golf instructors to travel agents) can pay a monthly fee to be listed – and be reviewed by users.
Globe Advisor spoke recently with Mr. Donovan about his platform.
What’s RetireMint’s purpose?
Once people have their finances at a base level they’re confident in, you realize that clients come in and talk solely about retirement plans beyond finances – travel, what they’re going to do with the grandkids. … And the gap fell on financial advisors. What we’re realizing is that people view them as retirement advisors. Certainly, they’re well versed in the subject, but they don’t have all that knowledge to be able to provide [advice] in all the other areas that people want them to – from what you’re going to do to keep busy to how you’re going to stay insured once the group insurance ended.
How does it work?
We have assessments in 14 areas. Those combine for an overall score and identify areas to emphasize in planning. Then we have [an] aggregated library of retirement content, allowing people to do that base-level research themselves.
The third part [is] a retirement directory [or] marketplace of retirement-related services. It’s called Find a Coach. We view it as an Expedia meets LinkedIn of professionals in these areas. RetireMint users can rate and create this democratic voting system of the best retirement professional services in their local areas.
Which elements of retirement planning are most neglected?
One of the areas we want to focus on is the psychological shift in retirement. You have to figure out that question of who I am, and what I want to do. And that leads to what’s going to keep you busy – the activities and hobbies that provide a sense of purpose and meaning. Once you get through the honeymoon phase of, ‘I can wake up at whatever time I want, I can go play golf as many times as I want,’ you kind of fall into this disenchantment valley of, ‘Okay, what am I going to do for the next 20 years?’
How can advisors use RetireMint?
This is a free resource they’re able to provide their clients without having to offer that advice themselves. So, even though [the client has] a financial advisor, providing this tool to do the assessments will lead [them] on the right path to finding these other answers.
– Mark Burgess, Globe Advisor assistant editor
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Must-reads from Globe Advisor this week
Many Canadians underspend in retirement for no good reason. Here’s what they can do
Investors often save for decades to accumulate a retirement nest egg. But once they retire, many resist spending, unnecessarily curtailing their retirement lifestyle. Fortunately, there are ways to help retirees loosen their purse strings appropriately. Susan Latremoille with Next Chapter Lifestyle Advisors describes the mindset shift at retirement as a “psychological about-face” when the paycheques from work or a business stop flowing in. “The goose that laid the golden egg is gone,” she says. “They get into this fear factor that prevents them from enjoying the wealth they’ve worked so hard to create.” Alison MacAlpine reports.
What triggers a moving expense audit?
Moving expenses tend to be audited by the Canada Revenue Agency as the amount claimed is usually in the five figures. Some advisors also note that moving expense audits may be more common with the rise of remote work in the past few years. That means taking special care not to run afoul of the rules. “Moving solely for personal reasons is not usually enough to justify an eligible relocation,” says Matt Trotta with CI Global Asset Management in Calgary. “There generally needs to be a specific purpose for the move.” Deanne Gage reports on common mistakes when claiming moving expenses.
This former pro baseball player-turned-advisor got some relatable advice from Warren Buffett
In his 20s, as a member of the New York Mets organization, the team kept asking Ross Ferrier if he was okay because he wasn’t depositing his cheques. “I didn’t need the money; my housing and food were paid for,” says Mr. Ferrier, a branch manager and portfolio manager with Commerce Valley Financial Group at CIBC Wood Gundy in Thornhill, Ont. “Given my upbringing, I wasn’t used to buying many extra things.” For our Behind the Advice series, Mr. Ferrier talks about money lessons growing up, his time as a professional baseball player, and advice he got from Warren Buffett. Brenda Bouw reports.
Advisors to hit the cottage in tech-savvy style this summer
As summer approaches, many advisors’ minds will turn to the lake. While working a little during an extended cottage stay is a long-held tradition for some advisors, the pandemic forced many to get serious about remote work and set up a more technically advanced workspace at vacation properties. For Brett Simpson of RGF Integrated Wealth Management Ltd., the desktop-based conferencing system – complete with two large monitors – is always primed at his cottage near Vancouver. “I can just get to the place and in 10 minutes, I’m on a call,” he says. Danny Bradbury reports on a summer of remote work.
Also see:
Why estate planning should be top of mind in wedding season
Three ways estate planners can serve diverse communities
From grads to future advisors? Here’s what the next generation of wealth professionals should know
Help to keep vacation budgets in check
Having the Talk: Navigating End-of-Life Issues with Aging Parents
What you and your clients need to know
Fidelity Canada receives approval to launch wealth-management dealer, plans to recruit advisors
Fidelity Investments Canada ULC launched Fidelity Wealth on Thursday, a dual-licensed investment dealer approved by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization to sell both securities and mutual-fund investment products. The move is a major shift for a company that primarily manages and sells more than 239 mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, and will create a new independent competitor in the Canadian market for financial advice where the big banks are dominant players. Fidelity Wealth managing director Eugene Boakye said in an interview that the new business will be built entirely by recruiting individual advisors – predominantly people who are approaching retirement and want to transition their books of business to an independent brokerage. Clare O’Hara reports.
Does the ‘4-per-cent’ rule for retirement savings work in difficult times?
If you cast your mind back to the late 1990s, you’ll remember the stock market was booming thanks to new-fangled technology stocks that shot skyward. Big future gains seemed assured until the market hit a wall and collapsed in the summer of 2000. The internet bubble provides an out-of-sample test of William Bengen’s 1994 paper, Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data. Norman Rothery applied Bergen’s “4-per-cent rule” to the Canadian market where an unlucky investor started their retirement at the end of August 2000, to see how portfolios held up.
How do social media comparisons impact regular investors? Paging Roaring Kitty
“Investing in speculative assets is a social activity,” said Nobel laureate Robert J. Shiller in the first line of a paper published 40 years ago. It is somewhat ironic that just as George Orwell’s 1984 eerily foresaw the rise of pervasive surveillance and state control, the U.S. economist’s 1984 paper presciently anticipated the GameStop phenomenon. Trading in the video game chain’s stock demonstrates how social dynamics and mass psychology can override market fundamentals to drive speculative frenzies, writes Preet Banerjee.
How TD’s Cowen Inc. acquisition gave it a seat at the table with the most influential investment bankers in the U.S.
When Cowen Inc. chief executive Jeffrey Solomon ushered two senior leaders of TD Securities into his office in March 2022, he was entirely unaware of how the ensuing 20-minute pitch would redraw the future of his company. A few months prior, he had received a vague e-mail requesting a meeting with Riaz Ahmed, head of TD Securities, and Robbie Pryde, then-head of corporate and investment banking. Now, they were strolling through his New York office – emptied by the COVID-19 pandemic – with a takeover offer that would extend the reach of Canada’s second-largest lender into Wall Street. Stefanie Marotta reports.
– Globe Advisor Staff