The new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that was passed in December 2017 brings a whole new ballgame of questions for consumers and businesses. So how can you as an advisor help alleviate some of this uncertainty while also providing value through comprehensive retirement planning?
Marketing strategies are important for any successful agent or advisor; in turn, part of being good at marketing means finding ways to package your wealth-management expertise into a message that will resonate. One way you can do that is by helping your clients understand where their money sits within the United States’ tax, oversight, and regulatory frameworks. When a seismic shift like tax reform passes, your clients will have questions — and if they don’t, they should.
Here are three marketing ideas that can potentially help you gain new clients:
1. Offer your clients a no-cost, no-obligation consult to review the tax laws.
Your clients are going to want to know what’s in the new tax bill. They’re going to be keen on how it affects them. What does it mean for their families? If you won’t answer their questions, someone will. Don’t miss the chance to sit down with your clients face-to-face and go through how the new tax bill might affect them.
Keeping your existing clients informed is a good baseline for making sure that you’ve got their family’s best interests at heart.
You can set up one-on-one meetings, but it might also be a good idea to send out a short email or one-page document that you can also use with prospects.
2. Give a presentation to clients—and ask them to bring a friend.
You could develop a special presentation on some of the new tax laws like Roth IRA conversions, tax bracket changes, charitable giving donation-stacking, and other tax-related financial questions while also incorporating retirement income planning into the mix.
One topic people are keen to hear about is 529 College Savings Plans. The TCJA changed this kind of plan quite a bit, and grandparents and parents are always eager to hear about it — people have always cared, as the old saying goes, about their health, their wealth, and their children. Talking about 529 plans can sometimes facilitate a larger discussion about financial planning.
3. Make the tax changes part of vocabulary for at least the next several months.
The changes to the Internal Revenue Code contained in the TCJA are far-ranging. We’ll be living through some of these changes for several years.
At the very least, you should develop some talking points you can use in your existing seminars. People anticipate the discussion about risk assessment and wealth management strategies for retirement income savings. But they’re also going to have questions about the TCJA.
For more information about the TCJA changes, please visit, “The final GOP tax bill is complete. Here’s what is in it.