Our mission is to ensure everyone is able to retire comfortably without experiencing a decline in living standards. We know in order for this mission to be achieved, we need to connect more individuals with expert financial advisors.
One of the ways we support our partner advisors is by giving them a plethora of information about the households we send them (which, by the way, we do in real time, as soon as they demonstrate interest in securing their financial future).
How Planswell Works
Planswell households are individuals who are curious about how to plan better for their financial future. They’ve gone to our website and answered 40+ questions about their current financial situation and retirement goals. Then, they SMS-validate their phone number in order to gain access to the financial plan our engine builds for them.
So, the first thing you know about a household before you call them is that they care about their financial security — enough to answer 40 questions and give us a working phone number.
This is already much more than you can say for the names you might be calling off of a random list of prospects, but it’s nowhere near the end of what Planswell advisors get.
You’ll also get a copy of the financial plan our engine builds for each household, which is chock-full of information to help you connect with and offer value to the households you call.
As far as we know, Planswell is the only solution that gives advisors the opportunity to say “I already know how to solve your problems,” which is one heck of a leg up as far as we’re concerned (and our partner advisors tend to agree).
Keep reading for a complete breakdown of all the info Planswell partners get before they even pick up the phone.
Location
Building rapport with prospects you call is essential to earning their business, and that becomes a whole lot easier when you can bond over your favorite pizza place or celebrate the local sports team’s victories (or commiserate over their losses).
That’s why we only assign households to advisors who live in their state or province, and we prioritize pairing advisors with households in their locality.
Sure, the magic of teleconferencing means you can connect with households all over the globe from the comfort of your home office, but we know working with folks with a connection to your area gives you a leg up, so we prioritize making that the reality.
Start & End Points
The first question Planswell households answer during discovery is their current age and at what age they would like to retire. This means when you’re assigned a household, you know exactly where they are and how far they have to go before reaching the finish line.
Our advisors appreciate this information because it allows them to speak to the road map of sorts full of recommendations for how the household can cross that finish line sooner than expected, or potentially have more money by the time they do.
Household Size
Before calling a Planswell household, you’ll know just how many people live under their roof. Whether it’s a single person, a married couple, or a family of seven, you’ll know exactly who needs to be considered in financial planning.
This means you’ll know right from the get-go what kind of insurance products will provide the most value and what sorts of investments the household should capitalize on.
Comfort with Market Volatility
Planswell households also indicate (via sliding scale) how comfortable they are with investing in products that may be susceptible to market volatility. This way, you know how aggressive you can be when it comes to managing their assets.
Current Financial Situation
Planswell households also provide an estimate of their complete financial situation during discovery. Understanding this is like knowing your partner’s hand in Bridge. It allows you to make plans you know they can follow. Having such plans in-pocket and ready to go when you make your prospecting calls gives you a monster of a leg up compared to going in blind.
Here’s some of the information advisors get about households’ finances before they even pick up the phone to call them:
- Annual income
- Value of all assets
- Debt liabilities
- Number of dependent children
- Whether they rent or own
- Value of home and amount owed on mortgage (if they have one)
Insurance Need
Planswell households also indicate which sorts of insurance products they currently own. What’s more, because you’ll also know if they own or rent their home and what that home is worth if they have one, you’ll be in a much better position to recommend insurance products that can add value for the household.
Planswell households also indicate whether they smoke or not during discovery, which is another factor for insurance products.
Plan Recommendations
Everything we’ve mentioned up to this point comes from the household’s responses to the 40+ questions they answer during discovery. We haven’t even touched, however, on the actual financial plan itself.
Based on all of the data discussed thus far, our sophisticated planning engine will create a financial plan for the household complete with recommendations for investing in retirement accounts, what insurance products to buy, and how much to spend paying down debts.
That means, when you call a Planswell household, you can say, for example, “Hey, I see your financial plan has you retiring at 67, but I’ve noticed a few things we can tweak that could get you to retirement by 64. Want to talk about it?” As you know, there are always levers to pull to adjust outcomes—even in the best laid plans.
As far as we know, you’re not going to get that kind of foot in the door with prospects anywhere else.
The Gist
Knowledge, as they say, is power, and Planswell partners are the most powerful advisors around. That’s because we set them up for success by providing them a dragon’s hoard of information about the households from the get-go, so there’s no need to ask awkward or intrusive questions on your initial call when trying to build a relationship.
Here’s a quick summary of the juicy information Planswell partners get before they even pick up the phone:
- Location — all Planswell households are assigned to advisors in their state or province, so you know you’ll have some local culture to bond over.
- Start and end points — you’ll know everyone in the household’s current age and the age at which the head of household would like to retire.
- Household size — who needs to be supported with these finances? You’ll know. Single, married, number of children, all of it.
- Comfort with market volatility — Planswell households indicate their level of comfort investing in assets that might be affected by market volatility.
- Current financial situation — basically everything financial; you’ll know:
- Annual income
- Value of all assets
- Debt liabilities
- Number of dependent children
- Whether they rent or own
- Value of home and amount owed on mortgage (if they have one)
- Insurance need — if they already have insurance, you’ll know (and how much).
It’s a lot, we know, but like we said: we want our advisors to feel powerful when they call Planswell households. If you’re ready to feel powerful, perhaps you should give Planswell a shot.
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