JourneyGuide Announces Deployment of Newest Version of its Retirement Planning Software Complete with Annuity Products and DOL Technology

FORT WAYNE, Ind., Oct. 11, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- JourneyGuide, Inc., an innovative retirement income planning software provider for financial advisors looking to deliver holistic advice, announced it has completed integration of its annuity platform into its retirement planning software product. As a result of this integration independent financial advisors, dually registered and fee-based RIAs, and banking advisors can now illustrate over 120 annuity products priced that day from 31 of the top annuity providers inside JourneyGuide retirement plans.

JourneyGuide's easy-to-use interface allows advisors to develop annuity-inclusive retirement plans created collaboratively with their clients. Using JourneyGuide's unique Co-Planning© process, retirement plans can be started and completed in under 15 minutes. Included in the deployment is their Best Interest Income Frontier chart that let's both the advisors and their clients know when any proposed annuity is in the best interest of the client. Early results show that advisors who use this chart will recommend annuities with more confidence. Perhaps more importantly, advisors can now show their clients that their portfolios with partial funds allocated to annuities makes their clients better off than without the annuity. Advisors feel their clients will buy more annuities with more enthusiasm from within JourenyGuide plans than using the traditional static and hard-to-understand annuity illustrations. The results show that advisors who use JourneyGuide sell on average over 65% more annuities than before using JourneyGuide, with many doubling their sales.

"Everything we do centers on helping advisors grow their business" said Charlie Clark, EVP, Sales and Marketing at JourneyGuide. "To be competitive in today's market, advisors need to deliver holistic advice to all their clients. If they don't then they will slowly start losing their business. If they can then they can increase lifelong fees by 35%. Wealth management planning has done a great job enhancing the advisor-client relationships and getting clients up to retirement. However the trend in the industry is that those clients are taking their money after they retire as there is no plan in place to convert the nest egg into lifelong income. JourneyGuide does this and extends the advisor-client relationship from the last 20 years of work to the last 30 years of life." Clark believes advisors are leaving money on the table when their clients move into retirement. Simply managing their clients' portfolios more conservatively still leaves them susceptible to sequence of returns and longevity risk – ultimately negatively impacting their future fees.

Scott Fergusson, JourneyGuide CEO, said both Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and independent financial advisors need to pay attention.

"Owning an annuity can be an important part of a secure retirement," he continued. "Across the industry, we see advisors struggling to show the value of additional income in retirement as a strategy to mitigate longevity concerns. They need a tool to use together with their clients, to illustrate how the annuity works in the clients' best interest. JourneyGuide's software enables advisors to build a plan in real-time with their client, proposing more guaranteed income using annuities, and winning more business as a result."

"We have a very clear vision for how annuities will be sold in the future," Clark said. "Client-centric tools will make it easy for an advisor to explain the role of an annuity in a retirement plan – and even easier for a client to visualize how an annuity will impact their lifelong retirement income. We've started down the path of creating the best retirement income optimization software in the industry for doing what's in the best interest of the client – often that means purchasing an annuity."

JourneyGuide will be an exhibitor at the FPA conference in Minneapolis next week at booth 813. The company is inviting advisors to stop by and see a demo of their recent enhancements and schedule a personalized product demonstration.

About JourneyGuide
Headquartered in Fort Wayne, Ind., JourneyGuide helps advisors improve retirement outcomes for millions of people who rightfully worry about outliving their retirement assets. Designed with annuity sales in mind, the software provides an interactive retirement planning experience for advisors and clients to complete together. JourneyGuide improves advisor efficiency and increases client understanding and ownership of their retirement plan, leading to increased annuity sales. For more information, visit http://www.journeyguideplanning.com.

SOURCE JourneyGuide, Inc.