NEW YORK - Fidelity has introduced 250 pages of web-based financial planning tools specifically designed for advisors' pre-retiree clients, as this market is steadily increasing, Fidelity executives said.
Fidelity views the pre-retiree and the retirement markets as the next big business opportunity and is planning to aggressively pursue this market with the aid of the 60,000 financial planners it currently does business with, said Marty Willis, executive vice president of Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company of Boston.
More than 24 million Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 are currently approaching retirement, and Fidelity market research as recent as August shows that approximately 60 percent of these pre-retirees do not have a post-retirement budget, Willis said. By 2010, more than 35 million Americans will fall into this pre-retiree age bracket, Willis said.
"By making the wrong moves with respect to failing to opt for IRA stretch-out programs or naming a [sub-optimal] beneficiary, you can lose as much as 80 percent of your money to estate taxes, income taxes and the IRS," Willis said. "Many of the decisions that pre-retirees face are required and irrevocable, and will have a significant effect on their ability to achieve their long-term financial goals."
Fidelity's new pre-retiree program can be found at its financial advisor website, advisorxpress.com, which it originally launched in 1996.
