Planning for client lifestyles

A lifestyle-based plan makes clients more receptive to new ideas

Financial planning is ever-evolving, especially as technology and artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly advance. Each generation has approached planning for the future differently, often shaped by the economic conditions and societal expectations they came of age with—and these differences show up as distinct personality traits that clients bring to planning conversations. Clients will continue to live longer, work differently and navigate a financial environment shaped by factors outside their control: market unpredictability, evolving tax rules and increasing personal responsibilities. These shifts, along with the growth of AI, call for adaptability in communication. The financial professional role has expanded as clients look for real-life guidance and plans flexible enough to keep up with changes in their lifestyle.

The expansion in your role revolves around helping your client better articulate and more fully disclose all their planning needs. Money is an emotional topic, which can easily lead to less than thorough disclosure during client meetings. Conversations that recognize the many challenges today’s investor may face often lead to the strategic use of annuities in planning for the future.

Recognizing a client's financial behavior often aids in the flow of the discovery process. Some clients open up when a conversation starts with lifestyle or legacy, while others respond better to tax efficiency or security. There are research-backed patterns in how people relate to money, often shaped by risk tolerance and life experience.

Jackson's Money Talks white paper explores this research in depth, offering a closer look at the financial personalities shaping today's planning conversations.

Lifestyle-based planning conversations help annuities find their place.

The need for a financial professional's expertise when planning for the future has not changed. What has changed? The questions that clients have, where they find information and the lifestyles they need to support.

Clients are now less focused on whether a plan works in theory and more focused on whether it will continue to work as life unfolds. They want to know how their plan holds up when markets rapidly shift, income needs change or personal priorities take an unexpected turn. Probability models still matter, but they're no longer enough on their own. Clients are looking for plans that feel durable and livable, not just defensible.

An intentional line of questioning helps here. A client with concerns about market volatility may be more receptive to a conversation that starts with lowering risk, while one focused on preserving wealth for the next generation may respond to a tax-efficiency lead-in. The planning strategy is the same, but the conversational entry point isn't.

This is where annuities can play a more intentional role in planning conversations. Not as a replacement for the portfolio strategies you already use effectively, but as a way to strengthen the foundation those strategies rest on.

When used thoughtfully, annuities can help address risks that are difficult to time or manage. They shift certain risks off the client's balance sheet, reduce pressure on portfolio withdrawals and give clients clearer visibility into what's secure and what remains flexible.

Income planning is an ongoing conversation, not a one-time talking point.

For many clients, income planning is no longer a single transition that begins at retirement and ends at death. It's an ongoing conversation that evolves over time. Clients may scale work up or down, combine earned income with portfolio withdrawals or adjust spending as priorities change.

Traditional drawdown strategies can support this flexibility, but they also carry increasing pressure as market uncertainty and longevity risk grow. Incorporating guaranteed^* income components into the conversation can help stabilize the plan overall. By securing essential income needs first, you create space for the rest of the portfolio to be managed more deliberately, with less emotional strain during periods of volatility.

This approach often resonates strongly with clients who value predictability and continuity. Income reliability becomes a feature of the plan rather than a concern that has to be revisited with every market swing or lifestyle change.

Consider annuity costs as expenses that manage and transfer risk.

Cost discipline is essential in every plan. When evaluating the cost of an annuity, it's important to consider what those costs are designed to provide.

Many features of annuities function as targeted risk management rather than traditional investment expenses. Lifetime income^† guarantees, principal protection and death benefits are designed to address specific uncertainties that can't be diversified away—the kind of uncertainties that could keep a client from the active retirement they envisioned. When those risks are transferred or reduced, the remaining assets can often be managed with greater purpose and creativity, allowing clients to spend with less anxiety.

This perspective aligns annuities more closely with other forms of insurance that clients already understand and use strategically. The focus shifts from whether a product is efficient in isolation to what that cost delivers—protection, income and flexibility.

A direct discussion on tax timing can add flexibility to a client’s plan.

Tax planning has become increasingly nuanced. Managing tax exposure isn't only about minimizing rates but also controlling when income becomes taxable and how it interacts with other income sources.

Tax-deferred^‡ growth can provide valuable flexibility as clients coordinate income and withdrawals across their retirement assets. Annuities can offer another lever for thoughtfully sequencing income over time, supporting decisions around Social Security, required distributions, healthcare costs and changing income needs.

For a client whose planning conversations revolve around tax efficiency, this is often where the value of an annuity becomes most tangible. Used intentionally, this flexibility can help clients maintain greater control over their financial lives while reducing the impact of surprises as circumstances evolve.

Annuities help serve as connectors that bring a client's lifestyle-based plan together.

When annuities are viewed as products, they can feel transactional. When they are viewed as connectors within the plan, they become strategic.

When seen as a connection, annuities link the different parts of a plan together. Income floors, volatility buffers, tax-timing flexibility and legacy protection can create a planning environment that gives a client the space needed to make less reactive decisions.

The way these connections are introduced can vary—a lifestyle-focused client may be most interested in how guaranteed income supports the active retirement they envisioned, while a legacy-focused client may be more interested in how tax-timing choices can shape what they leave behind.

At a time when trust, stability and continuity are highly sought after, this framing offers a clear way to describe the value annuities bring to a plan.

Annuities aren't for every client, but the conversation is worth having.

Annuities aren't appropriate for every client or every situation, and they don't need to be central to every plan. They can, however, be valuable assets when used for the right reasons and in the right circumstances.

This isn't a change in strategy—it's a change in how annuities are discussed, positioned and used. In an environment where clients can pull information from almost anywhere, the value of a financial professional is in the interactive conversation and the lived experience behind it. When annuities are introduced into a larger plan through the lens of how a client relates to money, whether that's lifestyle, legacy, protection, tax efficiency or long-term security, they become connectors to the client’s end goal.

Income planning becomes one piece in supporting the client’s overall lifestyle plan, even when their life takes unexpected turns.

For more insight into identifying a client's financial personality—or your own—please visit Jackson’s new Money Talks assessment.