Robert Sagar, CSA, president and founder of The Senior Financial Center in Rockville Center, N.Y., knows his clients are looking for ways to take distributions from their retirement savings while continuing to grow their assets. Here’s how he uses the Symetra Customized Retirement Income Model (CRI Model) to respond to those needs.
Robert Sagar, CSA, has carved out a niche for himself in the financial services market. As president and founder of The Senior Financial Center (SFC) in New York, Sagar has more than 500 clients with an average age of 73 and a net worth range of $250,000 to $3 million. Narrowing SFC’s concentration to the 60-plus crowd has helped him find success as one of Symetra’s top income annuity producers using the CRI Model.
“We focus our business on retirees,” Sagar says. “For all intents and purposes, we’re the ‘cardiologists’ of the financial world. We’re not all things to everybody, but I believe that having a niche makes our services more sought after.”
Sagar’s clients have spent decades preparing for retirement. His role comes into play when it’s time to help them turn their lifetime savings into an enduring income stream. Sagar shows his clients how to crack their nest eggs and make the money last with the CRI Model.
The Need
More than half of retirees who opted to receive a lump-sum pension in 2003 have already spent the entire amount1 — and they’ve also jeopardized the likelihood of regaining financial stability since it may no longer be feasible to re-enter the workforce. You can use the CRI Model to help your clients make a smooth transition from collecting paychecks to generating a pension-like income stream, allowing them to cover today’s expenses while maintaining their lifestyles over time. It is an asset-allocation strategy combining both guaranteed income streams and long-term investments.
"The Symetra CRI Model is another arrow in our quiver," Sagar says. “It really gives us the ability to help our clients distribute their income and provide them with more efficient ways to produce income.”
Sagar believes the true key to using the CRI Model lucratively is education and understanding — and not being intimidated by the many moving parts. He also feels that understanding annuitization and how to use it effectively can help agents retain clients.
“If you understand how to use annuitization appropriately within the Symetra CRI Model,” he says, “you can be more successful at keeping your clients and renewals over time. It’s important to understand it from a multi-dimensional standpoint rather than saying, ‘I’m not doing that, that’s too complicated, there are too many moving parts, etc.’”
He offers three pieces of advice to finding success with the model:
- Study the model; learn how it works and how it’s structured.
- Understand each of the components.
- Learn how to create the model for your clients and know how to move assets from point A to point B.
Getting Started
The CRI Model divides your clients’ retirement savings into six segments, each intended to provide five years of income. As your clients progress through retirement, each succeeding segment is intended to be converted to a new five-year income stream.
We’ve simplified the first two segments of the model with one product — the Symetra Income Builder Annuity. Symetra Income Builder provides 10 years of steady, reliable income with a cost-of-living increase in the sixth payout year to help your clients combat inflation.
“It can give you the ability to compete in a more astute way, in that you’ll be able to help retirees preserve and distribute their assets at the same time,” Sagar says. “The Symetra CRI Model is the future.”
With Retirement Income Solutions from Symetra, it’s easy to equip yourself with the tools, knowledge and products your clients are seeking. Getting started with the Symetra CRI Model is simple. We provide you with a complete marketing package: online access to client presentations, brochures, an online illustration calculator and needs analysis worksheet.
Visit us online to learn more about Symetra Customized Retirement Income Model and our other retirement income distribution products and tools, or contact the Sales Center at invest@symetra.com or 1-800-706-0700.
Robert A. Sagar, CSA, is president and founder of The Senior Financial Center in Rockville Centre, New York, where he focuses on retirement planning, estate planning, long term care and income enhancement. Sagar can be reached at 1-800-618-1825.
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“The Symetra CRI Model is the future.”
— Bob Sagar |
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