40 Million Opportunities to Lead With Advice

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The life journeys of clients and prospects are full of opportunities to lead with proactive, client-centric and impactful advice. Financial advisors play a vital role in helping their clients navigate the risks and opportunities that pivotal life events provide. And you might be surprised just how many of these golden moments there are.

In this article, I focus on five essential age-based milestones and life events that collectively present more than 40 million advice opportunities, enabling financial advisors to showcase their care and expertise beyond traditional investment strategies, and thus build trust and create after-tax value.

Buying or Selling a Home: Eight Million Opportunities for Value-Added Advice

Zillow forecasts over four million home sales for 2025. As individuals embark on what is often the largest single financial transaction of their lives, financial advisors can provide invaluable advice and guidance. For homebuyers, this includes considerations such as total cost of ownership, financing options, insurance, titling, and tax implications.

On the other side of the transaction, sellers benefit from advice on maximizing sale proceeds, managing tax implications, and updating financial and estate plans. By offering support during this pivotal life event, financial advisors can genuinely add quantifiable value for their clients, and build trust and goodwill at the same time.

Getting Married or Divorced: Over Five Million Opportunities to Prepare for a Better Future

Wedding bells ring for about four million Americans per year, while on the other hand, around 1.4 million get divorced. Both occasions are meaningful life events during which financial advisors want to make sure that their clients (and prospects) think about and cover some key bases. For example, when getting married, couples should have honest conversations about financial goals, budgeting, credit and debt, insurance, bank accounts, taxes and retirement planning. In addition, estate planning and potential prenuptials are to be considered as well.

In the unfortunate event of a divorce, advisors can help their clients understand different aspects of potential child support, alimony and property division. In addition, an advisor can share best practices around titling, estate planning and working with legal and other experts to help their clients navigate this life event and prepare for a happier future.

Reaching 62 and Social Security Benefits: Four Million Opportunities for Impactful Advice

According to the CDC, over four million Americans will turn 62 this year, making many eligible to file for hard-earned Social Security benefits. Financial advisors understand the significance of getting the timing of the filing right — while workers can start receiving benefits at age 62, their monthly benefits increase if they wait until later (up to age 70). Factors such as current income needs, life expectancy, spousal situation and other considerations play a crucial role in determining the best course of action.

Making Catch-Up Contributions at 50 and 60–63: 19 Million Opportunities to Boost Tax-Advantaged Saving and Investing

Over three million Americans will turn 50 this year, and another 16 million will turn 60, 61, 62 or 63, according to the CDC. That provides financial advisors with 19 million opportunities to advise on regular catch-up contributions at age 50, and brand new, even higher “max saver” contributions that SECURE 2.0 now affords to those turning 60, 61, 62 or 63 this year.

These individuals can max out the regular annual contribution limits for their retirement accounts and (if possible and as appropriate) make additional catch-up contributions. Doing this allows them to increase their chances for a successful retirement by benefitting from all the tax-advantaged savings and investing opportunities that Uncle Sam provides.

Moving to a New State: Eight Million Opportunities to Optimize the Tax-Domicile

Each year, around 25–30 million Americans move homes, with about eight million moving across state lines. When moving to a new state, it’s important and beneficial to determine and effectuate the desired tax domicile. Client-centric financial advisors can assist their clients with checklists and best practices to make sure that both the old and new state accept the desired tax domicile.

Tech to the Rescue

These more than 40 million advice opportunities stem only from the five age-based milestones and life events outlined above. Of course, there are many more, including, for example, age-based milestones such as Medicare at 65, QCDs at 70.5, or working papers for the kids at 14, each providing millions more advice opportunities. Additional life events such as the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, or going to college provide even more millions of opportunities.

Even if an advisor trims their potential client pool by saying “I only work with the top x% of families,” that still means hundreds, if not thousands, of opportunities in their own book of business — too much for even the best of them to handle manually.

Over the past five years, a new crop of “advice engagement” wealthtech solutions has emerged, helping advisors identity and execute on timely, personal and impactful advice opportunities at scale. Solutions such as ForwardLane identify upcoming advice opportunities in the Client Relationship Management (CRM) system and alert the advisor of “Next Best Actions” to take.

With respect to advisory content, providers like fpPathfinder and visiWealth offer helpful visuals and checklists, while others like Bento Engine provide a combination of technology and content to help advisors scale their best advice — all embedded in the CRM. When advisors use all these advice opportunities to proactively engage and serve their clients and prosects, everybody wins.

Philipp Hecker is the chief executive officer of Bento Engine, a fintech firm empowering financial advisors to deliver proactive, comprehensive advice at scale to better serve clients, deepen relationships and convert more prospects faster.

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