The study, sponsored by Fidelity Investments and produced by the Diversified Services Group, Inc. (DSG), found that financial planners understand the potential of retirement income planning for their businesses. Almost half of the respondents (47 percent) expect between 10 and 30 percent of their growth will come from serving retirement income and planning needs. And over the next year, more than half anticipate that at least 25 percent of their new clients and assets will come from IRA rollover activity alone.

The study also found that a significant portion of financial planners' clients are already retired, and these advisers expect that to accelerate over the next five years. This shift will significantly impact advisers' time and resources as clients start to focus on income distribution and adequacy over accumulation and total return.

From an income standpoint, financial planners who charge a fee based on assets under management or custody are likely to find themselves spending more time working for clients who generate less revenue. This may accelerate the trend toward a "fee for service" based model. Advisers are already anticipating this trend, with more than 40 percent expecting their fees for service to increase as clients continue to retire.

"The resources financial planners value most -- in light of the increased retirement income business -- are ones that enable and facilitate their communication and conversations with clients," said Nicholas Nicolette, president of FPA. "Planners recognize that these resources are key to facilitating the conversations that allow them to better align their financial planning services with their clients' needs while increasing the proportion of client assets that they oversee."

Three dominant themes emerged from the study:

• Financial planners would benefit from becoming expert in "IRA rollovers" given the growth in that market as Americans "retire" and seek advice regarding retirement income planning.
• Financial planners are considering and implementing creative ideas to make their client referral networks more effective. Some are pursuing a clientele they believe others will turn to for retirement income advice while others are actively discussing the type of referrals they seek with their existing clients.
• Financial planners are considering a selective expansion of their professional networks. They are most interested in tax and legal professionals that can generate referrals as well as supplement their expertise -- allowing them to focus their efforts on building their client relationships without increasing their overhead.

A fourth, emerging trend is the experimentation with mass-marketing techniques. Some financial planners are implementing this technique to reduce reliance on a relatively small base of existing clients, which can limit the rate of new client growth. The effectiveness of these experiments appears marginal and mixed.