At times, financial advisors fall into ruts. At worst, you can get mired so far in conventional thinking that you may miss planning opportunities to help clients live better.

For example, what creative techniques are you using to help retired clients age 70+? After saving money for 30-40 years, some of these people landed in retirement just before a devastating bear market, followed by historically low interest rates. The stock market reduced their nesteggs while making them scared to death to take more risk. Now, many have retreated to short-term CDs, where a million dollars barely yields enough interest to buy groceries.

Clients age 70+ need your help to live better over their next 15-20 years of longevity. But to offer them useful thinking and planning, you may have to break through your own barriers. Specifically, you may want to talk to these clients about the value of building a longevity-based income on a foundation of insurance protections. In this article, I'll describe one integrated strategy that advisors are using to help retired people accomplish three primary objectives:

1. Increase after-tax income on a guaranteed basis, for as long as clients live.
2. Lock in a legacy for heirs, with convenience and tax advantages.
3. Protect against what is still a nemesis of older people-potentially higher rates of inflation.

To address all three goals, apply different types of insurance company solutions?some of which you may not have discussed with older clients before. They are 1) longevity insurance, 2) mortality (life) insurance, and 3) inflation protection assurance. The prime candidate for this strategy is a client age 70+ who is in good health, leads an active lifestyle, expects to live a long time, and needs more current income to enjoy retirement to the fullest, without taking more risk.