Help your client’s kids break the shackles of Social Security

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” If you have the opportunity to build a better path to success for others, you’re likely to become their first stop.

This promise appeals because it alleviates an annoying anxiety that’s perplexing a particular audience: millennials. They now represent the largest segment of the workforce, and they’ll be here for a while. You can count on them sticking around long after you’ve retired.

So, what problem can you solve for them? It’s not a current problem, like paying off student loans or budgeting to make ends meet. According to a recent Ernst & Young survey, millennials are most worried about Social Security not being there in retirement.

Related: Growing debt will expedite Social Security’s insolvency, Wharton economists say

Let’s narrow the audience from all millennials to those between ages 32 and 36 (this represents the oldest of the cohort). They’re about to enter their prime earning years. They’ll soon be discovering they can accelerate retirement savings to counter their concern about Social Security. That’s something you can easily show them.

Is that the problem you can solve that’ll keep them coming back for more until you’re ready to retire? My guess is that this won’t differentiate you very much from the competition.

Looking at this problem from a different perspective, however, just might reveal that better mousetrap you’re looking for.

Nearly three in five women between the age of 32 and 36 already have children. Do you think they feel Social Security will be there for their kids? If they can’t depend on Social Security for themselves, imagine what they think about the prospects of the government program existing when their children retire?

What if you told these millennial parents you could ease this particular concern for them? Do you think having one less worry about their children’s future would make them sleep easier at night?

Here’s the twist that seals the deal: Three out of five millennials in that age group have considered starting their own business. These are the folks to focus on. Why? It’s easiest for this crowd to implement the one strategy that most likely will unshackle their children’s retirement from any dependency on Social Security.

Minor children who work for a parent-owned business are exempt from payroll taxes. Let’s say they start working for their parents at age 13 and earn $6,000 a year and continue through their 18th year. They won’t have to pay any federal income taxes. If they put those six years’ worth of earnings in a Roth Child IRA, without ever putting another cent in, and earning 8 percent a year until they retire at age 70, they’ll retire with $2.5 million tax-free.

That’s a major head start on retirement (and not needing Social Security). What parent wouldn’t want that?

Now that’s the kind of mousetrap people will beat a path to your door for.

Read more: 

• Don’t neglect the new generation
• Retirement saving vs. kids: Parents should lead by example, not enable
• Take a new look at mom-and-pop business relationships