The Future of Financial Services Is Still Personal  

From the desk of Kelly Halverson
Executive vice president, individual division  

The future of financial services is getting more complicated, not less. Americans are living longer. Retirement income is harder to plan. Artificial intelligence is changing how every company in our industry works. And consumers have more information than any generation before, and more choices than they know how to sort through.  

My view: None of that makes this business less personal. It makes the personal part matter more. The question is, how do we help more people reach financial confidence in a world that keeps getting more complicated? 

For me, the answer starts with our purpose, fulfilling life. In practice, it means helping individuals, families and businesses create financial certainty, protect against life’s risks and pursue their goals with confidence.   

From accumulation to income  

From 2024 through 2027, about 4.1 million Americans are turning 65 every year. As they approach retirement, the focus is shifting from accumulation to income. Saving still matters, but the key question people ask has changed. Early in their careers, they wanted to know how much they could save. Now they want to know how that money will support them once the paychecks stop.  

In our individual division, every product we offer answers the same client worry: What happens when the paycheck stops? Life insurance replaces income for a family after an unexpected loss. Disability income insurance replaces income when someone can’t work due to illness or injury. Wealth management builds the assets that fund their goals, and retirement income strategies turn those assets into income that lasts. Different products, one job: keeping families and businesses financially confident, year after year.  

Listening to the people closest to the clients  

One of the most valuable lessons of my career is the best ideas rarely start in a boardroom. They come from listening to the people who talk to clients every day. Financial professionals see changing client needs up close. They hear the questions clients ask. They know what keeps people up at night. Often, they spot a market shift months before it shows up in a report.  

That’s why staying close to the field matters. Advisory groups, industry events, one-on-one conversations: Every touchpoint helps us understand where the friction and the opportunity are. This matters even more right now, with retirement needs, distribution models and client expectations all shifting at once. The conversations we’re having with the people closest to clients are shaping more than our products. They’re shaping our strategy and our priorities too.  

AI’s real opportunity  

This focus on listening is part of why I’m optimistic, even with all the disruption underway. Artificial intelligence is the clearest example.  

Most of the AI conversation is about productivity, automation and efficiency, which makes sense. Companies everywhere are using it to cut manual work and get information into people’s hands faster.  

The bigger opportunity is elsewhere. Financial services has never run on information alone. Clients want a caring, experienced perspective. Someone who can help them weigh decisions that affect their families, their futures and sometimes their whole retirement. Financial professionals provide that, and AI can’t do it for them.  

What AI can do, however, is make those conversations smoother, helping our team find answers more quickly, clear away paperwork and put better information in front of the people making decisions. That frees our associates to spend more time with clients and financial professionals, and less time on busy work.  

That’s the standard I’d hold AI to in our business, whether it makes our relationships stronger, not just our processes faster.  

What won’t change  

Financial services will look different in five years. Technology will keep advancing, new business models will show up and what clients expect will keep shifting. What won’t change is the importance of our relationships. Financial professionals want organizations that listen, respond and stay focused on their clients. Their clients want to build confidence in their financial future and to receive guidance they can actually understand.    

I see real opportunity ahead. More Americans are aging into retirement and need income-focused planning. AI is opening up capabilities that didn’t exist a few years ago. Financial professionals are as essential as ever to helping clients make sense of complicated decisions.  

At Ameritas, our job is to help people face the future with confidence: Protect their income, provide their income and make life’s financial decisions clearer. That means listening to financial professionals and acting on what we hear. And it means using new tools to strengthen the relationships at the center of this business, not replace them.  

The industry will keep changing. The companies that pair real innovation with real human connection will be the ones clients and financial professionals choose.  

Read more from Kelly:
Ameritas Names Halverson Executive Vice President, Individual Division
Kelly Halverson Discusses the 7 Critical Red Flags in Accumulation IUL Portfolio Management
Kelly Halverson Asks Which IUL Would Your Client Rather Have?