Bento & FMG Partnership

FMG is a leading advisor marketing platform … that is now housing a new “Bento Collection”. FMG users can now access a sub-set of our materials right on the FMG platform, and that way even better engage and advise their clients (and prospects!) during “Moments That Matter”.

What is FMG?

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FMG's mission is to make it easy for you to market authentically and effectively across every channel, from your website to social, email, print and mobile. Use as-is or edit to your liking.

What is Bento Engine?

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Bento is an award-winning technology and content company that helps client-centric financial advisors to serve all of their clients and prospects with timely, personal and impactful advice during “Moments That Matter” on their life journeys. Because when you lead with advice, everybody wins.

What are "Moments That Matter"?

Life is full of “Moments That Matter”, which provide client-centric advisors dozens of opportunities to engage and serve their clients. So Bento packaged all those moments into 3 distinct advisory programs:

Learn more about our solutions here.

Bento provides multiple content programs, including:

Life in Numbers, which focuses on 15 distinct age-based milestones that trigger distinct wealth management risks or opportunities (think e.g., turning 70.5 and being able to utilize QCDs, or the kids turning 14 and being able to open Custodial IRAs with their first earned income)
Life Events, which – you guessed it – focuses on dozens of life events that provide golden opportunities to lead with advice and capture money in motion (think e.g., Getting Married, Having a Child, Buying a Home or Moving to a New State)
Children & Wealth, which allows financial advisors to connect with and support the Next Gen of the client family on their financial literacy journey

Learn more about our solutions here.

Recent Awards

Where can FMG users find the Bento Collection?

FMG users can find the Bento Collection right on the Homepage of their FMG system after logging in. Simply scroll down and scan the “Collections” section.

What is included in the Bento Collection?

The Bento Collection contains two format types (emails and downloadables) on a sub-set of our materials, including:

3 Age-Based Milestones:

18 — Age of Majority: A watershed moment, where you want to make sure to advise e.g., on Healthcare and Financial POAs
50 — Catch-up Contributions: As appropriate, make sure your clients avail themselves of this opportunity to increase their tax-advantaged savings and investing rate
62 — Earliest Social Security: The earliest, albeit not always best, age to start collecting hard-earned Social Security benefits

3 Key Life Events:

Getting Married: So exciting … and so many bases to cover, including financial planning, (joint) banking and investing accounts, estate planning, insurance, taxes, and more
Birth of a Child: Yes, education funding is a big one, but also consider insurance, beneficiary designations, estate planning and more
Moving to a New State: Let’s make sure both your former and new state agree with your intended tax domicile

How can advisors best use the materials in the Bento Collection?

Advice is best delivered in timely, personal and impactful ways. Whenever you can, be proactive in the advice you are rendering.

For example, you want to start strategizing with your client on their Social Security Benefits 18 months before they turn 62. This is to ensure that the client has ample time to reflect and secure alternative cash-flow sources as needed, and to make sure that you “own” that important topic.

To be personal and impactful, make sure you pick the right mode of communication on a client-specific basis. Use the PDF Downloadables with visual learners, the emails with the on-the-go crowd, and give your audio learners a call — that way everyone will hear you!

Couple more suggestions for FMG-users:

Think about running campaigns across all your clients and prospects! For example, advise everyone in your book how will turn or recently turned 50 on making Catch-up Contributions in their retirement accounts.
To learn more about the full Bento solution, including the CRM tech-integrations and our complete content library, schedule a meeting below.

How does the full Bento Engine Solution work?

The full Bento solution contains many more format types (e.g., Talking Points, IUO Advisor FAQs) on many more “Moments That Matter”. It also includes a tech integration into your CRM, where our Advice Engine constantly scans your entire book of business to identify upcoming advice opportunities. When we find one, we alert you via a Task/Activity in your CRM, and equip you with all the materials you need to shine right in your CRM.

To learn more, watch this short video:

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What CRMs does Bento integrate with?

Testimonials

Darlene Kite

Director of Operations, RLS Wealth Management

"Bento is quick and easy to integrate, the API has a seamless connection to our CRM, and the team is a joy to work with."

Alex Chalekian

Lake Avenue Financial

"My clients benefit from timely, impactful advice ... and Bento has helped me make a deeper connection with them!"

Melinda Davis

Davis Wealth Advisors

"For years I have wanted to build something like this. Being able to educate clients ahead of important lifetime milestones, in a way that is both personal and scalable, is a win for advisors and clients."

Rodrigo Franco

CEO, Flexcode Software

"Bento's algorithms are sound and the APIs are robust — connecting into existing CRMs is key for quick delivery and fast Advisor adoption."

Jason Gabrieli

HFM Investment Advisors

"Scaling personalized, proactive advice and information is critical. Bento’s technology allows us to do just that."

Michael Kitces

kitces.com

"Bento Engine’s approach is arguably less about a “Next Best Action”, per se, and more about facilitating the “Next Best Conversation” that an advisor can have with the client to add value."

Gavin Spitzner

Wealth Consulting

“Bento empowers Advisors to provide the right advice, to the right clients, at the right point in time, in the right way.”

Dr. Preston Cherry

"Bento helps encourage and normalize cross-generational money conversations that inspire healthy money values."

Greg Friedman

“The CRM is the foundation that advisors build their business on. And Bento makes the CRM work even harder for advisors, and their clients.”

Ready to learn more?

1. Life in #s

Context

There are 15 age milestones, 15 regulatory birthdates that trigger distinct wealth management risks or opportunities

Although they are highly predictable and consequential advice opportunities, not all clients and prospects are getting proactive, impactful advice on these Moments That Matter

Solution

Bento connects via APIs into your CRM, where our algorithms constantly scan your entire book of business to identify upcoming advice opportunities.

When we find one, we alert you via a Task/Activity in your CRM.

That Task/Activity not only indicates a ‘Next Best Action’ (or better ‘Next Best Conversation’ as Kitces puts it), but it also gives you links to compliance pre-approved, impactful materials for you to leverage. We also include a set of Internal Use Only Advisor FAQs, so that you can brush up on the topic as needed.

The advice comes in multiple formats, so that you can pick the best communication mode on a client- or prospect-specific basis.

So you can engage all of your clients and prospects on the right topics, at the right time, in the right way

End Benefits

Everyone wins when you Lead with Advice

For Clients

A better client experience and better client outcomes.

For advisors

More satisfied clients with higher loyalty, higher referral rate and higher share of wallet. Improved prosect conversion due to differentiated advice.

Sample Materials

Age 50 – Catch-up Contributions (to note, only 10-15% of eligible investors currently avail themselves of this tax-advantaged investing opportunity)

Bullet points and graphs for easy understanding
Always addressing the “What”, the “Why” and the “How”
Compliance pre-approved, ready-to-go
Key sources and disclaimers on final page
Can be white labeled / branded in your look & feel

Internal Use Only, a “back-pocket” resource for advisors
Helps you to quickly get up to speed on the topic at hand
Simple FAQ style
Subject Matter Experts indicate the underlying tax code / key laws & regs in here, so you can back-trace what the advice is based on