AI for Advisors newsletter
Retirement planning is complicated. Your clients are trying to grasp timelines, savings targets, Social Security options, and income streams—all at once. And often, you’re presenting this complexity with spreadsheets or basic bar charts that leave some clients more confused than confident.
But that’s changing. With ChatGPT’s new image generation capabilities, you can now create clear, professional infographics on demand. No need for design software or advanced skills. Just smart prompting.
Why visuals matter in conversation
Clients remember what they see. Research shows visuals can help clients better retain key financial concepts. That means the difference between a client nodding politely—and a client actually understanding why delaying Social Security might boost their lifetime income by $100,000.
Infographics aren’t fluff. They’re clarity tools. They help your clients act.
ChatGPT’s image generation feature lets you describe a concept in words—and receive a custom-designed image in seconds. When it comes to retirement planning, that means you can turn your most important messages into clean, compelling visuals that stick.
But results depend on your prompt. So, here’s the formula.
Key elements of an effective infographic prompt
To start, select Sora from ChatGPT’s menu on the left. Sora is ChatGPT’s video creation tool. But many people prefer to create static images with it, too, because it gives you four images for each initial prompt.
You could start in the Chatbox and select “Create image,” but that will only give you one image per prompt.
To get visuals you can use with clients, your prompt should include:
- Visual Style: Specify whether you want a professional business aesthetic, clean modern design, or approachable friendly style. For financial content, terms like “professional,” “corporate,” “clean,” and “trustworthy” typically yield the best results.
- Content Focus: Clearly state the financial concept you're illustrating. Be specific about numbers, percentages, timeframes, and key messages.
- Layout Preferences: Indicate whether you want a vertical infographic, horizontal comparison chart, circular diagram, or timeline format.
- Color Scheme: Professional financial infographics typically use blue and green tones (suggesting stability and growth), with accent colors for highlighting key information.
Source: ChatGPT. See how I created the prompt below.*
3 infographic prompts to get started
Each of these examples reflects a common retirement concept you probably explain often. Now you can show it, too.
1. The Power of Starting Early: This prompt works because it provides specific data points, visual direction, and intended use case:
“Create a professional infographic showing the impact of starting retirement savings at different ages. Show three scenarios: starting at age 25, 35, and 45, all saving $500 monthly until age 65. Use a clean, modern design with blue and green colors. Include bar charts showing final amounts and emphasize the compound interest advantage. Make it suitable for a financial advisor’s client presentation.”
Source: Sora in ChatGPT 4o
2. Asset Allocation by Age: This graphic type works well for clients revisiting their portfolios or younger prospects:
“Design a retirement planning infographic showing recommended asset allocation percentages by age decades (20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s). Use pie charts for each decade showing stocks, bonds, and cash percentages. Include the rule of thumb ‘100 minus your age equals stock percentage.’ Use professional corporate colors and make it educational for retirement planning seminars.”
3. Social Security Claiming Strategies: Perfect for retirement income planning conversations:
“Create an infographic comparing Social Security benefits when claiming at age 62, full retirement age, and age 70. Show monthly benefit amounts and lifetime totals for an average earner. Use a timeline format with clear icons and professional blue color scheme. Include percentage increases/decreases for early and delayed claiming.”
Follow-up prompts to improve your results
Remember, as with all AI outputs, you’ll still need to review for accuracy and quality. AI doesn’t always nail layout or proportions. So, don’t expect perfection on your first attempt. Small tweaks make a big difference. Use follow-up prompts to refine specific elements:
Try follow-up prompts such as:
- “Make the numbers more prominent”
- “Add dollar signs and increase text size”
- “Use darker blue for better readability”
- “Include firm branding in the bottom corner”
- “Make it match my firm’s tone—professional and warm”
- “Change [original number] to [new number] in the [context of graphic], and make sure all related elements are updated.”
Important reminders
Before you start using these infographics with clients, here are a few smart moves to make sure they’re accurate, effective, and compliant:
Check for accuracy: Always verify that visuals match your planning assumptions and don’t unintentionally mislead. AI doesn’t always get math or financial nuance right.
Edit for brand voice: Make sure any text’s tone is professional and sounds like you—clear, warm, and confident.
Stay compliant: Add disclaimers. Avoid projections that appear guaranteed. Keep it educational and hypothetical where needed.
Use placeholder data for customization: Create generic visuals with space for client-specific numbers. Prompt: “Design a retirement scorecard with placeholders for savings, contributions, target income, and readiness level.”
Build a series: Create visual consistency across topics by reusing color palettes and fonts. Prompt: “Make this the first in a 3-part series on retirement income, using the same style as before.”
Getting started
You don’t need to overhaul your entire process. Just begin with a few small, strategic steps:
- Choose one prompt and test it: Pick a scenario—your next Social Security conversation, a slide for an onboarding deck, or a retirement savings talk. Use one of the sample prompts above and see how clients respond to the visual.
- Build a prompt library: As you experiment, save the prompts that deliver strong results. Over time, you’ll create a go-to collection tailored to your planning style and client needs—saving time and boosting consistency.
- Ask for feedback from clients and team members: When you share a new infographic, ask: “What did you take away from this?” or “Was this easier to understand than our usual approach?” Their answers will help you refine your visuals and improve your communication strategy overall.
- Reflect and refine: Notice which visuals lead to better conversations, faster understanding, or more confident decisions. That’s your signal to expand into more topics—and elevate your client experience with every meeting.
Visuals lead to better decisions
Advisors aren’t just educators—they’re translators. You turn complex financial data into clear decisions. By mastering prompt crafting and understanding visual design principles, you can create compelling infographics that spark conversations, drive client action, and set you apart.
* How I created the ‘Infographics Prompts’ illustration
I copied the text block below the subheadline “Key elements of an effective infographic prompt” that describes the four elements graphic-generation prompts you should include, put it in the Chatbox, then prompted it to create an infographic “prompt” to create a visual:
“Now create an infographic prompt based on me wanting to illustrate my article about creating info graphics! Meta, right? Here’s the info for the concept and the prompt I need:”
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