FINANCIAL LIFE PLANNING

Mitch Anthony

Ageism might be keeping us from having complete conversations with our clients.

UST AS ARETHA FRANKLIN ONCE DEMANDED R. E. S. P. E. C. T, YOUR CLIents want to be valued as unique individuals. What they don’ t want is to be defined by how old they are or lumped into a category just because they are 60, 70 or 80 years old. Unfortunately, negative stereotypes persist, even in the financial services industry.

Why? In a word,“ ageism.” The American Psychological Association describes it as“ discrimination against older people because of negative and inaccurate stereotypes.” People often think aging is a negative experience, and something to be avoided instead of celebrated. We don’ t think of skydivers in their 70s, though that’ s exactly what Wuest Ways is: a group of skydivers whose membership is made up of adults over 70. I once received a video from a family who performs a synchronized waterskiing exhibition in North Carolina. Four generations of the family have participated, including those aged 5, 40, 62, and 92! It’ s not something we think of when we think about aging.

Or consider my wife, Debbie, who didn’ t begin her professional music career until all of our kids were adults. She now performs professionally across the country and has recorded in Nashville. Retire? No way.

It also doesn’ t help to conjure the image of someone sipping tropical drinks on a Caribbean beach and setting tee times for the rest of their lives. That idea smacks of ageism, too, because it assumes people suddenly lose interest in everything else they may have found fulfilling before.

In latest edition of my book The New Retirementality, I cite Lydia Bronte, author of The Longevity Factor, a book in which she studied the lives of several older people. Even though her book was published in 1993, her conclusions remain true more than 30 years later.

According to Bronte, we can learn something from hearing stories of those who have lived long lives: What emerges, she says, is“ an affirmation of the increasing richness of experience over time, of a deeper sense of identity, of a greater self-confidence and creative potential that can grow rather than diminish with maturity. It is obvious that seen through the eyes of the study participants, chronological age markers( like 65), which have held so much power in the past, are really culturally created— a norm that was accurate only for a particular place and time.”

When we talk about the maturity of investments, it’ s generally positive. When we talk about the maturity of people, it’ s often a different story. Many of us assume that when someone reaches a certain age, they are supposed to retire— or at least, we assume they want to. For many folks, that simply isn’ t true.

But they are still going to run into societal barriers and expectations and be treated in ways they don’ t want to be.

A survey of adults over 40 by Werk Labs found that 75 % experienced ageism in their job search and 53 % experienced it in their workplace.

We don’ t think of skydivers in their 70s, though that’ s exactly what Wuest Ways is: a group of skydivers whose membership is made up of adults over 70.

So how can you avoid inadvertently engaging in ageism in your dealings with people? Here are a few questions you can ask yourself as a check:

• Do you automatically focus your clients’ discussions on retirement? If so, you may be encouraging them to focus too much on one part of their future, without also planning for the present.

• Do you encourage your clients to think about financial planning holistically— in other words, as financial life planning? Do you encourage them to think about living

16 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | APRIL 2025 WWW. FA-MAG. COM