ASSET PROTECTION
The Numbers Don’ t Lie Let’ s look at some interesting retirement statistics.
• Approximately 60 % of retirement investors( a. k. a. our clients) believe they might need services such as independent living, assisted living or skilled nursing in the future. However, only 34 % of financial professionals estimate that their clients age 45 and above anticipate needing such care.
• While 90 % of financial professionals report having discussions with clients
about steps to take in case of cognitive decline, only 27 % of clients recall their financial advisors initiating such conversations.
These numbers suggest that even if you have the best intentions as a financial advisor— even if you have talked about long-term care and possible financial devastation with clients— they might not remember it or necessarily believe you.
In some cases, the clients shy away from the topic— or hesitate to talk about a long-term plan, even if advisors have products that can help. The long-termcare topic, in any case, needs to become a critical piece of those quarterly or biannual meetings advisors are having with their clients. How do we pick up the pace? I am an elder lawyer, and in my state, I am not permitted to sell financial products. So people like me need people like you. We need advisors to have robust conversations so clients are prepared for any setbacks or calamities that restrict their activities of daily living or mobility. And the healthy people around those clients need to get involved so there’ s a support system.
It sounds like a tall order. But I assure you many people are facing down the challenges with great success using team effort.
Before I regale you with the“ hot tips” to make your life and your clients’ lives better, I should clarify some things. When I say I’ m an elder lawyer, that doesn’ t mean I’ m an estate lawyer. There’ s a difference. Estate law has been around since ancient times and was shaped by things such as the Magna Carta. Elder law is about 40 years old.
The easiest way to remember the difference: Estate law is for dead people. Elder law is for live people who are sick or incapacitated. While some lawyers do both, many who do only estate law have no idea about the vast complexities of the eldercare arena or broad knowledge of things like Medicare, Social Security or Medicaid or how to preserve assets for a healthy spouse, nor do they understand legacy or special needs trusts or various other kinds of trusts.
These are important things to keep in mind if you’ re working with attorneys and you need one proficient in elder law, especially after a triggering event causes your client to need long-term-care benefits to come into play.
Key Tips So, back to the tips you’ ve been waiting for:
• You need to have the conversation about long-term care with your clients: One, two … 20 times if you have to. Have your client sign a document saying that you have discussed the cost of a longterm-care triggering event or crisis with them. Say that you discussed optional plans for that possibility and the client agreed to revisit the conversation at your next meeting, say in six months. Because when a crisis does occur, the clients are often not coming to you first thing. More likely they come to you later with the burning question:“ How am I supposed to pay for this?”
• The healthier spouse must be involved in the discussion. This isn’ t just about one client. In many couples, there’ s one spouse who might be physically or financially healthier, someone who has accumulated most of the assets, especially in an IRA, when the other spouse may have nearly nothing in his or her own name. Yet both spouses feel a certain ownership over those assets.
This is where you need to bring in an elder lawyer who not only understands the rules about Medicare, Medicaid, trusts, ownership of assets, etc.( which are often not what most people think they are) but who also understands how the spouse with the financially sound plan is going to be necessary to your compromised client’ s financial picture when the point of no return comes.
• Have financial options. You already know as a financial advisor that each of
32 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2025 WWW. FA-MAG. COM