Aging Gracefully . . .3 Elder Care Planning Areas That Need Our Help

By The Lerner Group on September 14, 2022

“Aging with dignity is the challenge of our age and of all ages”    – anonymous

In a timely Barron’s investigative piece, “Caring for Aging Parents,” they shared insights into how private banks are navigating one of the more emotional planning issues of our age.

For likely the first time in our history, they cite, “two generations of retirees are coexisting within a single family, as baby boomers retire while their elderly parents are still alive. The fastest growing age group in the country consists of those 85 and older, as 75 million Americans sail past age 60 in the next couple of decades.” (source: Barron’s Caring for Aging Parents).

And, with this reality comes weighty, emotion-laden questions. Questions that not all advisors feel prepared to provide the desired assistance since many of the answers these wealthy clients seek lie far outside the safety of “the numbers” and more common financial planning conversations.

Rather, they deal with the ability to unpack and facilitate end-of-life desires and wishes.

• “How do we care for our elderly parents?”
• “How can we remain independent without becoming a burden to our children?”
• “Who is the right person to make health care decisions for me when I can’t make them for myself?”
• “How do I ensure that the kind of medical treatment I want or don’t want is followed?”
• “How do I ensure that my desires for how comfortable I want to be will be honored?”
• “How do I ensure how I want people to treat me will be followed?
• “How will my intentions for what I want my loved ones to know will be carried out as I intend”?

Many top financial institutions have been preparing for this level of support for a long time now by establishing dedicated “eldercare planning services” within their firms.

Barron’s shared several examples of how leading firms are being proactive in adding these specialized support services to their standard of care:

“Bank of America U.S. Trust Private Wealth Management launched an Eldercare Planning Services program perhaps a decade ago now. Its surveys repeatedly turned up long-term health-care costs and eldercare as the most pressing issues among its wealthy clientele. “It made us sit back and ask, ‘What can we do to help clients and their families with these issues that are more prevalent in society?

Eldercare programs are now being offered by firms such as Bank of America’s U.S. Trust and Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Private Bank, Morgan Stanley, and Northern Trust. Such programs build contingency plans that involve organizing all of an elderly client’s information in the event that he or she becomes incapacitated; overseeing and paying medical bills; navigating coverage issues associated with Medicare and the Affordable Healthcare Act, or Obamacare; vetting in-home care; evaluating long-term care facilities; and even managing the sale of a home. Some banks, acting like a concierge, might even charter a private jet to transport a patient to their chosen hospital, or organize specially outfitted hotel rooms for their convalescence.”

(Source: Barron’s Caring for Aging Parents)

Here are three areas wherein financial advisory and family office-level practices can help play a meaningful role in the welfare and wellness planning for elder clients and their families:

1. Prepare Well: For many, quality of life in our elder years starts with personal health habits and wellness activities. Whether actively enrolled in a health club or fitness program or in nutritional education and awareness programs, there are typically a wide array of educational programs available in most active communities.

Suggested action: We can ask what more we can do to ensure that, where appropriate, our clients are taking full advantage of these “living well” resources. We can think beyond the linear path of optimizing tax or estate value and encourage lifestyle choices that promote optimal health and wellness.

2. Plan Well: Proactive client reviews today can set aside time to go beyond the traditional touchstones of market updates and portfolio actions and focus on progressive conversations that align financial affairs, as well as end-of-life wishes, are in order.

Suggested action: Regularly involve key family members to work collaboratively through many of the more emotional questions above.

3. Live Well: Much work has been done in the field of modern gerontology that could provide long-lasting quality of life education for our clients. From mental acuity, avoiding loss or loneliness support to adult learning programs, there are more resources available than ever that we can make available to our clients.

Suggested action: Consider hosting a series of educational seminars, webinars or interactive panel discussions with keynote speakers from the field of gerontology. One advisory team I coached set up a quarterly educational series with a local hospital to provide ongoing eldercare education as well as a lifeline to families who struggle to navigate the complex issues of elder care planning.

To learn more about how your practice can become known as a leader in the area of elder planning services, contact Bill Kica at bkica@hightoweradvisors.com