How to have a more “evolved” longevity conversation
How to talk about health, long-term care as a financial advisor
Seberras attributes the broadly low scores on health and care related metrics to the simple fact that advisors role is focused on financial preparedness. Offering health advice or guidance can be tricky at best and topics around health decisions are far from advisors’ expertise. There is also an element of squeamishness among advisors and clients about topics like long-term care. Seberras accepts that the ambiguities and difficulties of a long period of time in some kind of assisted living is a risk that many people don’t want to reckon with. However, that is a risk with financial implications and those financial implications can open up a conversation for advisors.
Rather than offering health advice, Seberras believes advisors can lead with statistics around the number of Canadians who will need some kind of long-term care in their later years. They can tell stories about other clients or family members that demonstrate the value of preparing for this possibility. She emphasizes the power of storytelling as a motive force for clients, prompting them to have conversations with family members, medical professionals, and estate lawyers and better prepare for the possibility of deteriorating health, home retrofits or relocation, or the chance that they might need long-term care.
Advisors’ role in longevity preparedness
The study showed that, on the whole, advisors have improved their clients’ preparedness for longevity. While Seberras says there is still further to go, she said that advisors have the unique capacity to prompt reflections that might not happen otherwise. DIY investors, she says, may view retirement purely in its positives without being prompted by an outside voice to consider some of the harder parts of growing old. They can ask about what a client might do if they lose some mobility, or if they have a health crisis. They can ask about the expectations they might have for their family, or what kind of care they might want to receive. Crucially, they can ask these questions before any kind of crisis occurs, allowing for more rational and considered decisions.
Wealth may also be a factor in higher preparedness scores among advisors’ clients, given the fact that Canadians with advisors tend to be wealthier than Canadians without advisors. That higher net worth can help with overall preparedness, Seberras admits, but she believes it also opens up other planning challenges around longevity. Many higher net worth Canadians are business owners or professionals whose lives and identities are closely tied to their work. For that cohort, longevity planning also means reckoning with who they will be when they are no longer working, another area where an advisor’s thoughtful questions can prompt reflection and positive decision making.
The results of this survey also show just how far the financial advice industry has come, from distributing mutual funds to planning for clients. Seberras says she has seen that transition over the course of her career and notes that more and more advisors and dealers now understand that the path to deeper client relationships runs through their financial plans. She’s seen how advisors have added hard and soft skills to their own repertoires to build comprehensive plans and prepare their clients for what’s to come.
