Your Retirement-Age Clients and Budget Politics

Your Retirement-Age Clients and Budget Politics

May 26, 2017 | aging, aging investor, elderly, finances for elders, senior investor

While advisors are there to serve those with investable assets, it is not only your clients who are affected by politics, the Federal budget and cuts to programs. It may be your clients' family members, their aging parents or struggling adult kids.

When family members are beneficiaries of various public programs that help them get by, your clients may not be affected except with feeling relief. But when programs are slashed, the reverberation can affect your own clients, who are likely to be better off financially and therefore expected to help. Every advisor needs to consider this. Cash flow projections on retirement savings can be totally disrupted when your client has to pitch in and give financial help to a low-income family member.

Imagine this: your Boomer clients are ready for retirement. You have carefully worked out what they will need to sustain their lifestyle and make their money last. One or the other of them has low income aging parents in their 80s. Their parents have part of their health care costs paid by Medicaid. Medicaid gets slashed. Your client has to help pay the 20% of costs Medicaid was previously covering for their parent's health care costs. And since those costs tend to rise with aging, your client will potentially pay the cost of a supplemental insurance policy or non-covered medications or other things.

Here's another thing to see in looking at how budget cut proposals can destroy your careful retirement income planning for your clients. Some have disabled siblings, adult children or others who benefited directly from the Medicaid expansion of the Affordable Care Act. Some of those folks are not yet eligible for Medicare and rely entirely on Medicaid for all health care coverage. With massive cuts to Medicaid, they are among the millions who would lose insurance altogether. If they have a well-to-do family member, your client, where will they look if a medical need arises and there is no way to pay for it? Probably to your client.

Then, lets look at your clients' lowest income family members who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called food stamps. Nearly five million seniors rely on this program in order to afford food. A massive cut (proposed) of $194 billion would surely affect them immediately. Can you imagine any client refusing a request from a low-income family member for money because he or she couldn't afford groceries? That grocery money contribution could be every week and go on indefinitely into the future.

Perhaps this is just a heads-up for every financial planner to build into clients' retirement planning that some cash may be needed on a monthly basis to help their relatives who can't get by without their help. In my own family, four of us pitch in every month to support a low-income sibling. He has Medicare and also Medicaid. For all of us who are Boomers and a bit older, a hit to the existing Medicaid benefit would cost each one of us more dollars every month than we are currently paying.

Your clients may be in the same situation. We at AgingInvestor.com hope you will bring up the subject and help your clients plan accordingly. You would do that by asking clients planning retirement if there is anyone in the family they may be called upon to help support.

Our political climate may not change for some time. And every lower income American who is a needy family member of your retirement-aged clients will be affected one way or another. Help them prepare for the anticipated expense.

 

Dr. Mikol Davis and Carolyn Rosenblatt, co-founders of AgingInvestor.com

Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder Law Attorney offers a wealth of experience with aging to help you create tools so you can skillfully manage your aging clients. You will understand your rights and theirs so you can stay safe and keep them safe too.

Dr. Mikol Davis, Psychologist, Gerontologist offers in depth of knowledge about diminished financial capacity in older adults to help you strategize best practices so you can protect your vulnerable aging clients.

They are the authors of "Succeed With Senior Clients: A Financial Advisors Guide To Best Practice," and "Hidden Truths About Retirement And Long Term Care," available at AgingInvestor.com offers accredited cutting edge on-line continuing education courses for financial professionals wanting to expand their expertise in best practices for their aging clients. To learn more about our courses click HERE
Give Your Aging Clients a Heads Up About Medicare Fraud

Give Your Aging Clients a Heads Up About Medicare Fraud

May 8, 2017 | aging, aging investor, declining health, elder investor, elderly, finances for elders, financial advisors, financial capacity, financial elder abuse, financial judgement, handling money for aging parents, senior citizen investor, senior investor, seniors finances

Your older investors are sure it will never happen to them but Medicare fraud can trick anyone. Even those without a hint of cognitive decline can get taken by scammers. At AgingInvestor.com, we educate advisors about protecting clients from elder financial abuse and we thought we had our own family covered. With a 94 year old mother, we are especially alert. We were stunned when mom told us that someone "from Medicare" had called and asked her to "verify" her personal information.

Alice is a sharp 94 year old, living mostly independently in a seniors' complex. She's active, does her own shopping and is engaged with her neighbors in the community. She had an issue with Medicare not paying a bill for a service she had received some months prior. With our help, she had undertaken an appeal process, which involves a lot of repetitive paperwork. When a man saying he was from Medicare called, she thought it was about the appeal. Of course it wasn't. The scammer asked her to "verify" her Social Security number, her address, date of birth and mother's maiden name and she gave him that information.

A few hours later, she mentioned what had happened and said she had been wondering if it was right to give out that information. We were shocked! How is it that she didn't see the potential ID thief when we talk about this all the time? We knew we had to jump on this right away to stop the thieves from using the information to open new accounts in her name. Hours were spent the next day calling the two banks where she had accounts, her credit card company, the credit reporting agencies and Social Security. We had to stop the auto debits on her bill payments. We cleaned up the mess.

So far so good. No unauthorized transactions have happened. Her old accounts were closed and new ones opened. Social Security sends her payments to the new account. Fraud alerts are on everything now. Whew! This was a lesson that even the alert older person can get fooled with the right pitch on the phone.

Here's the takeaway.

Warn your clients: Medicare will NEVER call and ask you for your personal information. Never give it out unless you place a call to order something that you know is legitimate.

Medicare fraud can happen in many forms. This was just one of them. I believe that there was probably a connection between her Medicare appeal and the fraud attempt. It's too much of a coincidence that they called when she had communication with Medicare going on already with her appeal. The appeal had not yet been resolved. This information got into the wrong hands, making it easy to trick a sharp person by saying he was calling from Medicare. Mom could be just like any one of your older clients.

Why is this important? You're on the front lines and you have a trusting relationship with clients. Speak up and make basic efforts to educate them about these scams. A lot of money can be drained from an account instantly with all the client's personal information out there. Make yourself look good. A word from you can remind your aging clients that you care about their financial safety and that you are looking out for them.

Learn more about protecting aging clients from financial abuse in Succeed With Senior Clients: A Financial Advisor's Guide to Best Practices. Click here to purchase it now. You'll build your knowledge about aging investors fast.

Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder Law Attorney, & Dr. Mikol Davis, Psychologist, Gerontologist, co-founders AgingInvestor.com

 

 

Dr. Mikol Davis and Carolyn Rosenblatt, co-founders of AgingInvestor.com

Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder Law Attorney offers a wealth of experience with aging to help you create tools so you can skillfully manage your aging clients. You will understand your rights and theirs so you can stay safe and keep them safe too.

Dr. Mikol Davis, Psychologist, Gerontologist offers in depth of knowledge about diminished financial capacity in older adults to help you strategize best practices so you can protect your vulnerable aging clients.

They are the authors of "Succeed With Senior Clients: A Financial Advisors Guide To Best Practice," and "Hidden Truths About Retirement And Long Term Care," available at AgingInvestor.com offers accredited cutting edge on-line continuing education courses for financial professionals wanting to expand their expertise in best practices for their aging clients. To learn more about our courses click HERE
How Much Should You Plan On For Retirees’ “Out of Pocket Medical Costs”?

How Much Should You Plan On For Retirees’ “Out of Pocket Medical Costs”?

May 1, 2017 | aging, diminished cognition, elderly, finances for elders, financial advisors, financial judgement, handling money for aging parents, handling money for seniors, long term care, medicare, seniors finances

How Much Should You Plan On For Retirees' "Out of Pocket Medical Costs"?

For those outside the caregiving world, there is a lot of confusion about this cost. Calculations abound in retirement planning circles for helping your clients ensure that they have enough for the things they are likely to need medically. The usual calculations outline Medicare Part A premiums (deducted from Social Security payments), Medicare Part B supplemental health insurance premiums, also called "Medigap" and for medication expenses, as some are not covered my Medicare. In plain English, this means that your client's Social Security is less to them when the Medicare payment comes out and they have to pay out of pocket for the other kind of insurance that covers outpatient care, clinic and doctor visits, as well as prescription meds.

OK what's wrong with these calculators? Can't you rely on them? I think for an unusually healthy person who is your client, one who needs little care and has no chronic illnesses, they would be fine. I'm not sure where the folks making up the calculations get their statistics but I think they grossly underestimate the real costs of out of pocket medical care in retirement.

From personal experience with thousands of elders I visited at home as a nurse over a career, I did not see much of the unusually healthy. What I did see was the average person then taking numerous medications, having multiple chronic conditions and being at risk for those getting worse with age. And now, decades later, we live longer, have more health risks as a result of greater longevity and we have to pay more for the problems that go along with living to be 100. We have better diagnostics and we can catch and treat conditions more. That means more out of pocket expenses for those exotic tests Medicare will not cover. That also means more and more drugs being prescribed to manage and control chronic illness. They work, but we pay. You would be amazed at what Medicare does not cover.

Here's the message I want every retirement planning advisor to heed: you cannot predict how much out of pocket medical expense your client will have unless you really know a lot about both their genetic disposition and their health habits and condition. And then it's only an educated guess. How educated are you?

We do know that the way we age is about 30% due to our genetics. The other 70% of the picture is directed by how we choose to live. That means what we eat, how much we move our bodies, how we manage stress, how we socialize and how we succeed or not in our relationships with others. All of these factors affect our health and longevity and consequently, how much it's going to cost to keep living with conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, arthritis, etc.

We haven't even touched on the subject of Alzheimer's disease. If you are calculating out of pocket medical I'll bet you never calculate what it costs to care for someone at home 24/7 with specialized skill for dealing with this devastating disease. It can last 20 years. Nursing home care and caring for a person with any serious illness at home is long term care. That is not in the calculations in those handy tables describing the out of pocket medical costs for an average couple retiring at the age of 65 and living to be 85.

Here's an example. Mort is 95. He has multiple health issues and early dementia. He can't do anything by himself. He has 4 caregivers in shifts every day in his home. He isn't sure he wants to keep going but he doesn't want to stop the numerous medications he takes to stay alive. It costs over $250,000 a year just for the caregivers, not for the other costs of housing, utilities, transportation via handicap van and such. And the out of pocket medical is still there. The dentist, the hearing aids, the medications that no insurance pays for, the stair lift, the ramp on the front of the house, the high-end wheelchair and more.

If you want to help your clients plan so they won't run out of assets, you'll need to be realistic. Lots of cash may need to be available at the later end of life. It is more likely than not. Forget reliance on a calculator or use one that has the highest number you can find. Then add on expenses like Mort's and you're on the right track.

Get a lot more detail on caregiving, costs of care and what is needed as we age in The Family Guide to Aging Parents: Answers to Your Legal, Healthcare and Financial Questions. Check it out here.

Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder law attorney & Dr. Mikol Davis, Gerontologist

AgingInvestor.com and AgingParents.com

 

Dr. Mikol Davis and Carolyn Rosenblatt, co-founders of AgingInvestor.com

Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder Law Attorney offers a wealth of experience with aging to help you create tools so you can skillfully manage your aging clients. You will understand your rights and theirs so you can stay safe and keep them safe too.

Dr. Mikol Davis, Psychologist, Gerontologist offers in depth of knowledge about diminished financial capacity in older adults to help you strategize best practices so you can protect your vulnerable aging clients.

They are the authors of "Succeed With Senior Clients: A Financial Advisors Guide To Best Practice," and "Hidden Truths About Retirement And Long Term Care," available at AgingInvestor.com offers accredited cutting edge on-line continuing education courses for financial professionals wanting to expand their expertise in best practices for their aging clients. To learn more about our courses click HERE

What To Watch For: Aging Clients and The Sweetheart Scam

What To Watch For: Aging Clients and The Sweetheart Scam

Apr 24, 2017 | aging, aging investor, diminished cognition, elder investor, elderly, finances for elders, financial advisors, financial capacity, financial elder abuse, financial judgement, handling money for aging parents, handling money for seniors, investor, scammers, senior citizen investor, senior investor, seniors finances

What To Watch For: Aging Clients and The Sweetheart Scam

If it didn't happen so often, there would be no need to warn your single, widowed clients about it. But every day, someone gets taken in by a "special someone" who appears to have only your client's interests at heart. The special someone is a scam artist who knows just how to get an unsuspecting lonely man or woman into the web of deception. And then they finagle money out of your client and run.

Some of these scammers are skillful repeat offenders. Some just see an opportunity and proceed to milk it for all it's worth. Take the case of Tommy, whose wife was ill with cancer. He used to take his clothes to the local dry cleaner every week and he got friendly with the woman who ran the business. She loved to chat and gossip and he was lonely with his caregiving, cooped up with the daily chores he had to do for his ailing wife. Norma, the dry cleaner heard all about it.

Just after his wife passed, Tommy got a visit from Norma. She was so consoling and comforting. He felt like he had a real friend. She had heard about his wife's illness for over a year and was ever so sympathetic. She also knew he had money. Within a month she had moved in with Tommy.

Over the next six months of giving Tommy her undivided attention, she managed to persuade him to give her "loans" of over $300K. She promised to stay with him forever. He loved the flattery and feeling special. No sooner had Norma gotten the last of what she could easily take, she promptly sold the dry cleaning business and disappeared. This is not such an unusual story.

Here's what every financial professional needs to know about the Sweetheart Scam. Professional predators comb the obituaries for stories about the beloved widow or widower left behind. They look for those who have been with a deceased who was a business leader, a banker, a financially successful person. They choose the ones who may be likely targets, the survivors who have means. They scope out how to meet them and seize the opportunity to take advantage of loneliness.   They will stop at nothing to get in the door. And sooner or later they always need "a temporary loan" or a little help to get out of an unfortunate jam. If it works, they up the ante. This can go on until they have bankrupted a widow or widower. It will at least drain available cash if no one is watching.

That's where you come in, the financial professional with the ability to notice when unusual withdrawals are coming out of your client's account. Once the scammer has gotten control over your client's emotions, it may be too late to stop the scam. Your client is "in love" or at least addicted to the showered on attention. She won't believe your warning then. The heads-up must come early, before an opportunist has a chance to cast a spell.

Here's the takeaway: any recently widowed client in your book is a potential target. Do these things:

  1. Gently raise the subject of being careful of any stranger he/she meets soon after the loss of a spouse. Warn with empathy and facts.
  2. If your client claims he's met a "special someone" do some digging. Google the person he names. Ask a few probing questions. See what your client may not be able to see. Share the data you glean with your client.
  3. Be sure you have contact information for a family member or trusted friend of your client whom you can call if you see something suspicious. Call them if you think your client is in danger, particularly if your client doesn't want to hear your warning.

That protective posture you take on can save your client from disaster.

Financial elder abuse takes many forms besides the Sweetheart Scam. It is called "the crime of the century", it is so prevalent. With the right know-how, you can stop it and keep your clients safer. Take a deeper dive into this subject in a book written just for you, Succeed With Senior Clients: A Financial Advisor's Guide to Best Practices. Get a look at it here.

Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder Law Attorney & Dr. Mikol Davis, Gerontologist

AgingInvestor.com and AgingParents.com

 

Dr. Mikol Davis and Carolyn Rosenblatt, co-founders of AgingInvestor.com

Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder Law Attorney offers a wealth of experience with aging to help you create tools so you can skillfully manage your aging clients. You will understand your rights and theirs so you can stay safe and keep them safe too.

Dr. Mikol Davis, Psychologist, Gerontologist offers in depth of knowledge about diminished financial capacity in older adults to help you strategize best practices so you can protect your vulnerable aging clients.

They are the authors of "Succeed With Senior Clients: A Financial Advisors Guide To Best Practice," and "Hidden Truths About Retirement And Long Term Care," available at AgingInvestor.com offers accredited cutting edge on-line continuing education courses for financial professionals wanting to expand their expertise in best practices for their aging clients. To learn more about our courses click HERE

What To Do When Your Aging Client’s Health Is Failing

What To Do When Your Aging Client’s Health Is Failing

Apr 17, 2017 | aging, declining health, elderly, financial capacity, financial judgement, handling money for aging parents, health, resources for senior, resources for seniors, Uncategorized

What To Do When Your Aging Client's Health Is Failing

Financial professionals can find themselves in an uncomfortable position when they have a long time aging client who is in declining health. Of course, you know the client and can see that she's struggling with a lot of issues. You may want to do something but this stuff is just not in your wheelhouse. Longevity is great but not when you start to lose the ability to manage on your own. What are you supposed to do for these clients?

You're trained to understand economics, taxes, financial products, planning. But you're not trained to direct aging people to whatever resources they may need as they get older. If they have family, you may expect family to step up, but you see that it may not be happening. Should you call them? Do you even know them? Do you have your client's permission? And what if they don't have family? That's even worse. Here they are getting frail and more vulnerable by the day and you are just watching helplessly.

It doesn't have to be that way. You can get acquainted with some basic resources in your area and the areas where your clients live. Maybe they never figured they'd live so long as to actually need help. When they do, you can be a starting point to help them find what's out there.

Let's imagine you have an aging client who is having trouble getting around and she needs some help with chores at home. She tells you about it when you ask her how things are going. She is shy to ask for help and reluctant to admit that it's harder and harder to live alone. You don't know what to say. Or do you?

One source of help everyone should know about is the Area Agency on Aging. These Federally funded programs connect elders to appropriate community organizations and places to get assistance. Their mission is to help older adults and people with disabilities live with dignity and choices in their homes and communities for as long as possible.

AAAs contract with local service providers to deliver many direct services, such as meals, transportation and in-home services. However, most agencies are direct providers of Information and Referral/Assistance, case management, benefits/health insurance counseling and family caregiver support programs.

Some are incorporated into a county's health and human services departments. Some are separate. Large states have many AAAs. Smaller less populated states have fewer of them.

One thing you can do now to be ready to assist your own client who may demonstrate a need is to research where the nearest Area Agency on Aging is in your client's community, download a brochure or information package and let your client know it's there. If he needs help at home, transportation services, vetted information about local service providers, an AAA is a great place to start.

This whole aging client issue can be a reflection of things you have experienced in your own family. Perhaps you have an aging parent or ill grandparent. Another problem solving source of information is our book the Family Guide to Aging Parents: Answers to Your Legal, Healthcare and Financial Questions

. Learn what's in it here. It can get you more comfortable with those difficult conversations.

Carolyn Rosenblatt, RN, Elder law attorney

AgingInvestor.com and AgingParents.com