Thomas West, Senior Partner at Signature Estate & Investment Advisors (SEIA), joined Julie Cooling, Founder and CEO of RIA Channel, to discuss how advisors can work with clients who are facing the significant challenge of aging and related health conditions.
What can advisors do when their clients discuss challenges regarding health care and cognitive impairment issues? Investment advisors who were trained in sales, financial markets, and/or quantitative topics often don’t have experience discussing these sensitive topics.
West discusses best practices, such as considering the idea that the conversation presents the advisor with a new client, with constraints, priorities, and risk tolerance very different than previously expressed by the client. Advisors will need to create relationships with successor decision-makers while transitioning portfolios to face new tax planning, liquidity, and cash flow needs. SEIA offers an elevated service model that tailors portfolio repositioning individually for each client without the use of model portfolios.
Younger advisors will face different market conditions and client types than advisors who are ten to twenty years older. Advisors are encouraged to view the household as the client, as they are serving the entire family and not just the spouse in the CFO role. Building relationships beyond the client currently serving as the key decision maker allows the advisor the ability to retain the assets after the death and disability of the first and, hopefully, the second spouse.
Resources: