Can your clients afford to grow old?

Michael Nicin, the executive director of Ryerson University’s National Institute on Aging, stops short of calling the long-term care and vulnerable aging situation that’s coming for Canada’s aging population a crisis, but he’s got a lot of sobering financial data and questions for advisors to consider as they help their clients prepare for this stage – and he’s urging them to start asking those questions now.

“I think the dynamic that more people have to catch onto is to really start thinking as early as your 50s about where you’re living currently, and where you hope to stay,” Nicin told Wealth Professional. “Is it feasible? If it’s not, what should you be thinking about? Should you move somewhere? Where are you going to get care if the worst happens? What are your contingency plans? And how are you going to pay for all this?

“I think the major role advisors can play is to ask their clients the tough questions and get them thinking about it. Help them clarify what they want and then do the best job you can with the finances they have to try to match reality with what they hope to have. At least that process awakens people to the complexity of this, and then they can start making the tough choices to calibrate their plans with their personal financial reality.”

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