Financial Planning for Older Clients

CCH Incorporated
Financial advisors are often asked to help clients prepare for growing older, dying, and making the transition as uncomplicated as possible for family members. Achieving this simple goal often involves many choices, and the role of the advisor is to assist the client in making the best decisions possible that are consistent with their values and dreams. Fulfilling this role requires the advisor to have an understanding of many complex issues, both financial and human. CCH's new Financial Planning for Older Clients, by James E. Pearman, Jr., addresses those complex issues in a clear and practical manner.

Planners can expect a growing number of older individuals to need planning advice because life expectancy is increasing and more people are surviving well beyond age 65. The fastest growing segment of the population is the category of people over 85 years of age. This age group often faces diminished physical abilities and is the heaviest user of health care services and alternative housing arrangements. At the same time, seventy percent of the wealth in the United States can be attributed to the over-65 segment of the population. As a result, more older individuals will be seeking advice on how to plan for the financial issues they will be facing during this stage of their lives.

Financial Planning for Older Clients guides the financial advisor through the complex issues faced by older individuals and assists the planner in the task of providing practical recommendations to clients.

Nearly twenty different Practice Tools are provided to assist the planner in developing strategies and in helping the client make appropriate decisions. These include helpful charts, sample documents, checklists and questionnaires, and can be used in actual practice.

This guide is useful to a variety of professional advisors needing a basic, practical understanding of the many issues faced in financial planning for clients as the clients age, live out their golden years, and prepare for their deaths. These are not issues easily faced by many clients, but they are issues that, when addressed thoughtfully and thoroughly, improve the quality of life of the client and his or her family.