Elder care becoming focus for advisers

NEW YORK — The needs of aging clients and their aging parents are compelling financial advisers to become more knowledgeable about elder-care issues. Consequently, advisers are expanding their professional networks to include specialists in areas such as housing referrals and household management services for the elderly. Practices and clienteles alike are growing older, said Nicholas Nicolette, president of the Denver-based Financial Planning Association and principal of Sparta, N.J.-based Sterling Financial Planning Inc. “Retirees constitute the largest portion of [my] firm’s clients. We’re finding some of them are beginning to have health issues ... and we now need to use different skill sets,” said the adviser, who presented a session called “Adapting Your Practice to Address the Needs of Your Aging Clients” to the FPA’s Nor Cal Conference in San Francisco last week. Many advisers’ clients — themselves approaching retirement — increasingly are seeking help for their elderly parents. “I always ask clients whether they anticipate supplementing their parents financially. If that’s not factored in, their savings goal is not true,” said Doug Pauley, an Austin, Texas-based fee-only financial planner, who manages $40 million in assets. He said he has seen clients spend as much as $100,000 a year on their parents’ care. Indeed, a March study conducted by The Nielsen Co. of New York and Age Lessons of Chicago showed that 22% of baby boomers spent at least $2,500 a year on their parents. Requests for help come from clients in their 50s and 60s, especially with regard to locating appropriate retiree housing, said Michael Randolph, a fee-only financial planner in Santa Rosa, Calif., who manages $35 million in assets. He has observed that when older Americans decide to downsize, they find limited options. “In America, we don’t really have a marketplace oriented to seniors, especially in suburban and rural areas,” he said. Elder-care expert Kaye Sharbrough faced that challenge herself when trying to help her mother find housing. Two years ago, Ms. Sharbrough turned the problem into a business opportunity by founding Senior Seasons, a retiree housing referral agency covering San Francisco and an adjacent five-county area. She receives referrals from advisers, elder-law attorneys and doctors. Ms. Sharbrough helps clients find appropriate housing using her database of 3,000 homes and facilities, and her extensive firsthand knowledge of the housing sites. Her services are free of charge, because many of the sites pay her a referral fee for placing a client with them. Beyond housing issues is the growing need to help manage the household affairs of the elderly. “As clients move into their 80s and early 90s, the ability to track things gets more difficult,” said Linda Patchett, a fee-only financial planner with Woodward Financial Advisors LLC in Chapel Hill, N.C. She manages $35 million in assets, and spends about half of her time working with clients over the age of 70. As a courtesy to appropriate clients, Ms. Patchett refers them to Pamela Nielsen Brehler, a so-called “daily money manager.” Her services include handling personal mail, paying bills, reconciling bank statements, compiling tax documentation and processing medical claims. The concept of daily money management isn’t well known, Ms. Brehler acknowledged. “It is kind of an underground industry at the moment,” she said. Ms. Brehler sits on the board of the American Association of Daily Money Managers in Bellefonte, Pa. Mr. Randolph refers clients needing daily money management services to the Santa Rosa, Calif.-based Council on Aging of Sonoma County, where he sits on the board. Austin-based Accountable Aging represents another type of resource for older Americans. With offices there and in Dallas and San Antonio, the firm offers a wide variety of services under the umbrella of “elder-life management,” which includes not only financial and housing-related services but also care coordination, medication management and referrals to professionals such as advisers. Mr. Pauley has referred clients to Accountable Aging and sees the firm as an important strategic resource. “I want to position myself as my clients’ most trusted adviser,” he said.