Older clients, newer services — why one RIA added an expert in aging

A registered investment advisory firm seeking to boost its services for older clients and their relatives appointed its first director of aging life care planning.

RIAs often hire financial advisors, investment experts, insurance or benefit specialists, relationship managers and clerical or administrative staff members, but West Hartford, Connecticut-based GYL Financial Synergies took a different approach by tapping veteran social worker and former private aging care practice owner Joan Garbow for the new role last month. 

GYL Financial Synergies

The position highlights how advisory practices are using outsourced and, in some cases, in-house resources for services related to health care and aging, which can involve greater complexity in areas like family dynamics and navigating Medicare plans and benefits.

"I'm going to be educating wealth advisors, staff and also the clients on, what are the things they should be thinking about and looking at and planning for when it comes to aging?" Garbow, who co-hosted a webinar on aging alongside GYL Financial CEO Gerald Goldberg a few weeks after joining the firm, said in an interview. "I'll also be stepping into a lot of these situations where people haven't planned or things happen suddenly. I'm a resource to the clients and the advisors in those situations who need help, for example, getting the medical care they need, the advocacy they need and just understanding the systems that we have in our health care world."

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Garbow had previously assisted the firm's clients on an external basis as a 25-year licensed clinical social worker, an advanced professional member of the Aging Life Care Association and a past president of the New England chapter of that organization. The firm will "take advantage of Joan's expertise" in areas like multigenerational planning and GYL Financial's family office services, according to Joshua Brier, chief operating officer of the Focus Financial Partners-owned RIA with 21 wealth advisors and $10.8 billion in client assets.

The difficulties of aging are "a place where we know we can expand our offering in the family-office space in a way that's appropriate and meaningful to those clients," Brier said. "We know that there unfortunately is a bit of a stigma around aging in our country, and so we want to work to reverse that and embrace that."

The country's demographics display the major business incentives to better serve clients who are aging. Between the last two census surveys in 2010 and 2020, the number of Americans aged 65 or over jumped by a record increase of 15.5 million people to 55.8 million overall — that's about one in six across the country. At the end of this decade, all baby boomers will be at least 65 years old. By another 15 years after that, in 2045, baby boomers and the generation before them will transfer an estimated $72.6 trillion to their descendants as part of the great wealth transfer.

In addition to the business and client services cases for advisory firms to bulk up their resources for aging, they face compliance obligations as well.

Adding a specialist in aging "is a great idea" for an RIA, but it's not necessarily affordable for all firms in a channel of the industry that still primarily consists of smaller outfits, according to Leila Shaver, the founder of compliance firm My RIA Lawyer. As a securities attorney whose firm guides RIAs through their regulatory requirements, Shaver often reminds firms that it's important to consider who has access to their clients' information, whether there is a "new person" who has become involved with a customer's finances and to look out for unusual activity in their accounts, she said in an email.

"A lot of these issues come up with aging clients because of increased incidences of dementia and other cognitive degradation and as well an increased reliance on others to perform routine activities," Shaver said. "It is always best, and as soon as possible, to get trusted contact information on file for the client. It is important to include those trusted contacts with increased frequency as the client ages."

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For firms unable to hire their own experts in aging, Shaver said firms should at least "continuously train your team" and get connected with the client's other service providers such as their certified public accountant and estate planning attorneys to discuss any concerns. 

Advisors, RIAs or any clients who are able to appoint an aging life care specialist can find "professional and vetted" managers through the Aging Life Care Association, Garbow noted.

"There's an art to talking with people, understanding what their challenges are and then switching to problem-solving," she said. "I like to explain what I've done in my career as, I'm a problem solver.'"

One such answer for aging clients or their family members may come in the form of long-term care insurance policies, which carry a hefty cost but can provide for critical medical services and home assistance.

Since "insurance is an important element of a good financial plan," GYL Financial's advisors "work with clients to make sure they understand the options that they should consider and help them review the opportunities that exist for long term care insurance," Brier said. "We don't look at it in a vacuum. A true fiduciary-driven financial plan should make sure that there aren't any gaps."

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Even when clients have LTC policies, they may "want to use it and struggle to navigate through that process," said Garbow, noting that can be a "daunting process for anyone, let alone an older person who's not well."

Those factors may explain why Garbow's work for the firm applies to wealth management clients of any age. 

"My background is in clinical social work," she said. "We used to call ourselves geriatric managers, and that was a term that most older folks don't like. I don't just work with very old people. I work with people of all ages, quite honestly, that can have tragic things happen to them and they need care."