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
![Joan Garbow, GYL Financial Synergies](https://arizent.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/fef244d/2147483647/strip/true/crop/280x349+0+0/resize/740x922!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsource-media-brightspot.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2F54%2F50%2F14d1be2b4572b89103279ccb897f%2Fjoan-grabow.png)
The position highlights how advisory practices are
"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
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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,
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
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
"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
"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
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."