When a Client’s Parent Is Evacuated: What Every Advisor Should Know
The decision to place a parent in a nursing home or assisted living facility is rarely simple. It can feel even more fraught in hindsight when something goes wrong.
Careful research and frequent check-ins can help a client keep their loved one safe and secure in their new residence,...
What Your Clients Have Not Done with Their Documents—and How to Bring It Up
Clients rarely think of document access as a vulnerability. The plan is in place, the paperwork is signed, and the folder or binder containing that paperwork is somewhere at home. But a disaster does not wait for someone to remember where “somewhere” is. When a client is displaced, incapacitated, or unreachable, a...
The Advisor’s Preparedness Audit
National Preparedness Month is observed every September to encourage individuals, families, and communities to plan for disasters and emergencies.
Sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), this annual campaign emphasizes actionable steps such as understanding local risks, making a family emergency plan, building an emergency supply kit, and...
Emergency Preparedness When Your Parent Is in a Nursing Home
The decision to place a parent in a nursing home or assisted living facility is rarely simple. It can feel even more fraught in hindsight when something goes wrong.
Careful research and frequent check-ins can help keep a parent safe and secure in their new residence, as can preparing...
Why Long-Term Care Planning Is a Critical Part of Estate Planning (Even If You Are Healthy)
For many people, estate planning sounds like a final act—a set of instructions for what happens to your accounts and other assets only after you are gone.
In reality, a truly comprehensive estate plan also helps protect you during your lifetime. While a standard plan covers medical and financial...
When a Client’s Capacity Is in Question: Managing a Financial Crisis in Real Time
There are calls advisors hope they never receive—but increasingly, they are becoming part of the landscape of wealth management.
A family member, often a spouse or adult child, contacts you urgently. They are concerned that the client can no longer manage their finances, is making unclear or inconsistent decisions,...
Protecting the Portfolio and the Person: Five Critical Moves After a Client Is Diagnosed with Dementia
A dementia diagnosis changes the nature of the advisory relationship. Before a diagnosis, the focus may be on recognizing subtle changes and cautiously responding. After a diagnosis, it shifts to managing risk, supporting the client, and putting protective structures in place while the client can still participate in decisions.
When a Client’s Behavior Changes: A Guide for Advisors
At some point, most advisors will work with clients who experience cognitive decline.
The challenge is that these changes rarely become obvious all at once. They tend to emerge gradually - subtle at first and easy to explain away. A missed detail here, a repeated question there. On their...
How to Support a Client’s Adult Child Through a Personal Crisis
Whether it is the onset of a disability or chronic illness later in life or struggles with substance abuse, financial collapse, or bankruptcy, a personal crisis affecting a client’s adult child can affect the entire family.
Parents may feel an urgent need to help but are not always sure...
Estate Planning Scams: What Seniors Need to Know
Creating an estate plan is an important step in protecting your loved ones and ensuring that your assets are distributed according to your wishes. Unfortunately, scammers know that people who want to safeguard their estates are often willing to act quickly.
Even a carefully drafted estate plan can be...