Talking to Older Clients

Because senior clients are likely to have memory comprehension and other health issues, clearly communication financial planning concepts can be a challenging task.  Regardless, it is important to convey this information, and provided below are some of the best ways to go about doing so:

• Keep it simple.  Do not overwhelm clients with mountains of paperwork they will not read.  Instead, offer them summaries that they can understand.  Break down complex topics into several parts and pause at the end of each part to recap what has been covered. 
• Minimize distractions.  Try to plan meetings for when older clients are most alert.  For seniors, this is typically early on in the day.  Advisors can also help to focus concentration by eliminating office distractions.  “A calm, neutral but welcoming, setting works best.”
• Working with women.  Take into account an older client’s gender since the majority of surviving spouses are women and their outlooks are generally different from that of their male counterparts. 

See Paul Hechinger, Better Ways to Talk to Older Clients, Financial Planning, May 5, 2015.

Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse for bringing this article to my attention.