/ by Don Connelly / Complex Client Conversations / 0 comments
If you’re like most Advisors, you are good with numbers. You model market returns. You stress-test for inflation. You plan for taxes. But there’s one line item that too often gets ignored, one that can blow up a retirement faster than any bear market ever could. It’s not a stock market crash or a bad investment. It’s not inflation. It’s long-term care.
And the reality is this: for many of your clients, the potential cost of needing care late in life is their largest unfunded liability, often bigger than their mortgage ever was, and in many cases exceeding a million dollars over time.
Long-term care is the silent threat. I’m not talking about a rare “what-if.” Seventy percent of Americans over the age of 65 will need some form of long-term care. That means for the majority of your clients, this isn’t just a possibility. It’s a probability.
And yet, few clients have a plan. Why? Because they can’t visualize the numbers. They don’t see it on their net worth statement. And if you’re not putting it in front of them, they assume it’s not worth worrying about.
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The Most Important Planning Conversation Happens Too Late
/ by Don Connelly / Complex Client Conversations / 0 comments
There’s a conversation Financial Advisors know they need to have—one that carries enormous consequences for their clients’ financial security and peace of mind.
It’s the long-term care conversation.
Advisors understand its importance. They recognize the risks of avoiding it. They’ve seen what happens when it’s ignored. And yet, it’s often delayed—not because Advisors don’t care, and not because clients don’t need it, but because timing feels… uncomfortable.
So the conversation gets postponed.
Until one day, it can’t be postponed anymore.
And by then, everything has changed.
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If You Manage Retirement Risk, You Must Manage Long-term Care Risk
/ by Don Connelly / Complex Client Conversations / 0 comments
Most advisors take great pride in managing retirement risk. We build income strategies. We stress test portfolios. We plan for sequence-of-returns risk. We monitor inflation. We rebalance against volatility. We talk about probability curves and withdrawal rates and longevity assumptions.
And we should.
But there is one retirement risk that quietly sits outside the portfolio review — and it has the power to undo years of careful planning: long-term care risk.
If you manage retirement risk, you must manage extended care risk. Not sell it. Not specialize in it. Not turn every review into a product discussion. Manage it. Because retirement planning without addressing extended care is structurally incomplete.
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Talking to Clients About Long-Term Care: The Million-Dollar Retirement Planning Risk Advisors Can’t Ignore
/ by Don Connelly / Complex Client Conversations / 0 comments
If you’re like most Advisors, you are good with numbers. You model market returns. You stress-test for inflation. You plan for taxes. But there’s one line item that too often gets ignored, one that can blow up a retirement faster than any bear market ever could. It’s not a stock market crash or a bad investment. It’s not inflation. It’s long-term care.
And the reality is this: for many of your clients, the potential cost of needing care late in life is their largest unfunded liability, often bigger than their mortgage ever was, and in many cases exceeding a million dollars over time.
Long-term care is the silent threat. I’m not talking about a rare “what-if.” Seventy percent of Americans over the age of 65 will need some form of long-term care. That means for the majority of your clients, this isn’t just a possibility. It’s a probability.
And yet, few clients have a plan. Why? Because they can’t visualize the numbers. They don’t see it on their net worth statement. And if you’re not putting it in front of them, they assume it’s not worth worrying about.
Read more