Presentation Scheduled for Monday, 1:10-2:10 pm
Anticipated CE: 1 CFP, 1 MN insurance, 1 WI insurance, 1 NASBA/CPE, 1 CIMA, 1 CLE Stnd
Connect with Families of Clients with Diminished Capacity
It isn’t an easy situation when your client starts losing their mental capacity.
Author and planner Robert B. Mauterstock, CFP®, CLU, ChFC, knows this all too well. Only it wasn’t his client, it was his late mother. She was in her early 80s when she was at a doctor’s appointment. Her longtime nurse greeted her only for her to ask, “Do I know you?”
She lived with Alzheimer’s ten years, so Mauterstock came to know the ins and outs of living and working with someone with the disease. Chances are you will be working with clients who are going through something similar as 46 percent of people over the age of 85 will develop dementia, Mauterstock said.
Mauterstock presented at the FPA Annual Conference—BE Boston 2015—a session titled “The Seven Steps to Protect Yourself, Your Practice and Your Clients Who Have Diminished Mental Capacity.” In it he said one of the steps to working successfully with clients facing diminished capacity is to connect and build trust with the families.
A Fidelity Investments Study Shows that 84 percent of planners want help with clients who have dementia and Alzheimer’s. The following are the seven steps Mauterstock said these planners can refer to:
1.) Recognize the Behavior Patterns. When your clients start calling your office asking for their accountant, chances are something is off.
2.) Develop a Diminished Capacity Checklist. This includes designating a client advocate and power of attorney—somebody who is privy to all your client’s details and will be able to make decisions for them. Client advocates and your client must fill out a “Third-Party Sharing of Information” document.
3.) Learn How to Protect Your Client’s Assets. Know the ins and outs of Medicare—for example it only covers three nights in a hospital—nothing less. Research and present the best long-term care insurance for your client.
4.) Build a Network of Professionals. This network should include an elder law attorney, a geriatric care manager, and an insurance agent.
5.) Build a Relationship with the Client’s Family. The entire family is going to be affected by this situation so call a family meeting, connect with them, and help them through it. A side benefit is that the family may want to continue working with you later on.
6.) Utilize a Single Source with All Relevant Records. Mauterstock calls this the Lifefolio—a PDF document put on a flash drive that includes all medical insurance information, usernames and password for all accounts, and the like.
7.) Create an Investment Policy Statement. This is to remind the client what your plan was and how it works. The client advocate should also have access to this.
FPA - Connect
