We’ve written here before about longevity literacy — understanding how long you will live past the age of 65 (the “traditional” age of retirement). It’s an important issue, because the SuperAging revolution means so many people are living into their 80s and 90s, and even beyond. There are definitely questions and topics that didn’t exist in the previous “model” of aging (which in our book we call DefaultAging), where you didn’t have much time left after age 65.
But is your financial adviser plugged in to these new topics?
This interesting article offers four questions you should ask your advisor.
What are you using as my life expectancy? It matters because you don’t want to outlive your money.
What should I be doing about long-term care? Is your adviser taking it into account? Should you be buying long-term care insurance?
How should I prepare to pay for health care? The article cites a statistic from Fidelity, that a 65-year-old couple may need over $300,000 to pay for health care in retirement. Some will be covered by government plans, some by private insurance you may have (or need), some may be out-of-pocket. You need to factor all this in.
Should we include any planning for my parents? Someone in their 50s, or even young- to mid-60s, may well have living parents in their 80s or 90s. Will they need your support?
The article amplifies these points with more useful information.
We also cover this in our book, where we outline some further questions to consider asking, all with the objective of getting your adviser to better understand your needs and to better understand the whole dynamic of SuperAging. These include:
Are you aware of my future plans? Would it surprise you to learn I might be planning to continue working past age 65?
Are you aware of my current housing situation and its suitability/unsuitability for aging in place? Do you think I can stay in my current home? Do you have any idea of changes or upgrades I should make, and what they would cost? Are you able to map out those costs over an extended period of time?
Are you aware of new activities or interests I am engaged in? Might some of them involve costs we should factor in?
Do you believe I should evaluate my financial program based on the same criteria we’ve used in the past? What about cash flow and not just ROI? Does longevity mean I could have a slightly higher tolerance for risk?
Are you aware of SuperAging? Some of the most exciting developments in extending human lifespan will involve higher costs. How can we make sure I’ll be in a position to afford the new drugs or high-tech solutions?
Have you taken any steps to improve our upgrade your knowledge and skills as they specifically relate to the topic of aging? Have you taken any training programs and obtained a seniors designation of certification of any kind?
Do you think you need more expertise on your team to really help me? Do you see yourself as the quarterback of a whole team that can bring more expertise to the issue? What about a real estate specialist? An occupational therapist who can audit my home for its aging-in-place potential? A high-tech expert? A lifestyle reinvention coach?
The answers to these questions will give you a lot of insight into how well your planner is equipped — in terms of both abilities and attitudes — to meet your future needs as a SuperAger.