Senior PM & aging consultant explains why she sees this need growing more acute and how the industry can open difficult conversations
Nobody likes talking about dementia, even though most of us are worried about it. A new study from Raymond James found that 63 per cent of Canadians worry about how cognitive decline could impact their financial future, but only 29 per cent feel they have adequately addressed brain health as part of their or their families’ financial plans. There’s a gap between what’s worrying clients and what they’re planning for, one that some firms are seeking to close.
Raymond James recently announced the launch of a new guide for brain health and financial planning, made in collaboration with the Baycrest Foundation. The goal is to provide robust, evidence-based conversation points that may open the door to a difficult, but necessary, conversation and eventual plan.
“It’s so stigmatized. And I think part of it is because there’s a whole lack of understanding even when that diagnosis comes in, there’s still independence, there’s still greatness, there’s still things to do. There’s not just the fact that there will be eventual death,” Explains Neela White, Senior Portfolio Manager at Raymond James. “I think unfortunately, people’s minds jump from here’s, here’s still that person, here’s still that entity, here’s still that client that you need to guide along and help their family along with it.”
In addition to her role as a portfolio manager, White is a certified professional consultant on aging and a certified dementia care provider with professional and personal experience navigating the challenges of dementia care for her clients and family members. She explained just how complex, challenging, and emotional the process of planning for dementia can be. She outlined why, despite all these challenges, advisors need to be opening up planning conversations about dementia.
The impetus begins at a macro level with Canadian demographics. An aging population and improvements in overall health care have resulted in more people facing cognitive declines and dementia diagnoses. Alzheimer’s Canada estimates that in 2025 771,939 people were living with dementia. That number was 597,300 in 2020 and the foundation estimates it could rise to nearly 1 million by 2030.
White notes that dementia is an extremely broad category for a series of highly specific conditions. Even Alzheimer’s alone can vary hugely in its progression and nature. Some people see a very gradual loss of cognitive ability, while others progress more rapidly. There are a host of challenging comorbidities as well as a great deal of misunderstanding and stigma around the condition.
Because dementia impacts cognition, its effects can be extremely far-reaching, raising questions of capacity and even the changing nature of personality. Recently diagnosed patients, as well as their families, can be highly emotional in their reaction and plans may need to change meaningfully as a result. Because this category of illness has such seismic impact, planning can make a major difference.
The role of the advisor is to plan, fundamentally, for a host of outcomes. Given the likelihood that an older client may face some form of dementia or cognitive decline, White explains that there need to be plans in place. Those plans need to extend beyond just the potentially impacted individual to their designated caregivers. The role of caregiver can be extremely difficult, White explains, and she cites her own experience caring for family to show that even an educated, experienced, and prepared individual can be put into a very difficult situation.
“It’s the worst task. It’s draining, it’s disruptive. It’s a job of love, it’s a job of guilt. And people don’t say ‘I don’t want to do this’ because you’re going to be stigmatized for what a bad child you are,” White says. “But you got to give people space to say this is something I can and will do and this is something I cannot do and I do not want to do it and I can afford to do it. But that space is never given.”
White believes that advisors need to get comfortable having those very uncomfortable conversations. They need to be able to probe into clients’ plans, asking whether their designated caregiver can actually do what they’re asking them to do. They need to discuss options around home care, long-term care, assisted living, and the various costs involved with all of those options.
These conversations, White explains, can happen at various key junctures in life, not just when a client is diagnosed. She notes that it could begin with a younger client whose parents are aging, who may see examples of dementia in their own family. That can open the door to a preliminary conversation about their own plans. The conversation with more middle aged clients can happen in the context either of family experiences or a sharpening retirement plan. If and when a client is diagnosed with a form of dementia, the conversation becomes even more focused, but that earlier groundwork can help.
Storytelling, White insists, is key to discussing a challenging topic like dementia. She often shares her own stories of caring for family members to open up these conversations, allowing for greater specificity and vulnerability.
Beyond the moral and demographic imperatives that should drive advisors to build out more of these dementia plans, White insists that there is a business case for dementia planning. Clients want a more holistic service, and if their advisor hasn’t planned for arguably one of the most vulnerable periods a person can experience, then they’ll find an advisor who will plan for it.
“The better, more inclusive, more knowledgeable, more forward thinking, you can be with your client, with their family. The more you build a moat around your client,” White says. “The best way to do it is to be as fulsome as possible… It’s just like if you had a bad dentist, you’d find another.”
