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My Mom’s recollection differs a bit from my own. She mentions in passing the role I played in encouraging her and my Step-Dad to adjust their Financial Plan because of his dementia, even before it was formally diagnosed. I remember it as a drum I banged long and hard before the job got done at the eleventh hour.
I support women and couples navigating a significant financial transition. It could be retirement, or something less foreseen: a death, divorce or diagnosis. Every good plan is dementia ready. Most plans are not.
Further, I am often among the first to name dementia as a likely cause of change in a client’s planning meetings.
Financial Planning meetings are a short-term memory work out – from managing often weighty emotions of how you got the wealth, income, debt and dependents for which you are planning; through what changes you hope &/or fear are in your future, as well as weighing your options both of products and of adjustments to your strategies and structures.
I see the weight lift and laughter often spills as I make getting that work done easy and straight forward. But it is still a workout.
And Financial Planning relationships are generally long-term commitments – we do this work out regularly for years.
So dementia is something that I often spot long before it’s evident in average interactions. The work out starts working out significantly differently. A change in capacity is a lot harder to hide in a holistic financial planning relationship than it is in most social interactions. And naming it is often a relief to both the client and their spouse or close companion, in my experience. Because confirmation is lighter than lonely worries.
And we planned for this.
A good plan serves you well with or without dementia playing a role as it unfolds. Once we suspect dementia will be an actor, we know what to do. We likely are already doing it. So this diagnosis is just a development, not a crisis.
What do we do? We take isolation and secrecy out of your management systems. We carefully build the people for whom you are planning into the care and support of that plan, as best suits your intentions and relationships with them.
No two plans are alike. No one is an island. People your plan, put your heart into it – and it will double your wealth, matching financial with social capital.
That’s the secret sauce worth cooking up! And as your Advice-Only Holistic Financial Planner, I help you tailor your recipe, even build your kitchen if needs be, so your sauce is one you are happy to serve.
Financial Planning is about so much more than your investment accounts.