Among advisors surveyed, nearly half their clients are Baby Boomers (47%), although together Generations X and Y account for more than a quarter of retirement clients (20% and 8%, respectively). The predominance of Boomer clients makes sense given their natural focus on retirement, although advisors from large firms tend to have a slightly lower proportion of Boomer clients than advisors from independent firms (43% vs 48%).
Based on this demographic, it’s perhaps not surprising that advisors report their clients are most concerned with outliving their retirement funds (an average 8.5 out of 10). Sustaining their quality of life and the cost of healthcare were second and third most important, on average (8.4 and 7.9, respectively).
But while outliving funds and sustaining quality of life are both tied closely to the major services offered by advisors—such as asset allocation, investment selection and withdrawal rates—healthcare is not. Meanwhile, advisors have had substantive discussions about elder care with just under half (48%) of their clients. Given that two thirds of advisors (67%) say they raise the topic, and that it most often (36%) arises during the opening meeting, this represents a potential mismatch between client concerns and advisor efforts. Advisors most often (30%) find that clients start taking specific steps to pay for their healthcare in retirement when they focus on Social Security or Medicare, which may be late in the process. By comparison, only 19% do so after their initial plan is complete—when it is most commonly raised as a planning topic.