Lynn Mayabb expressed concern that there are not enough young people graduating with relevant degrees to fill the need. As a consequence, it takes a longer time to train new hires. Many young people do not even know there are CFP (certified financial planner) programs available.
KC Mathews raised a related con-cern. “If I can find someone that may not have the investment acumen, I can train them,” said Matthews. “I can send them to school and teach them how to use a spreadsheet. What’s difficult to teach them is the passion for customer service and developing relationships.” As Matthews noted, what drives satisfaction in his business is not quantitative research, but customer service.
Medical Cost Impact
With the increased costs and growing volatility of medical care, Brian Leitner wondered how this would affect financial planning going forward.
As Ken Eaton noted, the greatest concern of many of his clients was long-term care, which is not covered by Medicare and which many insurance carriers have abandoned. “What we’ve tried to do,” said Eaton, “is help clients understand just how long-term care will affect them. The majority of them, if they [need it] for three to five years, can afford it. So just giving them that peace of mind makes a big difference.”
Bob Rippy thought it impossible to determine future medical expenses “with all the changes and [uncertainty about] who’s paying for what.” He talks to his clients about not spending the entire return of their portfolios and saving the differential to provide a cushion for future medical expenses if needed.
Mike Searcy raised the issue of life expectancy and how much it has increased without much attention being paid to the consequences of that increase. He prefers to do an interactive analysis with clients, factoring in life span and medical costs. “Many clients choose to essentially buy a bucket of money to cover that what-if scenario,” said Searcy, “and they chalk it up like buying car insurance.”
In addition to concern about long-term care, Lynn Mayabb is seeing a good deal of confusion about the Medicare and Medigap policies. Clients “want detailed answers on that information,” said Mayabb. “Long term care is one piece of it, but it’s like, how do I cover these costs in retirement?”
Leitner cited a study done by Fidelity. It predicted that an individual would need to sock away $250,000 to $300,000 just to take care of long-term health needs. “Long-term care insurance is not what it was 10 years ago,” said Leitner. “Most of the major players could not make any money on it.” Now two firms are responsible for roughly 85 percent of the business.