Failing to simply acknowledge your
mortality could be costing you money and happiness.
Experts say people who avoid thinking
about the inevitable could be short-changing themselves out of a full and
comfortable retirement. Gergana Nenkov and Linda Salisbury, associate professors
at The Carroll School of Management at Boston College say they’ve hit upon the
reason why and may have gained insights on how financial planners can better
help clients acknowledge their mortality simply by changing the way they talk
about it.
Financial planners who understand how
to address issues surrounding the fear of death will be better able to serve
their clients and themselves by building investment strategies that help
clients meet their goals, without accidentally upsetting them.
Nenkov and Salisbury set out to study a
financial puzzle that has plagued economists for more than half a century. While
annuities can be a valuable component of many peoples’ financial plan, many
economists think they are less popular than they should be. They just can’t
figure out why.
“We had the idea that maybe people are averse to annuities because it requires them to think about the end of their life.”
According to Nenkov and Salisbury, none
of the current theories fully explained the phenomenon.
“We had the idea that maybe people are
averse to annuities because it requires them to think about the end of their
life and thinking about dying can be upsetting for some people,” Salisbury says.
For their study, the researchers
designed two brochures describing an annuity investment with one small
alteration in the wording to test their hypothesis. “One brochure said the
investment will provide you a steady income until you die,” Nenkov explains.
“The other brochure said it will provide a steady income for as long as you
live.”
On average, 11.5 percent more people
were interested in the annuity described in the second brochure.
According to Salisbury, older people
tend to be more comfortable with their own mortality and it varies by culture
as well.
“Maybe there are some financial
instruments that help people cope with this idea, like endowing a scholarship
or a building or bequeathing something to your children?” Nenkov says. “In a
paper we haven’t published yet, we found some evidence that offering people an
annuity they could bequeath to their children relieved some people’s anxiety
about death.”
Nenkov says the right kind of
financial planning might even help people accept their own mortality.
“Another way we talk about it is: the client’s legacy. Dying isn’t the end of your plan, it’s Phase Two.”
Financial planner Toni
Grimm,
of Sandy Cover Advisors, says when she encounters a client who is uncomfortable
with mortality, she has several ways of working around it.
“What’s interesting is that when we do planning and cash flow planning,
we sit down and use software that automatically enters your life expectancy at
95,” Grimm says. “Most people think they don’t want to live that long. And using humor
can diffuse the anxiety. Another way we talk
about it is: the client’s legacy. Dying isn’t the end of your plan, it’s Phase
Two. We direct the conversation toward the client’s want for their children and grandchildren.”
According to Grimm, people sometimes come to her out of anxiety, but after seeing the plan
crafted from a comprehensive analysis of their finances, they are often visibly
relieved.
“Sometimes, you have a husband and wife each who has a handle on different portions of
their life, Grimm says. “You can see the stress. We put the whole plan on the flat screen and run through the scenario. You can watch the body language
change and the shoulders relax and the cadence of the conversation slows down
and gets lighter. They feel empowered with information.”
On the other hand, the cost of not planning, can be very high.
“From time to time we see a person who at some point in the last market
got nervous and pulled everything out and put it into cash,” Grimm says. “Then they come to us three years later because they’ve missed out on
incredible gains and it’s more than dollars. They’re embarrassed. It might be the breadwinner
in the family who made the decision and is trying to protect the family. They
feel like they pulled out of the market and let their family down.”
Failing to make a plan and execute it can cost more than money, too.
“We had a new client come to us recently who was older and updated her
estate plan,” Grimm says. “Sadly, she never took the final step to title her accounts and she
got sick and died. Now her heirs have a very complicated
situation to sort out which has caused a lot of stress and anguish which is
exactly this woman was trying to avoid.”
Acknowledging your mortality can be unpleasant, but it can actually deepen the meaning of the time you have and help prioritize that plan.
Jim Cote, of Concord Wealth Management, takes a similar approach. His software automatically pegs clients’
lifespan at 90 and if people have reason to think it should be adjusted up or down, he does so. He says his training is in financial planning, but he often feels like he’s part therapist.
“Sometimes with a couple, one of them
might be scared and it becomes like counseling,” Cote says. “We ask them why
they’re afraid. I find many Baby Boomers have lived a great life and don’t want
to think about their eventual death.”
When people let fear keep them from
creating a sound financial plan for the end of their life, it can sometimes be
too late.
“The cost of waiting is astronomical
and dangerous because it can make people into gamblers, taking dangerous risks
with what money they do have to try to catch up,” says Cote. “The key is
systematic savings. If we can get someone to put 10-20 percent of their income
in the market, at the end of the day they’ll have money. If they wait until
they’re 55, we can work with them, but they’ve put themselves in a hole.”
Cote says solid, comprehensive
financial planning should be about planning to live well for as long as
possible.
“We get the conversation going,” he says.
“Creating a sound financial plan is a process. You have to go through the
process and at the end, people are relieved. They’re grateful. Often, they
didn’t realize they had so many options. There are very few cases where we
can’t at least help a person. It’s always worth a conversation.”
Both financial planners say creating a solid financial plan and executing it are two critical components of a long and happy retirement. Acknowledging your mortality can be unpleasant, but it can actually deepen the meaning of the time you have and help prioritize that plan.
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About the Writer
Jim Morrison (Bucket Age – 35) is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Boston Globe, The Boston Business Journal, Forbes.com and hundreds of publications across the country. His book, Home Buying in 30 Minutes was published in November 2018. Jim once spent a couple of weeks in the Kenyan bush with researchers trying to catch lions in the act of coitus -and succeeded. He can be reached at JamesAndrewMorrison@gmail.com